Recently in Voluntourism Category

High school student Kyle Bullington traveled to Kenya this summer, where he lived and worked in the Nairobi neighborhood of Kibera, the largest slum in Africa, on a unique volunteer project.

Residents of Kibera watch a video created by the Carolina for Kibera team

This summer, high school student Kyle Bullington arrived in Kibera with a unique goal: To enable the youth in the community of one of the world's biggest slums to share their perspectives on life there through short video clips. "Most people around the world are blind to the sufferings of approximately a million people in this community," Kyle wrote in a piece for the Huffington Post. "I felt that the best means to depict the story of Kibera would be through video." Kyle worked to develop the video project with the group Carolina For Kibera, an NGO that works on public health and community development issues in the region. Noting that "the only footage that ever makes it out of Kibera is that which is taken by foreigners," Kyle arranged for Pure Digital and Apple to donate equipment for the project, and brought 10 Flip video cameras and two 24-inch iMacs to the slum. We asked him to give us an update on how the community is recording their stories.

Shortly after arriving in Kibera, I created a YouTube channel for the organization and began recording my story in the slum. I then trained a group of four locals involved in the organization to film and edit video. I posted eight YouTube videos during my two-week stay and then handed the channel over to my trained team to begin making their own posts. 

Since returning home, I have seen the group I trained continue to improve on their moviemaking abilities. They have been making monthly posts about different aspects of life in Kibera. They recently did a video with the Carolina For Kibera founder about morning life in Kibera. I hope that these videos will continue to gain exposure and enable Kiberans to create global awareness about slum life.

Check out one of the videos after the jump.

Former National Geographic Books editorial assistant Hunter Braithwaite spent his vacation helping former laboratory research animals in a Wyoming sanctuary.

We wake at dawn to black coffee. A murderous sun will soon beat down. Vultures, wafting in the carrion breeze, cast the only shadows. In the distance is a persistant howling. But all is well on the Kindness Ranch: it's pool day for the pigs.

My girlfriend and I spent July volunteering on this 1,000-acre Wyoming sanctuary for research animals. At the moment, this unique institution is home to 55 animals. These dogs, cats, sheep, pigs, and horses have spent much of their lives in laboratories. Almost all of them are up for adoption. The ranch is obviously pro-animal, but the animal testing debate is tiptoed around. Since the primary goal is to better the life of an animal, criticizing laboratories doesn't lead to cooperation.

The Kindness Ranch is located off State Highway 270, about eight miles from the nearest town, Hartville (pop. 76).  All in all, it's a pretty straight shot from the East Coast. Just stay on Route 80 for the entirety of the Brothers Karamazov on tape.  

On the property are an arena, a barn, two yurts for the cats and dogs, six guest yurts, and a yurt castle belonging to the founder. My girlfriend and I came with the understanding that we'd be staying in the cat yurt, but somehow we were blessed with a vacant guest yurt. They normally go for $100 per night, a steal, but the price drops precipitously for those willing to clean up after the horses.

Plant a tree in the rainforest. Provide clean water for a river community. Deliver school supplies to an Amazonian school. By traveling with International Expeditions, not only will you experience the rich cultural and biological diversity of the world, but your trip will also help ensure that future generations can experience it, too.

IE, a world leader in nature travel and Amazon conservation programming, offers trips to awe-inspiring locales including the Amazon, the Galapagos, Antarctica, Belize, India, Kenya and South Africa.

The efforts by IE and its travelers take the term "voluntourism" to a new level, demonstrating just what it means to see the world and save it, too. Led by local naturalists and historians, their goal is to cultivate a greater appreciation and understanding of the earth's natural wonders as well as the welfare of the local people and communities within them.

To learn more, I caught up with Maggie Hart, President of International Expeditions, to discuss the program, its conservation efforts and ways that travelers can get involved. See full interview after the jump.

If you like this bargain with a cause, the package, offered through Sept. 7, comes with a few rules: the reservations cannot be refunded or canceled, and must be made 72 hours before you check in. It also requires a minimum stay of two nights.

Need a rewarding getaway this summer? About about 100 getaways? Author Pam Grout has gathered a wide selection of fantastic--and fulfilling--trips to choose from in her book The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life. Here are some of her favorites, with the full book excerpt here on Traveler's site. Want the whole book? We're offering a 20 percent discount - so order now and get going! 

1. Excavate Stone Tools; Cortez, Colorado
2. Blaze a New Trail; New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana
3. Collect Butterflies in Remote Amazonia; Huaorani Reserve, Ecuador
4. Produce the News; Cochabamba, Bolivia
5. Turn a Military Base into a School and Garden; Bethlehem, Israel
6. Bottle-Feed Orphaned Lion Cubs; Victoria Falls, Zambia
7. Research the Great White Shark; Gansbaai, South Africa
8. Assist the Kenya Wildlife Service; Kenya
9. Restore a Buddhist Monastery; Mustang Valley, Nepal
10. Go Carbon Neutral in Western Australia; Perth, Australia

Photo: Bottle-feed lion cubs with Amanzi Travel and help save the "king of beasts." by Daniel Mallard/iStockphoto.com

Why not do some good while enjoying the great outdoors? This Saturday, June 6th, is National Trails Day, so there will be ample opportunities to repair and/or hike your favorite trails, learn more about hiking and hiking gear, dedicate new trails and get to know other hikers in your area.

Hunter Braithwaite finds more that great surf along the Costa Rican coastline.

Costa Rican roads are a cruel joke played on Americans, I thought, teary-eyed, as I clutched my forehead, which had just bounced off the windshield of our rented SUV. Why did this happen? What did we swerve to miss? Oh, the usual - a parade of stray dogs, barefoot children on dirt bikes, a rooster lazily strutting like a Caribbean dictator. I suppose parade implies motion, and dead pigs don't move, but the parade also featured a dead pig. Considering the pain, it's not remarkable that this is my chief memory from a week in Costa Rica.

A few days prior, I met a group of high school friends in Nosara for one last week of surfing before the anchors of career confined each to our own harbor of adulthood. The days that followed consisted of little more than fish tacos and sunburns. After almost a week of this, I convinced the group that there is a beautiful and varied country beyond Playa Guiones, and it would be regrettable to spend the rest of the vacation surfing. (Full disclosure: I hate surfing, it's boring and too hard.) So we did.  

Around noon we bought some sandwiches and rented a Toyota Prado for the day ($96 and a valid passport). With little more than a rough approximation of where we wanted to go (south) we took the 116 to Samara. Samara is the type of place where the locals only talk to you if attempting to sell you pot. They'll saunter up, chat about the waves or about Obama, and just when you think you've made a new friend, whisper into your ear: "You want the weed?" Here we ate empanadas and smoothies at a rancid-smelling soda shop. Despite the maddening heat, it was one of the best meals of the trip. In Costa Rican tourist towns, there is a negative correlation between cleanliness and food quality.    

The road south from Samara turns quickly from bad to worse. Drivers are required to ford several rivers. Luckily, this was the peak of the dry season, so a river is nothing more than a bone-dry ditch. If we had come three months later, the Prado would never have made it. It barely did as is. In front of an audience of old Costa Rican women and cows, we spent 10 minutes trying to get out of a sandpit. You could hear it rustling from the palm trees, "muy estúpido."  

Camaronal is a black beach. As we drove up to it, the sun was setting and the wind was kicking up a lot of sand. It looked like smoke as it hung in the air. Very intense. Down by the water a single person stood watching baby turtles walking into the sea.

Giovanna Palatucci gets the scoop on National Geographic's study abroad opportunities for high school students.

Students "On Assignment" with National Geographic Student Expeditions

Ford Cochran first ventured to Iceland while on assignment for National Geographic Television; he filmed the ice cliffs and caves created by a 1996 volcanic eruption that had melted hundreds of feet through the ice. Today, Ford is heading back to Iceland, this time to share his experiences with high school students as part of National Geographic Student Expeditions program.

National Geographic Student Expeditions is an educational adventure program providing high school students the opportunity to explore various communities around the globe and across the US under the guidance of experts like Ford and other NG writers, photographers, and scientists.

"Students, particularly young ones, are open to learning new things and seeing the world in new ways. There's little that excites me more than visiting an extraordinary place for the first time--and being able to share that experience with others is thrilling. For teens today, there's also genuine urgency to caring for this amazing planet we share," said Ford.

Having a soft spot for furry creatures, I couldn't not follow up with tour company Inside/Out's founder, Zoe Katsulos, about an upcoming "humanitourism" trip to Greece to tackle the animal welfare crisis there.

Inside/Out puts together trips around the world that couple humanitarian volunteer work with sustainable eco-adventures. The ten-day June trip (June 12-22) to Ioannina allows a group of 12 travelers to help cats and dogs in Zagoria, a little-visited mountainous region of northern Greece. In Greece, as in many parts of the world, cats and dogs suffer starvation, neglect, abuse, abandonment, poisoning, and overpopulation. There's no SPCA to provide shelters and neutering and spaying are infrequent. Volunteers will help local animal activists construct and maintain feeding stations for the strays, and inform local people about animal rights and welfare issues. After five days of humanitarian work, the humanitourists embark on their well-deserved eco-adventure, trekking, rafting, sea kayaking, and enjoying Greek culture, history, and food. I asked Zoe Katsulos about how it all works.

What's "humanitourism" all about? How did you develop this concept?

Humanitourism is designed to provide an intimate connection with the people, the culture and the land through various channels; it balances volunteer work with guided adventure travel. Humanitourism fulfills on both the volunteer humanitarian and tourism ends, because people get that additional connection to the land and the culture by participating in adventure activities that are local or indigenous. Our adventures are also fully guided and planned, not just add-on options. We also have built-in photo workshops that help participants document and share the causes we are helping in a compelling way.

I developed the concept to fill a void that was missing between voluntourism and adventure travel. Since then, I've noticed several companies also trying to jump in and capitalize on this niche but they are either voluntourism companies that offer some add-on adventure or adventure companies that offer add-on volunteer options. Our organization has combined the two from the very beginning.

The National Geographic Channel's series DogTown kicks off its third season tonight, Friday, March 20th, at 10 p.m. The series examines the important and emotional work of the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, among the largest no-kill animal shelters in the U.S., as it houses, treats, and seeks permanent homes for dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, goats, pigs, parrots, and other domestic animals. Best Friends is often these animals' last hope as many are tough to adopt due to advanced age, shyness, or medical conditions.
  
Best Friends is set on 33,000 acres in southern Utah's Red Rock canyon country, not too far from what's appropriately called the Golden Circle of parks: the Grand Canyon (about 75 miles away), Zion (25 miles), Bryce (60 miles), Lake Powell (65 miles), and the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park (10 miles). Best Friends, about a four-hour drive from Las Vegas, welcomes visitors and offers eight spacious guest cottages for those dropping by. You can even spend the night with a dog or cat from Best Friends if you're thinking of adopting; they provide the supplies and kibble, too. Camping is also available on their extensive grounds and there are some pet-friendly hotels in town in Kanab. Beyond a day visit and tagging along on one of the four, 1-1/2 hour tours offered daily, it's possible to stay a little longer to volunteer to help feed the animals, clean enclosures, assist with grooming, and even take Fido for a stroll and play fetch.

If you're planning a trip in out West this summer, consider stopping by Best Friends to check out DogTown (or Cat World, Horse Haven, even Piggie Paradise) yourself. My dear friend Jill Williams, a Pennsylvania native like yours truly, did just that for two weeks five years ago and was so moved by the important work of Best Friends and the sheer beauty of the place that she now lives in Kanab with her husband and son; they both work for Best Friends (she as part of their Guardian Angel program), and her family of three humans, three dogs, and three cats love it. She tells me she can't imagine a more beautiful place.

Photos: Left, National Geographic Channel; Right, Jill Williams

Fact-checking our upcoming April edition of Smart Traveler on voluntourism put me in touch with African Impact's Jolene Harris, the company's South Africa and Mozambique destination manager and marketing assistant. We chatted about African Impact, the volunteer work it facilitates for travelers to Africa, and what makes it special.

First off, can you please tell us a bit about African Impact and what it does? 

African Impact started in 2004 by local Zimbabweans who recognized an increasing desire by international travelers to give back and do some meaningful work when they vacation. African Impact has offices in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya and we have just branched out to South Africa. Over the last five years, African Impact has placed over 2,000 volunteers, with numbers growing each year. 2008 saw nearly 800 volunteers placed in eight countries on over 20 projects.

I notice you coordinate a wide array of volunteer opportunities: from lion, whale shark, manta ray, and black rhino conservation to assisting at clinics and fostering HIV/AIDS awareness as well as educational programs. What are some of your most popular projects?
 
Our most popular project would be our oldest and biggest which is the Lion Rehabilitation Project in Gweru, Zimbabwe. There are several more that receive large numbers of volunteers, namely our Livingstone Medical Project in Zambia, the Conservation and Photography Project in South Africa, and our Teaching and Community Project in Zanzibar. 

Contributing Writer Cathy Healy sorts out how one person's trash can turn into the trip of a lifetime.

The Pope flew into New York on the same day that Adi Carter was flying out, so TSA was tense. Two guards called her over and started to search her luggage. "What's this?" demanded one guard, pulling out a bag filled with 10 pounds of crumpled plastic and cardboard.

TSA relaxed as the traveling yoga teacher explained that this was all of her trash (not garbage, not junk mail) for the past three months. Adi was on a double campaign: To inspire everyone she met to stop being so wasteful-she'd cut her own trash by nearly five times-and to raise $20,000 for the Cambodian Children's Fund, which shelters and educates children who were living in garbage dumps.

 "You're amazing, girl!" said one guard, waving Adi through. "Go save the planet."

They didn't know the half of it.

I feel like I've been hopping on flights nonstop over the last few weeks, and despite dealing with some airport struggles and the knowledge that I need to tally up my carbon footprint, I attribute a continuous spring in my step to my new travel shoes: Toms. Produced in factories that pay their workers a fair wage, these incredibly lightweight canvas shoes collapse into nothing in a suitcase. And for every pair you buy, they donate a pair to kids in need—so far, 10,000 pairs in Argentina and 50,000 in South Africa. Toms have a leather-lined sole that's surprisingly supportive, great for biking or wandering the streets during your travels. And their slip-on design is great for airport check-in lines. They're available in a variety of colors (like my cute polka-dot numbers), and the Toms team encourages you to buy their plain white kicks and decorate them yourself.

Apparently these shoes also encourage traveling: While poking around their website, I noticed that they plan to give away 200,000 pair of shoes around the world this year, and they accept applications from people who want to travel with them on their international "Shoe-Drops." They've also created a promotion team called the "Vagabonds," that will travel the country visiting college campuses, high schools, and communities, spreading the word about these cool shoes (and their spring semester team is still accepting applications).

Photo: Janelle models her Toms at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Catherine Pearson, a former intern at Traveler, has been researching the rise of volunteer vacations. She spoke with one family who was the test case for a new family voluntourism program, and learned a bit about how to roast marshmallows over molten lava.

When the Delange family arrived in Guatemala for their volunteer vacation with Global Vision International (GVI), a UK-based volunteer organization, they were greeted by a mudslide.

"It was a bad welcome," says Alex, the mother, and she admits that she wondered what she had gotten them into. The unseasonably heavy rains continued into the trip, but Alex considered it a success. After all, they hadn't planned on having a typical vacation.

Alex, her husband, Greg, and their three teenagers recently spent a week in Antigua, Guatemala, staying with a host family and building stoves for other families in a nearby town. Although many organizations offer volunteer vacations for families, the Delanges' trip was a first—both for them and their sponsor organization, GVI. The trip met Alex's three criteria: It was short-term, provided Spanish immersion, and made a quick, visible difference. 

GVI now offers this stove-building opportunity for families with children 12 and older. In two days, volunteers build a cement, block and brick energy-efficient stove to replace open cooking fires in the village. This change decreases smoke inhalation, burns, hours of gathering wood, and deforestation for the community.

National Geographic KIDS staffer Allie Carroll tells us about a culinary voluntourism organization called CulinaryCorps, which her sister, a chef, founded in 2007:

On June 1st, volunteer cooks from around the country will travel to New Orleans, Louisiana, to promote good will through good food. The trip is spearheaded by CulinaryCorps, a non-profit organization that designs, organizes, and launches affordable volunteer outreach experiences for culinary professionals. At present, CulinaryCorps focuses its trips on the rebuilding and culinary renaissance of New Orleans, and this June marks CulinaryCorps' fifth trip to the city since March 2007. 

The ambitious, week-long itinerary is built upon partnerships with local organizations working at the intersection of community and food. On the first day of the trip, the CulinaryCorps team of 14 talented chefs will test their mettle by cooking the evening meal for over 500 volunteers at Habitat for Humanity's Camp Hope. The next day, the volunteers will collaborate with Edible Schoolyard NOLA to help launch an "Edible Afternoon," a day of tasty field-day challenges for students at the Samuel Green Charter School. The CulinaryCorps itinerary also includes opportunities for volunteers to learn first-hand about the food culture so important to the city, including a dinner with Gumbo Tales author Sara Roahen, a crawfish boil with Slow Food convivium leader Poppy Tooker, and an early morning stop at Pearl River Blues Farm for fresh blueberries and okra.  The week concludes with volunteer work at two very special events: the "Taste of Mississippi" fundraiser for the Mississippi Slow Food convivium, and the Gala Opening of the much-anticipated Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans.

Read More: Emily Haile blogged about the New Orleans Culinary Comeback after Hurricane Katrina. Traci Angel wrote about her experiences as a voluntourist with Hands on New Orleans. And check out our list of volunteer groups who welcome visitors throughout New Orleans.

Mount Rainier National Park

If there's anything I miss the most about living on the West Coast, it's the mountains. Sure, D.C.'s got the nearby Appalachians (I visit Shenandoah National Park as often as possible in summer), but there's nothing like looking out your Pacific Northwest window and seeing snow-capped peaks in every direction (Seattle is blessed with the Olympics to the west and the Cascades to the east).

The American Hiking Society has a solution for folks like me who live in a city where the mountains aren't quite at your doorstep. The AHS offers weeklong Volunteer Vacations in 25 states (and even the Virgin Islands) from February through November every year, for hiking gurus, beginners, and everyone in between who are capable of doing trail maintenance. Best of all, their website allows you to search for the volunteer tour that might work best for you. Just select your state, difficulty level, what kind of accommodation you prefer (even the avid backpacker likes a comfortable cabin every once in a while), and age range (from family friendly to 21+).

Scotland wins the Homeless World Cup 2007 in Copenhagen

For those who can't wait for the soccer World Cup in 2010 in South Africa, there's a different type of World Cup going on this year Down Under.

This year, Melbourne is hosting the annual the Homeless World Cup, an international event featuring 500 footy players from 48 countries. The catch? Every one of the competitors is homeless.

The Homeless World Cup began in 2003, when The Big Issue magazine founder Mel Young decided it was time to take action and change the lives of homeless people worldwide through an internationally loved sport. According to Young, 75 percent of homeless participants give up drug and alcohol dependence and find jobs or go to school after the competitions are over. About 25,000 homeless people participate in soccer events around the world before the top teams are invited in attend the annual World Cup.

Voluntour group Hands Up Holidays offers a 17-day trip (November 29-December 15) that combines sightseeing on Australia's east coast with volunteering at the Homeless World Cup. From November 29 to December 7, participants will work at the World Cup, doing various projects ranging from coordinating the media and catering to working in the locker rooms. After the World Cup is over, participants will get one day to enjoy Melbourne before flying to Sydney for a few days and then on to Cairns (to see the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest). The voluntour adventure officially ends on December 15, with options to extend your stay (about $3,200).

Hands Up Tours offers plenty of other voluntour trips around the world, like teaching English in China or Romania, helping AIDS/HIV relief in Ghana, and even combining honeymoons with volunteer projects!

For more information visit HandsUpHolidays.com.

Photo: Homeless World Cup

On Monday, Traci Angel gave us her impressions from her experience as a "voluntourist" in New Orleans. Today, she offers up a list of places where you too can help. Projects are always in flux, depending on necessary work and resources. Be sure to plan in advance and check for availability.

Acorn — The Association of Organizations for Community Reform Now. Focuses on the Ninth Ward’s rebuilding efforts.

Catholic Charities — Meets temporary needs of poor.

Common Ground Relief — “Solidarity not Charity” is their motto.

Habitat for Humanity — Builds and rebuilds homes.

Hands On — “Be the change. Volunteer” is the motto for this rehab organization.

IMPACT Ministries — They clean and gut homes and serve area families.

Parkway Partners — Restores urban landscape and trees.

Rebuilding Together — Is part of the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans, which helps restore historic neighborhoods.

Presbytery of South Louisiana — Cleans and guts homes throughout New Orleans neighborhoods.

And if the thought of bunk beds on vacation doesn’t appeal to you, the W Hotel in New Orleans has a limited offer deal that includes box lunches and work gloves during the labor portion of your stay and cocktails and spa amenities at the day’s end. Ten percent of the room charge also goes to Hands On New Orleans.

Photo: Pontchartrain Sunset, by Joseph Kennedy via the Intelligent Travel Flickr pool

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When we asked for your voluntourism experiences reader and travel blogger Anna Etmanska sent us a note about her do-it-yourself voluntour trips. Intrigued, we asked her to tell us a bit more about breaking out of the organized tour.

I know voluntourism has recently become more trendy, but even I was surprised when a recent Travelocity poll claimed that 38% of Americans plan to get down and dirty doing good deeds on their vacations this year. The industry took notice as well, with tour operators and non-profits of all shapes and sizes jumping on the bandwagon, and now there are a variety of organizations eager to take your time and money (all for a good cause, of course).

How, doing what, and where you choose to volunteer is entirely up to you. Do you prefer a specific area of the world? Will you survive without running water and flush toilets? Can you, if not speak, then at least get by in a foreign language? And which one? What do you want to do? Teach English? Dig ditches? Restore narrow-gauge train tracks? For one week? Or one year?

Weeding through the myriad of volunteer options can be daunting. It was to me. With no money for a program fee (“And why should I pay to work for free?” I thought) and a morbid fear of a long-term Peace Corps-type commitment, my first voluntour happened accidentally. A friend of a friend’s aunt ran an orphanage in Guinea-Bissau. “Wow! Cool! Can I visit?” I asked. “Can you work?” she answered.

For six weeks that summer, I drove a beat-up Toyota truck on non-existent roads delivering food supplies in one of the poorest countries in the world. I returned home with a vicious case of malaria and a desire to do it again.

Though it takes time and effort, you can arrange to voluntour on your own. Start with doing your homework.

We recently asked for your voluntourism stories, and were glad to hear from Traci Angel, a health and science freelance journalist from Columbia, Missouri, just back from a trip with Hands on New Orleans.

Scratch, scratch, scratch. Scheesh, sheesh, boom, boom. BOOM. Sheeesh. Sheesh. Three hours crawled by as we heaved and lunged our bodies against small hand blades to scrape away paint from an entryway of New Orleans’ Pierre A. Capdeau School. The peeled areas were about to be replaced with a newer, and brighter, baby-blue hue.

This is not your typical vacation.

In late February, I was working with the volunteer organization Hands On New Orleans. We’d come like so many others have — to help out as tourists.

Pierre A. Capdau, a charter school, was closed for four months following Hurricane Katrina while officials ensured the classrooms could pass health inspections. More than two years later, the school and surrounding Gentilly neighborhood continue to rebuild. Across the street from the playground, a huge dumpster spilled over with broken furniture. A man stood on a ladder applying a bold gold paint to a house’s front porch. The house next door was vacant, still scarred with spray paint markings that symbolized rescuers’ efforts (date checked/occupants recovered) after the hurricane. I felt better seeing “0” in the markings, indicating number of people found inside during the weeks that followed Katrina. Maybe those who lived there have started anew elsewhere.

Our hands cramped from repeatedly whacking at the hardened paint. Shirts came untucked. Sweat dripped as the temperature climbed inside the cramped hallways. Exhausted, we looked at each other through the smoky cloud of dust that grew denser with our clamoring. Then I heard another sound. It came from the piano nearby that was dotted with paint chippings. Don, don, don. Don, da, don, da, don, da. Don, don don don....A volunteer college student played “Heart and Soul"(the song from the huge piano that Tom Hanks plays with his feet in “Big”). Its happy, catchy two-part harmony rose above our banging.

We discovered Hands On New Orleans after we learned that the better-known Habitat for Humanity was full on the dates we would be in town. Hands On operates out of a volunteer center that can bunk volunteers and sees many college groups looking for alternate break options. Americorps groups from across the country take turns staffing the projects.