Are you passionate about travel? service? or both? If so, consider making your next vacation a VolunTourism experience. As we discussed on a recent show, the volunteer vacation allows us an opportunity to see the world and give back to the community we’re visiting. Whether it’s helping to save Leatherback sea turtles in Costa Rica, providing humanatarian aid to an orphanage in El Salvador, mining data in a rainforest or building playgrounds in under-served communities, there are hundreds of opportunities to make a real difference while exploring the world with a sense of adventure. Before embarking on one of these experiences it is important to assess your interest and identify your skill. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What do I want to do and where do I want to go?
- Who do I want to serve?
- How much time do I want to spend volunteering and how much time do I want to sightsee?
- How stenuous do I want the volunteer work to be? What are my capabilities?
It is also important to do your homework on the company that is offering the volunteer experience. Look at how long they’ve been in business and whether they have a regular presence in the community. Check any references, if available, and see whether the company holds a membership with a professional tourism association (e.g., the United States Tour Operators Association or country equivalent if the company is located abroad). There’s a whole host of companies/organizations that offer great opportunities to explore and contribute to our global community. The following is a list of sites and organizations that will be helpful in your search for that great VolunTourism experience. Happy Travels!!
- Voluntourism.org
- Idealist.org
- Travelofftheradar.com
- GiveSpot.com
- AmericanHiking.org
- Earthwatch Institute
- Cross-Cultural solutions
- Habitat for Humanity
- Los Ninos
- I to I
- Take Pride in America
- Ambassadors for Children
- Globe Aware
- Oceanic Society
- SEE Turtles Project (a division of the Ocean Conservancy)
- Centre for Education, Research and Conservation of Primates and Nature
My experience at Camp Joy this year was very positive and ultimately, I’m glad I went. Unless you’ve been to Camp Joy before, it’s impossible to understand how waking up at 6am every morning and working for 9 hours or more in the sun can be fun. Camp Joy runs every year due to a community effort. Every night, a different church in the area supplies the campers with a potluck dinner, so we didn’t have to pay for our food. People donate tools to Camp Joy, money and supplies used to fix these homes. During the week my church, St. Johns, volunteered at two homes: the house of Ken and the house of Laurie. At Ken’s house, we stripped his one level home of all its siding, then were replaced it with new siding. We also built him a front porch and replaced his rusted back door with a new one. At Laurie’s house, we built her a porch, and planted a garden. Each church at Camp Joy gets split up into two groups, to finish the two houses they are assigned to. We start working around 8a.m. and stop working around 5-6p.m. to go to dinner at whatever church is hosting dinner that night. After dinner, all the churches involved in the camp return to the camp grounds for a short church service called “vespers”.
What really made the trip fun, for me at least, were the people: My fellow St. Johns members and the people that we were working for. The people that we helped were extremely grateful for Camp Joy and what we did for them. Personally my favorite house to work at was Laurie’s because she had a lot of animals on her property. Laurie owned chickens, peacocks, peahens, a horse, a cat, and a dog. It was fun working at her house because she would more often than not, come out to talk to us or help us work. She let us hold new born chicks and play with her pets. I don’t know too much about what Laurie’s life has been like. I do know that she’s had a rough one. She has had many days where she had to choose between feeding herself and feeding her animals, and she seems to always feed her animals. To choose them over herself shows how caring and passionate she is, and but despite everything she’s been through, she didn’t seem bitter at all. Laurie was really nice to all of us and it made me really want to keep going back to her house to help.