Voluntary work with children
Doing some voluntary work with children is an extremely rewarding way to ‘give something back' to some of the countries you visit on your career break travel. It's always important to remember that being able to travel on a career break is an immense privilege that many of the people you encounter on your travels can only ever dream of experiencing. Voluntary work with children is an excellent means of being a responsible tourist and making a positive and valuable contribution to those less fortunate than yourself on your gap year. If you travel in Third World countries on a gap year it's a sad, but inevitable, fact of life that you will encounter some extreme poverty on your travels - and it's not always easy to know what to do in such situations. Voluntary work abroad with children enables you to make real a difference to other peoples' lives rather than just visiting a place and simply ‘looking the other way.'
It's important to stress that voluntary work with children is also a great deal of fun. The people you meet when you do some voluntary work with children - both the children themselves and the project leaders - tend to be inspirational with their constant optimism and spirit in the face of adversity. Two common phrases we hear from travellers who have returned home from doing some voluntary work with children is that it was a ‘real life-changing experience' and ‘really helped put my own problems in perspective.'
Voluntary work with children is also a great way to meet both local people and fellow like-minded travellers. When you do some voluntary work with children you inevitably get to know local people and their culture on a far more meaningful level than if you had simply passed through the country on a sight-seeing tour. Indeed most people return home from doing some voluntary work with children having forged some new, life-long friendships.
Although it's fun and rewarding voluntary work with children can also, of course, be both challenging and hard work at times. Travellers who do voluntary work with children are expected to ‘pull their weight' and not simply turn up for the odd day when they feel like it! With this in mind it's important to choose a ‘Voluntary work with children' programme that you are particularly passionate about. We have a diverse range of ‘Voluntary work with children' programmes all over the world and it's worth spending some time reading up on all of them on our website. Alternatively, if you would prefer to discuss the various options for voluntary work with children with someone in person, you can also chat to one of Real Gap's team of expert travel advisers.
One thing you could consider if you plan to do some voluntary work with children is career break fundraising through sponsorship to contribute towards funding your project. For example you could raise funds for your voluntary work with children by training for a sporting event such as a marathon, selling home-made cakes at work or - if you are on a career break sabbatical and returning to the same job - asking your employers to make a donation.
In order to provide a few inspirational ideas here are just three examples of rewarding ‘Voluntary work with children' career break projects you could get involved with…
Voluntary work with children - South Africa
Hundreds of children live on the streets in the beautiful city of Cape Town Real Gap has a superb programme in which volunteers work with these street kids in order to try and provide them with a brighter future.
Voluntary work with children - Mongolia
If you want to really travel ‘off the beaten track' you could head to the remote country of Mongolia and get involved with a day centre caring for poor or orphaned adolescents.
Voluntary work with children - Kenya
Many children in Africa have been orphaned as a result of the continent's AIDS epidemic and volunteers on the ‘Kenya Community Outreach Programme' help provide vital support to some of these children.
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