Volunteer Vacations are nothing new; in fact mission trips have been popular for many years. Secular families, however, don't often realize there's a way of combing volunteering and vacationing without religion. Think of it as "Being good for goodness' sake." Cross-Cultural Solutions plans and organizes volunteer vacations for families and individuals. Help Exchange connects volunteers with helping holiday opportunities all over the world.
Volunteer Vacations for Families
Cross-Cultural Solutions offers volunteer vacations for families. Families including children age 8 and up can sign up for 1-2 week trips throughout Europe, Africa, Russia, Asia and South America helping care for orphans and the elderly, teaching English, repairing hospitals and clinics, and delivering donated supplies. As a bonus, they spend time learning about the indigenous culture first-hand, and making memories.
CCS provides meals, tour guides and leisure-time activities for volunteers, and schedules tours all over the world regularly, with several recurring visits to the same area, for long term projects. CCS charges for their program, to cover the cost of the services they provide.
Free Working Vacations
Help Exchange is a web service that helps connect travelers all over the world with people who need help. The jobs vary, on a recent browse of titles, there were sheep shearing jobs in Australia, strawberry picking in the UK, hiking trail maintenance in Colorado and Dairy Farm help needed in Texas. Help Exchange charges nothing to register for the website and browse opportunities, but specific contact information is only available to premium members, membership is less than $30 a year.
Some opportunities would be appropriate for families traveling with teens. Unique to Help Exchange is that visitors are offering their help in exchange for room and board. Five hours of labor each day earn three home cooked meals and a leisurely visit with the hosts. Most hosts will keep families over the weekend, but every agreement is made between the family and the host directly.
Vacation on a Farm
Farming vacations are popular with families who have small children. In fact, agri-tourism is the quickest growing segment of the tourism market, mainly due to the growth of regional wine-tasting cultures. The Maple Hill Farm Bed and Breakfast in Augusta, Maine is a working farm, with chickens, goats, a cow, several sheep and llamas. Visitors are welcome to relax on the porch all day watching birds or help with the chores. They have an art gallery on site and there's plenty of hiking, history and recreation in the area.
Planning a helping holiday with children, whether it's with a large group like Cross Cultural Solutions, or on one's own terms with the Help Exchange, is sure to be a memorable experience that Disneyland just can't duplicate. Working together and learning about another lifestyle up-close-and-personal can help kids gain perspective into their own life. As one Cross-Cultural Solutions volunteer put it; “I never realized how lucky I was.”
Lisa Russell - Lisa Russell is a freelance writer and mom of six daughters. She blogs about their life at lisarussell.org
