Travel Tip 112
Top 3 Tips for Finding Legit Volunteer Projects
In lots of volunteer vacations, the volunteers learn just as much as the people they’re helping, like projects in Choquecancha that benefit the community’s preservation of Indigenous textile art.
Last week I wrote about how house swaps, house sitting and pet sitting can get you free places to stay when you travel. Another great option is volunteer opportunities, which usually provide lodging and meals in exchange for labor. There are a ton of platforms for volunteer vacations and you should ask just as many questions of projects on platforms as ones you find independently.
The Benefits of Volunteer Vacations
Depending on the project, volunteering with a local organization can give you a deeper understanding of the culture you’re visiting, and it can be a great way to connect with locals and with other volunteers. Volunteering also gives solo travelers a way to not be solo the whole time they’re traveling.
The Drawbacks to Volunteer Vacations
If you’re traveling to see the sights, volunteering might take up so much of your time that you don’t get to experience the destination as much as you’d want to. Also, globally, there are hundreds of “volunteer” projects that cause more harm than good. You have to do a lot of research and ask a lot of hard questions before you can be sure the project truly is beneficial in the way that it’s portrayed.
If the project involves animals, you should be much more cautious of ones with wild animals, versus domesticated animals like dogs - or alpacas.
When to be especially vigilant?
Any project that you pay money to participate in, or that involves children or animals requires an extra level of scrutiny. Too many orphanages around the world are filled with children who could be living with family, just so the orphanage owners can get money from volunteers.
The same goes for animal “shelters” or “rehabilitation centers.” There are lots of places that buy wild animals, rather than rescuing them, and that have no intention of rehabilitating them for release to the wild. One of these places, near Cusco, is Cochawasi. It’s a horrible place with small cages and the same animals since I went there in 2019, but they market it as a rescue shelter and get international volunteers all the time.
How to Tell if a Project is Legit?
It’s a sad fact that some places take advantage of travelers’ desire to help and that other places may have good intentions but are so disorganized that travelers are left with a bad experience. Sometimes unskilled volunteers are used when there’s a clear need for trained professionals. Even worse, some places create or perpetuate problems to keep a project going. It’s imperative to look critically at a volunteer project or a place that markets itself as a volunteer vacation.
I recommend volunteering at shelters for domesticated animals over wild animals, because wild animals should be rehabilitated by experts so they can survive in the wild. Anybody can volunteer at shelters like Colitas Con Canas, which cares for disabled and elderly dogs and cats in the Sacred Valley, near Cusco.
1. Ask yourself how realistic and effective it seems.
Do they have photos of people doing whatever they say their project is? Is it clear who benefits from the project? Are volunteers doing something that local people could do and get paid for? Does the website have specific information about where the funds come from?
2. Look for certifications.
The gold standard is B-Corp, but many countries have their own certifications. Look for local certifications that are directly related to the volunteer project.
3. Contact them.
There should be an easy way to contact them. Ask specific questions and check that their answers make sense. Their English doesn’t have to be perfect for this to be a legit NGO but their responses should be logical. If you don’t speak the local language, make sure that somebody on site will speak a language that you do know.
Dredge mining for gold destroys and pollutes more of the Peruvian Amazon every year, but that trend can be stopped with ethical tourism.
Blog
If you’re interested in volunteer tourism, take the time to learn about other ways to benefit the places you travel. Here’s my blog about ways you can save the Amazon!
Regenerative tourism, whether it involves volunteering or not, should leave a place better than you found it.
Article
Here’s my article published by Frommer’s about how to tell if a travel company offers experiences that are truly regenerative, or if it’s just hype.
