Vacation for a Cause

Trips that transform your outlook on life offer a unique twist on a regular holiday

Can a teenage girl survive on one bucket of water a week? Sarah Gardner did, and got the experience of a lifetime when she and her family spent their vacation volunteering in a remote region of Guatemala. For a month the 14-year-old assisted the only doctor in Patzun, a town of 20,000 Mayans, helping out with daily clinics, caesarean sections and other medical procedures. She also found time to raise spirits at the orphanage and teach daily English classes to her peers in a local school.

Volunteer vacationing is becoming a popular holiday choice, especially among seniors and women. The thrill of travel to remote areas, experiences far beyond those available to even the most seasoned traveller and the sense of purpose and accomplishment that volunteering provides make its appeal obvious. In fact, according to Sarah's mother Alison, editor of Travel With A Challenge and a freelance journalist who often writes about alternative vacations, "it's hard going back to regular holidays."

The demand for volunteer vacations is growing steadily. In fact, 9/11 made people realize what can happen when cultures don't understand each other. There's a sense that we need to build bridges between cultures to prevent war and conflict.

Frederic Hore got hooked on this type of vacation during a volunteer holiday in Costa Rica in 1996. Since then, regular vacations no longer satisfy him. "When I travel I want an intimate experience of a place," he says. Volunteering provides that experience, allowing access to places and people ordinary tourists don't get to see. Hore recently spent a vacation in Russia with five other volunteers studying the water ecology of Lake Baikal in Siberia. "We were essentially glorified fishermen, catching shrimp and bullhead fish, which we later separated and dissected. It was like reliving my high school biology classes!"

Explore an alternative experience With trips as short as a week or as long as a year, almost anyone can find an ideal placement from the hundreds of organizations out there. The key is knowing what you really want to get from the experience, according to Doug Cutchins, co-author of Volunteer Vacations (Chicago Review Press, 2002).

"In the book we outline a list of 10 questions prospective volunteers should ask themselves — things like what sort of accommodations are you willing to accept, what are your expectations regarding cooking and cleaning duties, what is paid for and what is not, etc." Another evaluation tool can be found at Volunteer Abroad. Once those issues are settled, it's time to find the ideal placement.

When choosing an organization, DeGroot recommends looking for references from previous volunteers and affiliations with international organizations. "They should be able to provide information about who their partners are, and ideally they'll have a long track record of working with the same communities," she says. "Local team leaders are also important, particularly when doing social work in small, indigenous communities."

Fees vary significantly from trip to trip and some organizations offer discounts to returning volunteers, families and people who book online. While the fees don't include travel to the destination, many organizations help with fundraising. Students can also gain valuable work experience and may also receive academic credit for internships abroad. The minimum age for solo travellers is generally 17 or 18, and for family trips, children usually have be at least eight years old. Each organization has its own guidelines, so investigate all the options thoroughly.

Although volunteer vacations can be a lot of work, free time is a given. "These organizations recognize that volunteers need opportunities to explore and understand where they are," says Cutchins. "That's part of the appeal of this kind of travel, after all. Organizers should be able to tell you what an average day is like and how much downtime volunteers can expect."
Find a volunteer vacation that interests you

If you'd like to come home with something more meaningful than your average souvenir, check out some of these organizations. These are only a few of the options, though, so if you have a specific experience in mind, try looking using a search engine such as Google.

• Volunteer Abroad is an online directory of volunteer holidays with hundreds of organizations worldwide.
• Globe Aware, a nonprofit organization, currently offers short-term, one- to two-week volunteer vacations in Peru, Costa Rica, Thailand, Cuba, Nepal, Brazil and India, which focus on cultural awareness and sustainability.
• Earthwatch offers ecological expeditions for volunteers in dozens of countries. Choose from nine areas of study, including archaeology, scuba, cultural diversity, biodiversity and world health.
• Habitat for Humanity International organizes volunteer trips to build affordable housing in more than 57 locations in 19 countries.