Gap Year (need ideas for volunteering)

[muse]

Ok, I know this is the wrong board but I won't get too many replies on the other. But anyway, I'm on my gap year next year before uni and I really want to do volunteering working with animals, not sure where I'd even start with this so if anyone has any ideas I'd really appreciate it (before my thread gets moved) :help:

[muse]

That was quick

[hannahbanana]

That's awesome - good for you for taking a year off! I wish I had the guts to do that before starting school.

Anyway, I've been looking into that kind of thing a lot recently (although I've mostly been looking at short term stuff) and I've found that most of the places that really advertise their volunteer opportunities are quite pricey. They also tend to run not longer than three months (at least from what I've seen). Some that I found quite appealing are

www.greenforce.org - Has both marine and terrestrial conservation opportunities. It's more observation (i.e. doing wildlife surveys or checking reef life) than hands-on animal work, but in some amazing locations.

www.projects-abroad.org - A bunch of different programs, one of them involves working in an animal hospital in Mexico. They also have projects in Ghana, Mongolia, Romania, and India that's more actual veterinary work as opposed to just cleaning cages and stuff.

http://www.geocities.com/refugiobolivia/ - Wildlife refuge in Bolivia - not nearly as much information on the website. However, much much cheaper than the above options.

http://www.greenvolunteers.org/ - A database listing several hundred volunteering opportunities (you do have to pay to access the database, which I haven't done, but the sample projects they have listed look pretty cool).

Hope this is somewhat helpful, and good luck!

~Hannah

[muse]

ooooh thankyou, thats really nice of you. I was planning to work for a few months before I go to save up so a 2- 7 month trip would be good