Does volunteering on vacation make sense?

Behind the volunteer short-term assignments is often the desire to spend part of the time of the holiday useful to want to create. For many travelers, just being a tourist on vacation is no longer enough. Instead, you want to get involved and offer short-term help where it is needed.

By helping out in volunteer projects, one also hopes to gain a new perspective on the host country, one would like to perceive it more intensively and learn more about the learn about culture and ways of life, On the one hand, one is content and enjoys the expected comforts of his vacation, on the other, one experiences the land and its people more from their perspective and becomes faced with problems such as poverty and pollution. This opens up a completely new perspective on both sides of the country, which are sometimes difficult to unite.

Combine volunteering and vacation, however, also brings problems! For the organization and the recipient institution, but also for a positively motivated volunteer, a short assignment can bring disadvantages that do not occur in long-term voluntary work.

Especially in social projects we do not recommend any assignments lasting less than four weeks. Constantly changing caregivers can be very stressful, especially for children. Voluntourists usually have little time to really familiarize themselves with the project. To the to take on responsible and important tasks, you are not in the project long enough.

Without sufficient preparation in advance, the Difference between the usual standard and the eventual poverty on site shocking and frustrating or so-called culture shock .

Unfortunately, providers of short-term voluntourism offers often lack the necessary awareness, so their advice rarely goes beyond that for a purely tourist travel product. Specific preparation seminars for prospective volunteers, the willingness to create the right expectations among the participants and an appropriate exchange with the receiving projects in order to be able to offer meaningful support on site, are often sought in vain there.

Thus, holidaymakers who engage themselves must ensure adequate preparation and follow-up work. Such rather unpleasant experiences can have a demotivating effect and overshadow the holiday with a negative feeling, and in the worst case even have a negative effect on the local people.

Our recommendation, which is also shared by experts, is to prefer volunteering as a full volunteer to working on vacation.

Anyone who still would like to combine his or her holiday with a volunteer work, we recommend a project to choose in which even a brief use makes sense. Here, for example, offers a ecological volunteering, a use in animal welfare, in one craft project or participation in one work camp

Volunteer work in the field of environmental protection deals with, among other things species protection. Here, for example, forests can be reforested and beaches can be freed from dangerous plastic waste. Animal shelters and sanctuaries need help with feeding and cleaning, or building cages and outdoor enclosures.

Another method of reconciling vacation and voluntary service on vacation is the strict separation of times. Best practice here is to devote yourself to voluntary service first, and then to another Trip to do - for example an extra week vacation at the beach or a safari. As a result, the two experiences abroad are experienced separately and the probability that it will lead to the negative side effects described is greatly reduced.

Anyone who decides to do so is fully committed to one Volunteering abroad getting involved will definitely benefit. A good preparation and carefully selected projects of highest importance.

Therefore, RGV pays special attention to volunteers ready to go! With a lot of personal advice, preparatory seminars and over 20 years of expertise in the field of volunteer work, we provide detailed information about the host country and the volunteer sites. On site, too, an RGV team is always ready to guide new volunteers and introduce them to their country and the project. We also make sure that by using volunteers no jobs in the country of assignment are endangered.

Would you like to support one of our projects with a volunteer work? Then choose your dream project from our wide range now! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us here.

Our teams in Europe, Latin America, Oceania, Africa and Asia are already looking forward to your assignment!