To make your next vacation truly a life-changing experience, consider some of the marvelous adventures in The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life.
This 2009 publication from National Geographic is a road-worthy compact paperback, bursting with ideas that will get you moving.
You could…
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- Collect butterflies in the Amazon
Assist Europe’s marginalized gypsies
Teach music in Ghana
Work in an Argentinean soup kitchen
Three out of four people in Batwa can’t read. You could first learn where Batwa is, and then use your vacation time to help people there gain access to education. Through a pottery cooperative and your efforts at international marketing, funds for literacy and education can raise the quality of life for this small Indian population.
The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations suggests adventures in six continents, ranging from art and science to humanitarian aid and conservation. You can combine adventure and do something good at the same time, whether you want to:
- help at harvest time,
tend a lighthouse,
work in a Peruvian butterfly camp with over 1,200 species of butterflies, or
educate small ethnic groups in Madre de Dios about sustainable living without destroying forests.
Don’t expect a carpool to work or a free lunch if you volunteer at a health clinic. Visit the world’s newest country and lend a hand at a free health clinic in Dili, in East Timor. You’ll get the chance to help with medical care: dental services, health outreach, infant care, pharmacy, kitchen and laundry for an over-worked doctor. A Madison, Wisconsin group raises funds to send medical aid to East Timor and can help arrange volunteer logistics.
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