About Volunteering

Gap Year Volunteering Experiences

Volunteer abroad – a great way to make the most of your travels, whether you’re on a gap year, holiday or career break. Our volunteers often merit their volunteering experience with us as the absolute highlight of their travels! Worldwide Experience’s diverse portfolio of meaningful projects offer the opportunity to settle into a local community, make friends, save money and above all help the environment and those in need of your efforts and skills. We offer such volunteering placements in several countries and all of our projects have similar conservation objectives and aims to ours. We support their initiatives through the recruitment of volunteers from around the world to work on diverse projects.

Where to begin?

With so many volunteering options out there, it can be overwhelming to decide which project to support. Start by browsing through our handpicked portfolio of projects and make a short list of ones that catch your interest. Then research the destinations to understand a bit more about your chosen project and what you’ll be able to do there when you’re not volunteering. Make sure the project matches what you have in mind for your travels. Give us a call, and our friendly and experienced team will gladly talk you through the projects you’re interested in and help place you with the project that’s best for you!

While our volunteer abroad opportunities are one of the most exciting things about travelling for most people, others may be asking themselves ‘why volunteer?’ Here are just a few of many valid reasons:

• With our vetted Worldwide Experience projects, you will be making a real difference in a safe and supervised environment
• You will gain invaluable experience (which will look great on your CV)
• Your experience of the destination be authentic, especially as you access the culture in a way most don’t
• You will experience personal growth as you step outside your comfort zone and try new things
• You will have an unforgettable experience!

Why pay to volunteer?

People often ask why they should have to pay for the opportunity to help others when they volunteer abroad. You are in fact not paying to undertake voluntary work, you are paying for Worldwide Experience and our project partners to provide a framework for a safe, meaningful and structured programme. There are costs involved in hosting our volunteers, from 24-hour volunteer support, administration and communication costs, financial protection of your money, programme inspections, transport, accommodation and meals, staff support and upkeep of facilities to mention a few. All of our gap year placement programmes have been formulated with the assistance of the Worldwide Experience team, to give you the best possible experience, wherever you may volunteer abroad. All projects are run by specialists in their field who are specifically trained to impart their skills and experience.

While the success of any volunteering operation depends the presence of committed volunteers, our vital conservation and development work cannot be effectively achieved without expertise plus financial and administrative support. Volunteer fees are essential to help continue project work during quiet seasons when there is typically less volunteer support.

At Worldwide Experience one of our primary values is transparency. We show you the use of these fees towards providing structured volunteering experiences that actually make a difference when you volunteer abroad.

The following image provides an average breakdown of our project’s volunteering fees:

Volunteer Programme Fees - Average Breakdown