Seeking Adventure While Helping Others at the Same Time

Fancy helping others and in the process seeing the real world at the same time?

Bucket lists are not just about ticking off a list of meaningless places to go or things to do that you think people will be awestruck by. They are also there to allow you to give back in some way. Not so much a RAK (Random Act of Kindness) but a PAK (Planned Act of Kindness).

There are Thousands of ways of giving back or helping a good cause with their work home and abroad. If you have ever dreamt of spending a few weeks or months in remote parts of the world, learning about new cultures, skills or even teaching, then this may be for you.

Projects Abroad has been set up just for this reason. What to know more?

Who can help?

There is a vast range of projects to suit all ages and skill sets, in fact, you don’t have to have a particular skill to start with.

You could choose from Agriculture and Farming projects in Argentina, Ghana, Jamaica or Togo, building classrooms, care centres or better houses in developing countries worldwide, teaching reading, writing and verbal skills in your native language as well as many more projects.   If you have the time, want to develop yourself and make a difference in the world, there is a project for you. Even Law, healthcare, sports and business are amongst the options.

You are not left to fend for yourself either, each project is different but you will get a mentor or supervisor who will help you through your placement.

There are projects available for all ages. There are opportunities for aged 4-14 years old as long as they are accompanied by an adult. For Volunteers over 65 are also very welcome, although you may have to find additional insurance.

Can you make a difference?

Definitely. It may seem like a few weeks helping out on a project would make little difference, but as new volunteers are always coming in to continue the great work others had done, each little difference adds up to amazing changes.

Through Education projects in 2016 over 725 teaching volunteers supported local educators around the globe. There were reading workshops for children in the blood cancer wards of a hospital in Vietnam and Read and Feed programmes in Ghana and Togo, where children receive nutritious meals while volunteers help them with their reading.

In Argentina, a medical outreach programme works to improve access to healthcare for women, including assisting medical professionals in conducting breast and cervical cancer screening for 150 women. In Nepal, similar awareness and breast cancer screening has been provided to 70 women in a disadvantaged area of the capital.

Over 6,000 people have directly benefited from community outreaches and awareness activities aimed at nutrition in Argentina, Belize, Philippines, Jamaica, Samoa, Bolivia and South Africa.

In the Philippines two schools were rebuilt, four houses repaired, one house built, three classrooms built, the renovation of a classroom and a playground, benefitting 2,126 students.

With this very small snapshot of accomplishments, if hundreds of people spend a few weeks on different projects you can change the lives of so many. Now, who wouldn’t want that?

What can you do?

There are so many projects that you can get involved in, as above Agriculture and Farming in rural areas and Building homes, schools and care centres, especially those affected by natural disasters are just a couple of examples.

Land-Based Projects

You could get involved with Archaeological digs.  Excavating and cataloguing Ican and Wari in Peru, or cleaning and restoring artefacts from Romania including those found in the Carpathian Mountains, some gathering remarkable information about the time of the infamous Vlad-the-Impaler.

Or why not improve your building skills on projects in Ghana, Jamaica, Nepal or South Africa to name but a few. Staying with local host families you could be helping to refurbish schools or houses. In San Remigio, Philippines there is a project to help builders create water and sanitation facilities, helping more than 3000 households in the area which do not have their own toilets.

Kathmandu was devastated by the recent earthquakes, you could be part of a team on projects that are focusing on the children in the area. Creating new learning spaces to replace the 50,000 or more classrooms destroyed in the disaster.

If you are into conservation? How about Elephant research, anti-poaching patrols and dam building in Botswana. Relish the idea of researching Rothschild’s Giraffe and it’s micro-ecology, maintaining natural watering holes for animals and community work in Kenya? or Conservation projects on the Galapagos Islands.

 

Healthcare projects

If you feel that you would like to help with health care in disadvantaged communities you can choose from projects in over 30 countries. Areas such as Physiotherapy,  Midwifery, Dentistry and Nutrition cover just some of the areas.

All working alongside trained professionals and giving care to those who most need it, learning new skills and techniques along the way.

A project in Togo has been set up to help local people gain access to basic medical services. Working alongside partner organisations and local volunteers as a volunteer yourself you would be assisting with daily tasks, dressing wounds and following up on previous cases.

 

 

Ocean-Based Projects.

For those who like to dive or indeed want to learn to dive how about receiving your PADI certified diving courses amongst the coral reefs of Thailand. Then take on such tasks as Reef surveys, Ocean Conservancy Data Collection and much more. If Sharks are your thing then projects working directly with the Fiji Shark Conservation Project will be a highlight. Again PADI certified training is given for non-scuba divers and you would be performing tasks such as tagging baby sharks, setting underwater cameras and retrieving data as well as many other aspects of counting and identifying shark data.

In fact, there is such a range of project worldwide that is this only a small example of the amazing experiences you can have. For more details go to the Projects Abroad website

Where can you Go?

There are many exciting destinations around the world to choose from. Including those mentioned above, In Africa, you join projects in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Togo. In Asia, Cambodia, China, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam are available. How about Italy and Romania in Europe or Fiji or Samoa in the South Pacific? And you cannot forget some of the countries in Latin American and the Caribbean, Argentian, Belize, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Galapagos Islands, Jamaica, Mexico and Peru.

Combine Projects

There are also the amazing combinations that you can do. Maybe you would like to spend a few weeks on a project and move on to another project within that country. Teaching English in Mexico for a few weeks and then move on to helping with medical tasks.

Ultimate Options

If you prefer to help out doing the same tasks but would like to do that in Multiple countries that is possible to. There is also another ultimate option in which you could try your hand at different projects in different countries. Maybe you would like to start with a Care project in Morocco, then fly to Nepal and help with building classrooms before moving on to Thailand to learn scuba diving and help with the conservation projects all the while taking in some of the fantastic sites and cultures that each place has to offer. If you feel like making a difference and seeing the world at the same time the possibilities are endless.

What can you Learn?

Life skills are as important as academic skills and you will certainly gain a host of worldly experience with volunteering projects. Teamwork, presentation and communication skill will be high amongst those. You will learn different cultures and maybe pick up the basis of another language.

Different projects bring different skill sets and as above, scuba diving, building techniques and general medical skill can be acquired.

Which all will look fantastic on a CV.

Most of the projects require no qualification to take part in and no TEFL or teaching qualifications are needed for the Teaching programmes.

How much does it cost and what is included?

As you can imagine with such a huge range of choice comes with a myriad of different costs.  Starting from just under £1000 for a week doing medical, physiotherapy and nursing electives in Nepal to around £7,920 for a 6 month trip to South Africa for an African Bushveld Conservation project. Extra weeks can be added for a few hundred pounds depending on the project and area.

What is included in the price

• all your food and accommodation
• transfers to and from the airport
• transport to and from work where required
• travel and medical insurance
• support and 24-hour back-up from both our local and UK staff

What isn’t included in the price

• flights (Flights can be booked through your Volunteer package but not necessary)
• visas (where applicable)

If you combine projects within the same destination, you pay for your most expensive project and then any other project is charged at its “extra week” price. If you combine projects in two or more countries you will get 10% off each placement fee (excluding language courses).

Most projects volunteers get to live with local host families which are carefully selected and is a fantastic way to totally immerse yourself in the local way of life. In some destinations however volunteers get to live together in apartments or houses with conservation volunteers sometimes staying in shared tents at a base camp or wooden bungalows as with the Peruvian rainforest.

Three hearty meals a day are provided. A good breakfast is needed to set you up for the day ahead. A lunch may consist of a packed lunch due to the nature of your project or you could go back to the host accommodation in some instances.  Of course, there is also an evening meal so that you replenish those much-needed calories.

There is approximately 700 trained staff working worldwide for Projects Abroad. Country Directors are situated in each country and there is 24-hours support to make sure that everything runs smoothly and that you are being looked after.

Insurance

All volunteers are covered by medical and travel insurance, dealing with hospital arrangement and liaising with the insurance giving you peace of mind if something would happen. This may include repatriation in some cases.

Insurance coverage includes:

• Medical and emergency travel expenses
• Luggage and personal effects
• Personal accidents
• Personal liability
• Cancellation or curtailment
• Legal expenses

Subject to limits and an excess.

Fundraising

You may be thinking that all this sounds amazing and you have been sold on the idea of getting out there and making a difference. One big thing that stands in your way. How will I pay for it?

Unless you are in the enviable position that you have enough disposable cash to pay for outright or saved hard to afford an experience like this you need to fundraise.

Once you have established how much your adventure is going to cost you should plan out how you are going to do it.

Maybe you could approach a company to sponsor you. If they have a link to the area or project that you are looking to work on, that would be an advantage. It could be that you can bring them some advertising through media coverage. Newspaper articles, Facebook and Twitter exposure can also be advantageous to companies.

Schools and Universities could also be interested in sponsoring part of your trip if again this area is in line with their interests.

Projects Abroad are also partnered with easyfundraising which allows you to raise funds as you and others shop in over 2,700 retailers online.

Get creative with your fundraising! Sponsered Events are always fun and can raise some much-needed money.

for more fundraising information see our funding a bucket list post 

for more about prices go to the Projects Abroad price page

Where does the money go?

With Projects Abroad all the funding comes from the volunteers and not from outside organisation or the government. This gives Projects Abroad freedom to create projects where they are deemed needed.

22% goes to direct costs on the ground, 23% is allocated to support for volunteers from before start to finish, 17% is used for operating and administrative costs and the remaining 38% gets split equally between Awareness,  communications and advice and the Implementation and monitoring of projects.

Is it safe?

As you can expect as a volunteer your safety is of the utmost importance. If a country is not safe or politically stable, no one goes. Projects Abroad have their own local staff in each country to make all your needs are met. They are also in constant contact with the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office with regards to safety and stability. Whilst nothing is 100% safe, Projects Abroad have support and safeguards in place to minimise the risks.

You are looked after from the moment you are accepted on to one of the projects. This includes a personal web page containing all the relevant information and details that you need before your journey starts.

Upon arrival, you are met at the airport or local place of arrival by a member of the Projects Abroad staff or in some cases an approved transfer company.

All volunteers have an induction to the country and area where they will be living and typically contains a welcome pack with maps and useful local information such as banks, doctors and public transport. You will get a tour of the area on using the local transport to get you familiar with the way you will travel during your stay.

Also, local customs are advised so that you are comfortable with your new surroundings and know what to expect.

There is at least one Projects Abroad office in each of the locations and staff trained in the UK to follow best practices when it comes to monitoring, security and emergency procedures.

The office is directly contactable 24 hours a day for support.

Each volunteer is allocated a supervisor to not only enable them to carry out the work but make sure that their wellbeing is cared for and any problems are solved.

How long does it last?

Placements last between 1 week to 12 months and anywhere in between. This also may depend on visa restrictions.

Typically most go for between 2 and 12 weeks but you add extra weeks on if you feel 12 weeks is just not enough.

 

Working with Animals and Children

There are plenty of amazing projects that involve animals and children.

All animal projects are specially vetted so that they are not connected with animal cruelty in any shape or form. Care is also taken to ensure that volunteers are aware of the potential negative impact tourist activities can have on wildlife.

Partnered with several leading international animal welfare organisations – Animal Defenders International (ADI), FOUR PAWS and World Animal Protection Projects abroad promote the welfare of animals in the countries that they work in.

Believing that animals should belong in their natural habitat that they should be treated humanely at all times. Projects Abroad take their policies towards animal welfare very seriously.

When working with children the policies are just as strict. These are designed to be in the best interest of both the children and the volunteer.

As you might expect the projects that are covered are there to help deal with some heart-wrenching situations. Children who are malnourished, have been abandoned or live in some of the worse conditions imaginable.

From Working with children in orphanages and care homes in the past Projects abroad now focus on community and family-based care, believing that a stable home and family life is key to the success of the children’s future. Care centres, Kindergartens and schools are now where the placements are based tying in with the community and helping families stay together.

A background check is needed for each volunteer and professional or academic references are required. Child Protection Policies are in place and will be covered by a member of staff as part of the induction process. Workshops and feedback sessions throughout the projects are used to keep child welfare on the top of the agenda.

What do you get out of it?

Not only would you be learning new skills and immersing yourself in a different culture but you would be making a big difference in people’s or animals lives.

Having travelled to real parts of the world and not those you find in holiday brochures you can start to become ‘Worldy Wise’ and more confident in who you are.

Apart from the tangible skills you would acquire, you will get a sense of self-worth and a greater admiration for people in all walks of life.

You would meet new, like-minded people who have a passion for helping others and preserving what is already here.  Some will hopefully become friends for life.

Volunteering Abroad, How Can I Help?

Has this peaked your Interest? If you have a career break, have a gap year or think that that this would be a perfect break from your normal day to day life take a look at the Projects Abroad website for more details. They have offices and websites for all different countries which can be found at the ‘International Websites’ page

There you will find all the projects, countries and information above and much more.

The I-MustDo Team