Volunteering

Hi, anyone recommend to book prior to going or when out in the country. Any recommendations, would be useful, thanks.

Impossible to answer. It depends entirely on which country you're referring to and what kind of volunteer work you're trying to do.

Cheers,
Terry

I would always recommend to book before, as its rare these days that you can volunteer for free. Companies make money by having their travellers pay them to volunteer. I recently went to a Lion Park in South Africa called Ukutula and they had volunteers there staying for a few weeks helping with the lion cubs and general duties in the park. They paid to go there and didn't get paid but they're essentially paying for the experience.

Hope that helps!

Holly

Hi,

Terry, I'm heading to Thailand n regions.

Thanks Holly.

Quoting Hina-go-go

Hi, Terry, I'm heading to Thailand n regions. Thanks Holly.

Holly,
I have friends in Phnom Penh that help orphans and poor families with: shelter, food, medical, schooling, etc. They can always use another volunteer to help out, no fees involved. If this is something that interests you, send me a pm. Mike

I've done volunteer work in Cambodia also, some just outside of Phneom Penh and some around Sinouhkville. The Tabitha Foundation does house building projects around the area and i'd really recommend checking them out.

http://www.tabitha.org.au/cms/

Mike..any chance I could volunteer there for free?is this in Cambodia?

I've been doing volunteering in India for the past 3 months. I had organised stuff before I came, but once I got here I found that it's so flexible and generally unorganised that it's very easy to use contacts to move around between different areas and different projects. Everyone has a massive network, so I'd recommend having your first couple of weeks planned but then being open to being a bit more spontaneous once you get out there.

what country? Cambodia?

You should be able to find a place to volunteer once you are on the ground. Booking online runs some risks but most importantly you will tend to end up with the best organized and best run volunteer organizations with typically (but not always) mean the ones that are making the most money off of their volunteers (due to the fact that it normally means people are trained in business)...

Again, this is not a rule... but it is a risk you run.

If, however, you are referred somewhere by other travellers or past volunteers, than you might be able to step past this issue.

South East Asia in general has many volunteer opportunities that you will be able to find on the ground, although volunteering completely for free might be a little difficult to find. On the bright side, as soon as you find one great organization, they will know many others... so it's just a situation of getting your foot in the door