A lowdown on volunteer tourism

Do vacations have to be about relaxing and spending time at luxurious places all the time? At least I don't think so. For me every travel opportunity is about learning something new. One holiday season that is universally same is probably the Christmas break. It is the time when everyone travels out to some place. It couldn't be a family vacation because my hubby being with the airlines, could not manage leave. So it was just me and my 6 year old.

I thought why not, try out volunteer travel.  In other words it is  a type of travel where you work towards some cause and get to travel at the same time.  Mostly catering to the gap year students, volunteer travel is a cheap and effective way of exploring a country. Many places pay a small sum for your work, while many others just provide food and shelter. More than exploring a place and contributing to a cause, it offers great experience for bonding with lots of people and serves as a learning experience. This concept is quite popular outside India and is gradually picking up roots here too. Many international organisations provide help in finding projects that one might be interested in.

So what do you do on a volunteer holiday? You could teach, work at a farm, working with underprivileged children or orphans, promote a sport, afforestation, organic farming or help in spiritual training, the opportunities are numerous. This link provides a wide range of possible opportunities in India.  

From the entire list I chose some closest to Bangalore. Many places require you to write in many months in advance and book your slot. Auroville in Pondicherry, offers lot of volunteering opportunities and one such place was Sadhana Forest. Here, volunteers are welcome all through the year without no restriction on the maximum number of volunteers. I filled up an form on their website and immediately they responded back saying that they welcome volunteering families. They were also kind enough to reserve a private hut for us on prior intimation. Sadhana is involved in reforestation of 70acres severely eroded land near Moratandi village. It aims to recreate the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest.

Accommodation for volunteers is in exchange for a 25 hour work week with additional community shifts which consists of cooking meals and cleaning after meals. Volunteers mainly plant, mulch, and water trees during the season, work on water conservation in the forest and around the community, work in their little vegan-organic vegetable garden, maintain the community area, and spend time with the community kids. Volunteers are free in the afternoons and evenings, which could be used to explore Auroville and the nearby Pondicherry. Weekends could be reserved for a little further off places like Thiruvannamalai or Mahabalipuram.

This was my attempt to provide a peek into community living, the importance of green cover on earth and the ways to build it up to my son.