I was wondering whether anyone is aware of volunteer opportunities for kids 18 and up around the world?



I've decided to take a year off from school and pursue some good deed doing. I'm having trouble finding an organization that sends you somewhere with little cost or none. I am interested in volunteering in Europe, Asia or Australia.



I've applied with some Canadian organizations that ship kids around the country and the world...but so far only four. One of them being Katimavik and Canada World Youth..or something along those lines.



Anything would be appreciated!



Thanks!

Hooray! I'm going on a 3-month volunteer trip, leaving in 3 weeks.. to Ecuador and Galapagos I think it's great that you're doing volunteer travel!



some tips: the organization i'm going with is called i-to-i and it's based in the UK (http://www.i-to-i.com). Another org that i was interested in is also based in the UK and it's called Global Vision (http://www.gvi.co.uk/). And yet another, that I have already done work with, based in Canada: Youth Challenge International (http://www.yci.org), the only reason I didn't go with them was because they're focused more on community building and I wanted to do nature conservation work. If none of these suit you you can search for orgs at http://www.volunteerabroad.com



i hope you find what you're looking for! I'm super excited about my trip!

I was keen to do the i to i thing. They invited me along to a day to find out more about it. So I travelled out of my way to go to this meeting. Well I got there and found the room they had told me to go to- nothing there- no one there. So I went to speak to the people in reception. They told me there was a meeting downstairs. I went downstairs- again no one was there. Eventually a man turned up- he was nothing to do with i to i. I spoke to him and he was something to do with volunteering to teach in Denmark (or such like.) I got in touch with i to i and they gave no decent excuse as to why they had told me to go to this place, there was no such meeting!



Eventually they emailed me about another meeting- strangley being held in the area I come from. For this meeting you actually had to pay to go to it. I thought not a chance. I am sure i to i are ok- but I certainly wasn't impressed. I am still keen to do some voluntary work- but I find these places tend to have overinflated prices and feel it would be better to do something myself.



3 years ago I went to Ghana and was funded by a British Council Youth Millenium award. I don't think my work was as worthy as a lot of these projects but I had a great time. It was good to get the funding to be able to do something worthwhile than having to pay for the privilage, though going with an organisaton will make it a lot easier,



Kat

i was a bit worried about the high prices too, but in the end i've decided it's totally worth it.. not only is it a million times safer than travelling alone, they totally cover your insurance for everything that might happen, it's super organized, they do everything for you, they train you, tell you what to do in case of evergency, there are people in the organization you can contact in every country, they send you tons of information about the places you're staying at, give you food, transportation, and a place to stay.. in your stay they include language lessons and i'm also getting to attend lectures about local environment topics..



the most similar program that i found in my university cost twice as much and it was only 2 weeks, and i'm staying 3 months. so i think i couldn't have made a better choice. and considering how dangerous it is for women to travel alone in most of these areas, i don't think i'd even ever have the opportunity to do this if it wasn't through i-to-i. but i guess that it depends on your priorities whether it's worth it or not.

I think my trouble was more not wanting to spend my money with them- when they sent me to meeting that didn't exist. If something so simple could get confused in the UK- I was worried what would happen overseas. I agree it's definatly better to go with an organisation in this day and age.



K

You might try:



www.wwoof.org

or

Jobs Abroad (I think it's www.jobsabroad.com)

There's a book that comes out every year or so called Alternatives to the Peace Corps that is full of volunteering opportunites around the world for various lengths of time. I highly recommend it.

try www.agriventure.com. With this program you actually work overseas, but you get a chance to travel and actually get paid to do it. There's some work on farms, in greenhouses, orchards, vinyards, or taking care of children.

Thank you kindly for all your responses!







Ala

I came across a not for profit organization that organise volunteer placement programs you might want to drop them an email Volunteer Abroad