Voluntourism: It’s All About Seeing the World While You Save It

Posted on 17. Apr, 2009 by BCAA in Living

Vancouver Islander Jordie Robinson spent two weeks this summer tending vegetables and pulling weeds on the far side of the Coast range in Nelson, B.C. In return for six hours a day of labour and a $40 annual membership in World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (wwoof), the 23-year-old enjoyed room and board at his host farm along with plenty of free time to hike in the Kootenays. Robinson’s plan: To hopscotch across the country from one farm to the next, roosting along the way with an international cast of fellow wwoofers, all dedicated to sustainable agriculture. “It’s an incredible, practical education,” says Robinson, “and it’s not really costing me a penny.”

Planting oneself on an organic farm is just one example of the so-called “volunteer vacation” – a more meaningful, purpose-driven variation on the do-nothing delights of conventional holidays. Seeing the world while rolling up one’s sleeves and pitching in where needed has tremendous appeal to growing numbers of modern travellers. According to a database maintained by the California website voluntourism.org, some 10,000 help-wanted projects are underway at the moment. The International Volunteer Programs Association, meanwhile, estimates that upward of 75,000 North Americans signed on for “voluntourism” projects last year.

Explore the options by getting familiar with some of these leading proponents of volunteer tourism:

The quickest one-stop way to browse a few of the leading voluntourism options is online at the United Nations-run World Volunteering Web. The site includes links to such organizations as the Vancouver-based Canadian Alliance for Development Initiatives and Projects (which maintains a database of volunteer “workcamps” worldwide, among them road building in Iceland and archaeological restoration in Turkey) and the Canadian wing of the international organization Projects Aboard. worldvolunteerweb.org
Elderhostel is the pioneering “lifelong learning” tour company that registers more than 160,000 members of the over-55 crowd annually. The non-profit’s “service” vacations include community water projects in Nicaragua, dinosaur digs in Wyoming, dolphin research in Belize and preservation work at a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Caribbean. “The people we attract believe the best way to travel and learn is to reach out with a helping hand,” says Steve Lembke, Elderhostel’s VP of programming. elderhostel.org; routestolearning.com
Conservation work on game reserves in southeastern Africa is one of the most popular programs offered by Volunteer Adventures, a commercial voluntourism outfit. “The lion population in Zimbabwe is dwindling, so we offer visitors the chance to work with lion cubs – helping bottle-feed them and then eventually releasing them into the wild,” says outreach coordinator Laurel Kalish. volunteeradventures.com
Projects Abroad serves a mix of young adults and so-called “career breakers” who are taking “time out from work to explore the world and their role in it,” explains the organization’s Canadian director Robert Levine of the 300 or so doctors, teachers, veterinarians, journalists and business people who are helping out on six continents. “We’re seeing more and more engaged, active people wanting to make a difference,” says Levine. “It’s inspiring.” Among the options: Assisting nomadic tribes in Mongolia and teaching sustainable farming in India. projects-abroad.org
The Land Conservancy offers volunteer programs protecting B.C. wilderness and heritage properties, such as stemming the tide of invasive broom on South Winchelsea Island or pulling in the harvest at Keating Farm near Duncan. Cost: $150 (or $125 for TLC members) for room and board over long weekends. “We want to make it easy for people to develop a deeper relationship with conservation,” says the TLC’s Marc Dugas. conservancy.bc.ca
Through practical day-to-day work, WWOOF provides in-depth education in organic practices at the organization’s 650 Canadian host farms – half of which are in B.C. There is no such thing as a “typical” wwoofer, says Canadian coordinator John Vanden Heuvel, but the majority are under 40 and no less than two-thirds are women. wwoof.ca –Jeff Bateman

volun-volumes

Volunteer Vacations: Short-Term Adventures That Will Benefit You and Others by Bill McMillon, Doug Cutchins and Anne Geissinger (Chicago Review Press, 2006; $24.95)

How To Live Your Dream of Volunteering Overseas by Joseph Collins, Stefano DeZerega and Zahara Heckscher (Penguin Publishing, 2001; $26) l

Tags: eco-tourism, Travel Trends, volunteer