These volunteer organizations have websites which provide excellent information in deciding whether what they do might be inline with your skills or values. Each website has a lot of ways in which to get in contact with the organization, common questions from people thinking about volunteering and even ways to get in touch with people who are currently volunteering or have done in the past.

1. GreenFORCE
www.greenforce.org GreenFORCE was started by Marcus Watts in 1997 with an old Land Rover and some dedicated volunteers. There is a global need to protect the diversity of life on planet Earth, and GreenFORCE’s volunteers are leading the way. A member of the IUCN, World Conservation Union, GreenFORCE only works in countries in which they are invited, and work closely with the local people.

2. Volunteer Africa
www.volunteerafrica.org is the website for Volunteer Africa – an organization that is dedicated to trying to improve the lives of rural Africans. They have done a lot of work in Tanzania, like building schools and working on bringing clean water to areas where there is none. They are registered in the United Kingdom, but accept applicants from all over the world (and have done, successfully), and were set up in 2002. There are plenty of ways to get in contact with them, but the primary way of doing so is via Email (the coordinator for the organization is in New Zealand). People joining this program must be able to commit for periods of 4, 7 or 10 weeks (1 week training and the rest of the time, on the project).

3. Earth Watch
www.earthwatch.org is the website of the Earth Watch Institute. It offers people of all walks of life and all ages the opportunity to volunteer in many different places on Earth. These options vary slightly depending on where in the world you live, and there are fees to pay (mainly for accommodation). As the name suggests, Earth watch is primarily concerned with conservation. Activities such as helping to excavate a rural Thai village in the South East of Asia or measuring climate change in the Arctic are available. Be aware that the further you wish to travel, the more you will pay with this organization.

4. Peace Corps
www.peacecorps.gov Peace Corps is a well-known organization which asks volunteers to go to overseas communities to help with education, environment, and agriculture among other things. The organisation has been around for 5 decades, and in that time has helped countless people. It is an American institution, but because it is American, only naturalised citizens are able to apply. If you meet the criteria though, there are amazing opportunities to be had from such a large organization. Something that is not that common amongst other volunteer organizations is that the Peace corps will actually reimburse you for your time. The fee is not very significant, but there could be a real opportunity to come back home with more money than you went out with.

5. Volunteer Latin America
www.volunteerlatinamerica.com is a website that lists South and Centreal American opportunities for volunteer work. Grass roots volunteering is the order of the day here. Volunteer Latin America’s mission is to help protect Latin America’s flora and fauna, its biodiversity, and to offer the most cost effective way to become an environmental or humanitarian volunteer in Central or South America.

All of these organizations have some minimum requirements for volunteers looking to join them. A minimum age of 18 years applies, as does the requirement that people are medically able to travel and that their doctor has no problems with them going abroad for a possibly extended amount of time. There are also certain medical conditions that these organizations are unable to cope with (more details are on the various web sites above). Criminal checks will need to be carried out and a high standard of English is required (to enable adequate communication amongst volunteers and organizers).

Hopefully from this list you will get a feeling of what volunteer abroad opportunities are available for you and what they entail – from doing research on rain forest depopulation to helping small rural communities in Tanzania. You should also have what you need to do to get in contact with these organizations. Good luck!