Travel and work with local communities to protect endangered species, enhance the local environment and support the social and economic wellbeing of the communities we visit.

Often we pass through a country without ever sitting down with a local, understanding their life and lending a hand. Spending time to assist the local people in the developing world, to survive, rebuild or protect their natural wilderness is a precious gift and can be an unforgettable experience.

How to do it now!

Volunteering projects or assignments to assist people or environments in developing countries comes in all types, durations and locations. Here are some sites to get you started:

• Universal Giving  
  (Everyone - developing countries) – Universal Giving is a social entrepreneurship non-profit organisation dedicated to making giving and volunteering a natural part of everyday life. (Arts, Children, Conflict Resolution, Disaster Relief, Economic Development, Education, Environment, Gender & Equality, Health, Human Rights, Microfinance, Poverty, Technology.)

• World Youth International  
  (Youth (18 -30) - Kenya, Uganda, Peru, Nepal, Cambodia and Laos) - WYI builds community development projects and has opened a community school in Nepal which currently has over 300 students and two children's homes in both Nepal and Kenya. (Children, Economic Development, Education, Gender & Equality)

• Australian Volunteers International  
  (Qualified skills - developing countries) - Australian Volunteers International (AVI) recruits volunteers to share skills and build relationships with people of developing communities. (Children, Education, Environment, Gender & Equality, Health, Human Rights, Poverty)

• Global Vision  
  ( Everyone - developing countries) - Adventurous individuals can join over 150 projects including challenging Marine Conservation and Wildlife Research expeditions in Africa and Latin America and volunteer teaching and wildlife projects in over 30 countries worldwide. (Environment, Education)

• Cross Cultural Solutions  
  (Everyone - Ghana, Morocco, South Africa, Tanzania, China, Thailand, India, Russia, Brazil, Peru, Guatemala, Costa Rica) - The Cross-Cultural Solutions operate volunteer programs around the world in partnership with sustainable community initiatives, bringing people together to work side-by-side while sharing perspectives and fostering cultural understanding. (Children, Education, Gender & Equality, Health, Human Rights, Poverty)

• UN Volunteers  
  (Skills - developing countries) - The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme offers individuals worldwide opportunities to volunteer and contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (Children, Conflict Resolution, Disaster Relief, Economic Development, Education, Environment, Gender & Equality, Health, Human Rights, Microfinance, Poverty, Technology.)

• Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society  
  (Everyone – Sri Lanka) - The Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society offers paying volunteer program including ecological research on elephants, remote camera trapping of leopards, community integrated human elephant/leopard conflict resolution, biodiversity mapping. (Conservation, Environment, Conflict Resolution)

• Global Volunteer Network  
  (Everyone - Cambodia, China, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Honduras, India, Kenya, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, USA, and Vietnam) - The Global Volunteer Network (GVN) supports the work of local community organisations in countries through the placement of international volunteers. (Conflict Resolution, Education, Children, Environment, poverty, health, Infrastructure).

Why is this action important?

Well over half the world’s people and many of its animals and plants are living in conditions that we would find intolerable and unsustainable. By visiting these places and lending a hand we are not only seeing the world as it really is, we are also starting to open our hearts, cultivating compassion and exploring how we can help change our world for the better.

Why Do This Action?

• Increase biodiversity

Environment

The large environmental problems of today such as global warming, depleted natural resources (water, soil etc…) require a global solution. The social dimension of sustainability is that the people with the least, need to be supported (funding, education, relationships) in their pursuit of their prosperity in a way that preserves their environment. This requires that those with enough learn to give…

Wellbeing

Human compassion and the resulting satisfaction one gains from helping others are subtle emotions that need to be cultivated. Strangely, it is by helping others that we can become more comfortable and optimistic about our own future.