Volunteering holidays – do good, have a blast

Which would you prefer?

Option A – beach, beer, beach and more beer. Surfing in the morning and lying in the hammock into the evening and then, off to the bars.

Option B – devoting all of your time to good causes. Spending your days – and some nights – giving yourself to a volunteer project, scientific pursuits or conservation.

It doesn’t have to be one or the other. You want to do something good for the world around you but you have no intention of waging a heroic one person war on all the injustices of the world. Your free time is for enjoyment as well as for good deeds.

If you chose option A exclusively, you’re not going to be interested in the rest of this article. You might want to switch to a website about rave drug safety or about vacation destinations with cheap booze.

Good deeds on vacation

A holiday in a far flung place can be tantalising, whether it’s sitting on a hammock reading a book or taking part in active sports. Imagine days spent boating on the high seas, maybe diving then spending evenings having cold beers underneath a thatched roof. AND it’s possible to have a trip where you can do good.

Helping the ocean

Conservation, research, cleanups. Examples include taking surveys of coral reefs in the South Pacific and surveying a turtle population in Central America.

You’ll be surrounded by marine life. If you don’t scuba dive already, this may be the opportunity to learn. Gain watermanship skills, meet people and have some very interesting experiences.

Helping communities

You may be supporting people on long-term projects or in helping out in times of trouble such as natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes etc) or civil insurrections and wars. You may be asked with building projects, teaching English. If you have specialist knowledge or training in fields such as nursing/medicine or IT, your skills may be called for in a health clinic or in connecting computers for the village school

You might be able to complement your academic studies or add valuable work experience to your curriculum vitae/resume.

Quality valuable time will be spent and the environment will benefit. You can contribute existing skills or learn new ones on a volunteer stint.

Where to go? What to do?

Proceed with caution and some skepticism. There is a plethora of organisations and companies – both private and not-for-profit – that will place you in a project or good cause holiday (usually for a fee). Make sure you find a reputable organiser for your volunteer projects.

What field are you interested in? Is it international development, scientific research or crisis assistance? What are you good at doing, what field would like to try or gain new skills in? Make sure you feel something is a good match before embarking.