TRAVEL WITH A PURPOSE: Volunteering on Vacation

Recently Robyn Liston stood in the heartland of Peru’s Incan Empire – smack middle in the awe-inspiring Sacred Valley. She reflected on what she warned on her six-week visit, a majestic condor, and the Inca’s symbol of strength, soared by.

Looking back, Ms. Liston says, “When the condor flew over my head at Machu Piccu, I realized that my life was living in faith, anything is possible.”

She was in Peru on vacation – and to lend a helping hand, as one of the eight people from Canada and the United States taking part in a new form of ethical tourism. Half cultural immersion and half international aid, it’s known as “Voluntouring”, and allows those who are keen to volunteer their skills and labor to experience vast and vibrant lands in the process.

The trend appeals to all kinds of people who long for the opportunity to do something more with their leisure time. According to U.S. voluntourist, Ana Maria Quintanilla, participants have a “great sense of something bigger than themselves.”

In Peru, the voluntourist worked with more than 60 deaf and mute children at the orphanage in Cuzco, the capital. The youngsters were taught job skills that they could use for their future sustainability, and their once lack-luster courtyard got a sunny wash of colour with freshly painted games, a revitalized swing set, and a new volleyball net. The orphanage’s water heaters were finally repaired so that the children could avoid ice-cold showers.

Voluntourist also helped beyond the orphanage walls. Twenty adobe stoves with chimneys were built in Quechea villages in the mountains about 40 minutes outside Cuzco, vastly reducing the intake of smoke from homes’ cooking fires. As well, 10 wheelchairs were assembles from kits with the help of orphanage kids and given to neurologically handicapped orphans elsewhere in the city.

For some voluntourist, even that wasn’t sufficiently demanding. “The low point”, Ms. Quintanilla says, “often the feeling of not doing enough… and the reality that your visit is short and temporary.”

For others, such as Bob Link, one of the older participants, the experience provided an emotional high.
“ I didn’t expect much from this project at first,” he says. “But the deep – seated appreciation shown by the recipients was very heart warming. There wasn’t a dry eye.”

As a rule, voluntouring programs last just a week or two and range from building homes and schools to working with indigenous communities. Kimberly Haley-Coleman, founder of Globe Aware, the non-profit agency behind the Peru project, says that the average short-term trip cost around $1000.00 (U.S.). That covers accommodations, meals, in country transportation, medical insurance, project materials, direct financial contribution to the community, and coordinator expenses. Airfare is extra, but in the United States, the fee for such trips are 100-per-cent tax deductible.

Just as the tours, so do the volunteers. Women with busy careers make up the biggest group, but a growing trend, according to Ms. Haley-Coleman, is to have families – grandparents included – travel together.

Canadian Voluntourist, Elain Sombrutsky says she, too, plans to bring her family on her next trek – part of her plan “to spend more of my time investing in people as opposed to investing in things”.
And what about Ms Liston? She also plans tp recapture the feeling the condor evoked in her and voluntour again. “It is the greatest gift I could give myself.”

Toronto writer Mary Luz Meija observed the project in Peru while working on a documentary film about it.