Volunteer Travel – Experience Cultures and Make a Difference

There is nothing cooler than having a gap year between high school and university or between university and life. Possibilities are endless and, I know, spending a year on daddy’s luxury yacht, consuming an astonishing amount of alcohol may be very appealing. But why that, when you can go to some place where you can make a real difference?

Go volunteering, see the most exotic countries and have real interaction with real people. Don’t get me wrong, waiters and hotel managers are also real people, but then again that might not really give you true insight into what life in a different country is like … let’s just say staying at a 5 star hotel may give you a distorted picture of the place you are at.

 Take a backpack – not a very big one -, put in the necessary, only the most  essential pieces of travel gear and choose a place that you are interested in and then look for organizations that offer volunteer programs?  It’s about your experience there and what difference you’ll be able to make. There are plenty of these:  long term and short term programs from China to Madagascar, whatever and wherever you want!

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