Many people desire to travel, but think
that it is too expensive, and therefore
completely unattainable to them. But the
good news is, there are inexpensive ways
to travel on a budget, where we can still
expand our minds, travel sustainably, and
give back to the communities that we
pass through. Today, I'm really excited to
introduce you to my friend Melica, who's
going to share a handful of websites that
she uses in order to travel on a budget
sustainably and give back to the communities.
Hey everyone ! This is Melica from Iran.
I have been traveling and volunteering
around Latin America for 2.5 years, and
right now I'm in a small village called
Jaibalito in Guatemala.
Today I want to talk a little bit about
volunteering, why volunteer, different
types of volunteering, and I want to
introduce you to some websites where you
can find volunteer opportunities all
around the world.
What does it mean, to volunteer?
To volunteer means to help, to freely
offer to do something. When we volunteer,
we learn and practice not to expect from
other people. People volunteer for so
many different reasons! They volunteer
because if feels good, they volunteer
because it's good for their career, they
volunteer to develop a sense of purpose
and motivation, and so many people,
including me, volunteer for their
personal growth, because the more
opportunities you take to learn new
skills and to gain knowledge,
the more you develop as a person. When I
wanted to start this journey, one of my
friends asked me, "Why would you like to go
around Latin America, and do what you do
for free? Why would you like to work with
children for free? There is a quote that
says that volunteers are not paid not
because they are worthless, but because
they are priceless. Yes, when you
volunteer, you are donating your time,
energy and knowledge, and in return you
are getting accomodation and food, but
beyond that you are getting a lot more.
You are getting experiences that are good
for your mind, body and soul, you are
learning new skills, you are learning new
languages, you are developing purpose, you
are building self-confidence, and you
cannot buy these experiences with money.
Volunteering has the power to change your
life in many different ways. When you use
your time and vacation days to volunteer,
you are opening yourself up to new
experiences. Breaking our cultural barriers
and extending your comfort zone makes you
grow as an individual. I want to introduce
you to 10 different types of volunteering today.
You can volunteer at NGOs,
Non-governmental organizations, you can
volunteer in different schools all around
the world and work with children, you can
join different families, which is the
best way to dive deep into a new culture,
you can join different communities all
around the world, you can do house sitting
and take care of people's houses while
they are away, that is basically what I am
doing right now. If you are into sailing,
or if you are eager to learn and do not
any experience, you can join different
boats all around the world. You can do
animal welfare and pet sitting, in which
you learn about different kinds of animals
and there are so many different
permaculture projects, farm stays and
sustainable projects that you can join. I
am going to introduce you to some
websites, and the first one is
workaway.info. I have been using this
website for 2.5 years now, and I love it
because it has different types of
volunteering. It has a subscription of 44
dollars for an individual and 56 dollars
for 2 people and it is valid for 1 year.
It works well for me because, for example,
I am a long-term volunteer and a
non-stop traveller, and for example I
want to volunteer at some schools for some
months, and then I want to change and
volunteer at a farm, I can use the same
website and the same membership to
volunteer at different kinds of projects.
And the thing that I love about workaway
is that you can find other workawayers around
you by location. I have used this option
and I have found so many amazing people!
And if you introduce workaway to a friend
and they sign-up using the link that you
gave them, you can extend your membership
for 3 more months, which is nice. To be a
workawayer means to work 5 hours a day
5 days a week, in exchange for
accomodation and food. Sometimes the hosts
offer you only accomodation, and they ask
you to work for less hours, and sometimes
they offer you a wage if you work for more
hours. The second website is wwoof.net,
worldwide opportunities on organic farms.
I have used this website in Argentina, it
was like, I volunteered at a farm with 14
llamas, I didn't know anything about
sustainable building and growing my own
food, and it was just a life-changing
experience. First, when you want to use
wwoof.net, first you have to choose which
country you want to go and become a
wwoofer at. So first you have to choose
the country, and the membership and the
subscription depend on the country. It can
be anything from 0 to 72 dollars. To give
you an example, if you want to go and
become a wwoofer in Canada, it's a
subscription of 50 dollars for an
individual, and 75 dollars for 2 people,
and it is valid for 2 years.
Wwoofing is for permaculture lovers, for
the ones who want to learn more about
growing their own food and want to make
sustainable changes in their lives. I
really recommend this website. The third
website is worldpackers.com
It is also very easy to use it, somehow
similar to workaway, different types of
volunteering. It has different types of
memberships. They have worldpacker academy,
worldpacker trips, and worldpacker pack.
But if you want to be able to contact the
host, and you choose worldpacker trips for
example, it is a subscription of 49
dollars, and it is valid for 1.5 years.
I have many friends that have used this
website, and they really liked it.
The fourth website is helpx.net
I have really close friends that have used
this website, and they volunteered in
Australia, that is how I got to know about
this website. You can become a member of
helpx.net for free, so it has a free
membership, but only the hosts are able to
contact you, so if you want to be able to
contact the hosts, you have to upgrade
yourselves to a premium membership, which
is 20 euros, and it is valid for 2 years
for both individual and twin memberships.
This website is cheaper than the other
websites. There are so many different
websites for volunteering out there, so
many non-profit organizations. People
have their own websites for their own
projects and they get volunteers from their
own websites. I can just name a few like
khayavolunteer.com, volunteermatch.org,
volunteertherealuganda.com, which is in Africa,
and a lot more. So you just have to search
and learn how to use the website, and make
a profile for yourself, find your perfect
host, and just get going.
Another thing, so many people asked me,
"Why should we use these websites? Why
can't we just go out and find hosts?"
Because I have seen so many travellers
that just go out, go traveling, they
ask around and they join a host on farm,
or a family. Well, I really recommend it
for safety, especially if you are a solo
traveller or a female traveller. I think
it is safer to use these websites to
volunteer around the world, because of
their references and their reviews. When I
want to contact the host I see the reviews
and I see how other people felt, how other
travellers felt when they were living with
this family for a while. And if, which is
very very rare, but if you have a bad
experience, you can honestly write about
your experience with that host and let
other travellers know how you felt while
living with these people.
And also, if a host does not feel good
with the volunteer, they can
honestly write a review about that
volunteer, and this makes the whole
community way safer. So when I see the
reviews, I feel safer to contact the host
when I see how other travellers felt while
being with that host. I really hope that
we can all go out and have a wonderful
experience volunteering all around the
world, and I hope that this information
was useful for you. Thank you so much, and
have a wonderful day!
I hope that you have found Melica's
experience and knowledge to be very
helpful to you if you are desiring to
travel on a budget.
Check the links in the description
in order to follow her as well as read
more of her work, and make sure to
subscribe to this channel, where there are
many more inspirational and educational
videos to come. I love you all very much,
and I will see you again real soon.