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.