Voluntary work overseas

Doing some voluntary work overseas is a great way to do something that is both challenging and rewarding on your gap year. Taking a gap year or career break is undoubtedly an excellent thing to do, but it is important to remember that it is also a privilege and opportunity that many people in the world will never be fortunate enough to experience. Doing some voluntary work overseas gives travellers the chance to make a direct and worthwhile contribution to some of the countries they visit on their gap year. To give just one example to illustrate this, in Sri Lanka you could do some voluntary work overseas by helping to re-build homes destroyed by the Asian Tsunami. The opportunity to get involved in physical voluntary work abroad is a hugely rewarding experience. 

Voluntary work overseas is a two-way process which greatly benefits the volunteers as well. Travellers who do some voluntary work overseas learn a great deal from the local people they are working with and experience the culture of the country they are in on a far deeper level than most tourists or backpackers. Voluntary work overseas can be hard work at times but it is certainly never dull and volunteers gain a real sense of personal achievement from the experience. A common theme Real Gap hears from travellers who have returned home from doing some voluntary work overseas is that the experience really helped to put their life in to perspective. On a more practical note, being able to say you have done some voluntary work overseas is an excellent thing to be able to put on your CV as well. If you are a student this type of experience really helps to give your CV an extra ‘edge' over many other students when you eventually finish full-time education. When you do some voluntary work overseas you will almost inevitably pick up some useful new skills, and being able to list these will make you stand out far more than someone whose only experience of life so far has been passing exams.

There are all kinds of organisations throughout the world who greatly rely on gap year travellers wanting to do some voluntary work overseas to help provide them with much-needed support. Most types of voluntary work overseas can broadly be split in to three main categories:

• Voluntary work overseas helping to care for disadvantaged people or communities
• Voluntary work overseas helping to care for endangered wildlife or animals
• Voluntary work overseas helping to conserve fragile environments or ecosystem

As mentioned above, voluntary work overseas can be tough going at times and isn't just about putting in an hour or two of unpaid work each day in order to ‘do your bit.' A great deal of commitment is required and it's vital you choose a project for your voluntary work overseas that you particularly care about. Real Gap has numerous programmes offering gap year travellers the chance to do some voluntary work overseas. There are far too many to mention in full here so, if you are interested in doing some voluntary work overseas, it is important to spend a decent amount of time exploring the Real Gap website in order to find the right programme for you. However, in order to inspire you, here are just a few of the things you could be doing on your gap year or career break if you do some voluntary work overseas with Real Gap:

• You could do some voluntary work overseas helping the Iban Tribes-people of Malaysian Borneo with their fight to protect and conserve the gravely endangered orang-utan population - the only great ape found outside Africa
• You could do some voluntary work overseas by assisting in a South African childrens' hospital
• You could do some voluntary work overseas by helping to educate local children about environmental conservation issues in Ecuador's Galapagos Islands

 If you are planning to do some voluntary work overseas on your gap year it is an excellent idea to get hold of some sponsorship in order to help you fund your travels. Friends, family and colleagues are usually only too happy to help out if you are going to be doing some voluntary work overseas on your gap year or career break and there are all kinds of things you can do to raise money. For advice and ideas on how to raise funds for voluntary work overseas visit Real Gap's ‘Gap year fundraising' page.  

If you are planning your voluntary work overseas and can't find what you are looking for on the Real Gap website then pick up the phone and speak to one of our experienced team of travel advisers. All of Real Gap's travel advisers have been on a gap year themselves, so they are a great source of advice and information. Many of them have also done some voluntary work overseas as well so, if there is anything you are uncertain about or need clarifying with regards to a particular programme, they will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.


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