Thorn Tree travel forum

1

Jennycraig, how much weight have you lost backpacking?

Seriously, though, the program you're looking for is called WWOOF. The basic idea behind it is exactly what you describe - you commit 4-6 hours a day of work, traditionally on an organic farm but now extended to other types of projects (wildlife sanctuaries, ruins restoration, etc), in exchange for your food and accommodation. WWOOF or something like it, i.e. HelpExchange, exists in every "first world" country and several places in Latin America, Africa, and South Asia. It might lose idealist points for some in the fact that you're more likely to pull weeds and dig holes than build houses and cuddle orphans, and many WWOOF hosts are running businesses for profit. However, the concept has done a lot to pollinate the basics of biodynamics, permaculture, and other philosophies of sustainable agriculture, so it's one way to contribute to the environmental well-being of the place you visit as well as bring some useful knowledge back home.

Why do the NGO's that you describe cost so much more? There have been some very long discussions on it in this Branch, and you'll find them if you dig around a bit.

Good luck!
S/M

What have I become,
my Swedish friend?
Ev'ryone I know
Goes away Indian

2

Check out this linkCost of volunteering for an explanation of the costs--it also has some great links to cheap programs.

Also, if you're ok with South America, there are some really awesome programs with minor fees or no fees at all. There's a list of programs hereVolunteer in South America and most of them look amazing.

Good luck!

3

If you're Australian you can try AVI - http://www.australianvolunteers.com

4

Show me a place that requires shelter-building, and I'll show you a thousand local people desperate for food and shelter. That's why no-one's jumping to pay for middle class white kids like you and me to do unskilled labour.

Volunteering is work for no pay, not work just for food and accommodation. Looking after volunteers takes time and resources, that the organisations you want to work with are sorely lacking. That's why so many of them charge you to volunteer. The i-to-i style ones are a complete rip-off, but there are lots of organisations like Casa Esperanza in Nicaragua and STAR Kampuchea in cambodia that use your funds to further develop local projects.

The truth is that unless you have some skills that are not available locally or a lot of time to commit (6 months or more) it is not likely that your time volunteering is going to be worth the hassle for the host organisation, unless you go through a program that costs money.

My advice? Go somewhere, anywhere, in the developing world, and look around for an orphanage or local NGO that could use some help editing its English language promotional material or something. If you go looking and offer your time I'm sure you'll find something worthwhile. But please, don't expect to be paid for your time. There are lots of locals desperate for any money that's available, and I guarantee you that they would work twice as hard for half the cost of your accommodation and food.

Good luck!

5

Come and volunteer for my charity www.oceanswatch.org we do not charge but as a charity we do expect volunteers to feed themselves. We are interested in sailors and divers mainly.

Chris
www.paradisecoast.co.nz

6

What a difference a couple of years have made! I was all ready to do my usual cut-and-paste answer to this question, and low-and-behold, the answers are already here! I second everything that's been said. And that "Cost of Volunteering" link is excellent -- I'll be linking to that from my own page on the subject of volunteering abroad:

--
Jayne A Broad
www.coyotecommunications.com/travel

7

Volunteering for short periods is a business, it's been this way for some time. If you are serious check out VSO and I expect they need skilled individuals. You might start in your local community and develop some skills besides seeing if you qualify for that kind of a lifestyle. Do it before heading OS on an extended mission to save the world or pad a CV.

"I want Fish and Game to capture them, feed them barbiturates and send them to Idaho" she said. "This place is full of seniors - what are they waiting for, one to gnaw the leg off an old lady?"