Volunteer work

[brendanrtw]

My girlfriend and I are thinking about doing some volunteer conservation work somewhere next year for a few months. I know there are tons of site that facilitate this kind of thing, but we are a bit worried that we might pick one which is more focused on the sun and beaches and less on the actual research itself. I've seen a few sites, and some of them appear quite commercial.

Has anyone had any experiences ... positive or otherwise that they'd like to share, or perhaps make a recommendation?

Thanks

Thanks!

 

[hbscuba]

Nice idea! You might want to go to the PADI. The Way The World Learns to Dive sight and email the people at Project AWARE. They have been helpful to me in the past. Best fishes!

 

[lmorin]

Look at Reef.org. They run programs that depend on volunteers.

 

[Coelacanth]

Do you mean strictly diving-oriented volunteer work or conservation in general?

Personally I've worked in Guatemala through this site and found the program very conservation oriented. They offer programs in many different areas and both Volunteer Adventures and the program in Guatemala did a pretty good job of preparing us for what we were getting into. It was a wonderful experience, if holding raccoons and playing with margays is your kind of thing.

If you want one that specifically contains diving, however, GVI seems to offer quite a few (search scuba as a keyword, plenty of awesome looking programs come up). I have never done a program through GVI but am looking into it.

Many of these programs are only hosted by these sites, not run by them, so you can probably save money signing up directly with the program and cutting out the host site. And if you decide to do a program that does not involve diving, you will almost certainly get time off and would be able to take a weekend to explore the local waters.

These trips are much more fun and rewarding than being a tourist, and you get to meet people from all over. There were actually a lot more people from all over Europe than I would have thought, and only a few other Americans; of course the locals are awesome as well. Hope you have a great adventure!

 

[brendanrtw]

Do you mean strictly diving-oriented volunteer work or conservation in general?

Personally I've worked in Guatemala through this site and found the program very conservation oriented. They offer programs in many different areas and both Volunteer Adventures and the program in Guatemala did a pretty good job of preparing us for what we were getting into. It was a wonderful experience, if holding raccoons and playing with margays is your kind of thing.

If you want one that specifically contains diving, however, GVI seems to offer quite a few (search scuba as a keyword, plenty of awesome looking programs come up). I have never done a program through GVI but am looking into it.

Many of these programs are only hosted by these sites, not run by them, so you can probably save money signing up directly with the program and cutting out the host site. And if you decide to do a program that does not involve diving, you will almost certainly get time off and would be able to take a weekend to explore the local waters.

These trips are much more fun and rewarding than being a tourist, and you get to meet people from all over. There were actually a lot more people from all over Europe than I would have thought, and only a few other Americans; of course the locals are awesome as well. Hope you have a great adventure!

Thanks Coelacanth .... really good feedback. We do want to do diving specifically if we can. Reefs have given us so much joy over the years, and we'd really like to give something back (and see lots of nices fishes along the way of course!)

GVI was one of the companies I was looking into also. Anyone out there used them before?

 

[brendanrtw]

How about Greenforce?