The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life

397 Pages·2009·2.66 MB·English

by  Pam Grout

the 100 best
volunteer vacations
to enrich your life
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the 100 best
volunteer vacations
to enrich your life
PAM GROUT
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Published by the National Geographic Society
1145 17th Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20036-4688
Copyright © 2009 Pam Grout. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the
National Geographic Society, 1145 17th Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036-
4688.
ISBN: 978-1-42620529-3
The information in this book has been carefully checked and to the best of our
knowledge is accurate. However, details are subject to change, and the National
Geographic Society cannot be responsible for such changes, or for errors or
omissions. Assessments of sites, hotels, and restaurants are based on the author’s
subjective opinions, which do not necessarily reflect the publisher’s opinion. The
publisher cannot be responsible for any consequences arising from the use of this
book.
Founded in 1888, the National Geographic Society is one of the largest
nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. It reaches more
than 285 million people worldwide each month through its official journal,
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, and its four other magazines; the National Geographic
Channel; television documentaries; radio programs; films; books; videos and
DVDs; maps; and interactive media. National Geographic has funded more than
8,000 scientific research projects and supports an education program combating
geographic illiteracy.
For more information, please call 1-800-NGS LINE (647-5463) or write to the
following address: National Geographic Society, 1145 17th Street N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20036-4688 U.S.A.
Visit us online at: www.nationalgeographic.com
contents
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE
north america & the caribbean
CHAPTER TWO
central & south america
CHAPTER THREE
europe
CHAPTER FOUR
middle east
CHAPTER FIVE
africa
CHAPTER SIX
asia
CHAPTER SEVEN
australia & around
VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATIONS
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is for everyone who believes
a better world is possible and can feel a better,
more loving, more peaceful world rising up.
introduction
This is the moment when we must come together to save this
planet.
—Barack Obama, then-candidate for President of the United
States, in Berlin, July 2008
Call it the Al Gore Factor, the Katrina Effect, or simply the impulse to have an
authentic experience not listed in a typical brochure, but more and more people
are combining volunteering with traveling. And it’s not just high-profile
celebrities like George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, and Hilary Swank—who went
to Palampur, India, to teach at an orphanage after her 2006 divorce—who are
abandoning their bubble of luxury to lend assistance to folks in developing
countries.
According to a 2008 survey by the University of California, San Diego, 40
percent of Americans would like to volunteer while on vacation, and another 13
percent are ready to devote an entire year to hopping on a plane and providing
goodwill.
The reasons for wanting to volunteer vary. Some do it to gain experience, to
add some heft to the old resumé. Others want to test themselves or to act out a
fantasy. Still others are tired of waiting for their government to act. They want to
stand up and be counted. Now.
But the thing all volunteer vacations share? They shed light. They give us a
more realistic picture of the world. Suffice it to say, the nightly news does not
provide an accurate lens through which to view our planet. Most news reports
are one reporter’s opinion, a sliver of life that one cameraman stumbled onto and
captured in one four-minute time slot.
Even people who travel—people who have ticked off, say, the Taj Mahal and
the Arc de Triomphe on their life lists—don’t always have a realistic vantage
point. Fancy hotel chains have set up mini-Americas all over the world. You can
go to Costa Rica and check into the San José Marriott without ever realizing that
the kids in the village down the road play soccer with plastic bags they tied