Andreas took Brexit as his cue to leave rainy England and expensive London! For the past few months, he has been working high in the Andes in Cusco, Peru for Latin American Foundation for the Future, LAFF, an organization that enables marginalized young people to access education opportunities and supports young people’s organizations through income-generation, cost reduction initiatives, and capacity building for staff. In his free time, Andreas loves eating Alpaca burgers and avocados.

Volunteering at LAFF
After a few years working in London and paying debilitating amounts of rent, I was ready to leave, and sharpish. I applied to volunteer with LAFF (Latin American Foundatino for the Future) a non profit organization which gives children and homes in Peru the tools and skills they need to build a more independent future. That gave me the change to working in International Development, living abroad and learn a new language. Or at least attempting to learn a new language.

Hey there you kind, generous and adventurous stranger. How do I know you are kind, generous, and adventurous you might ask? Well if you stumbled upon this here website, you are looking to donate some of your time to a worthy cause whilst traveling abroad, and that is exactly what we are going to talk about.

My name is Turner and I have spent the last 8 years traversing the globe doing all sorts of volunteering jobs. From volunteering at a shady Tiger sanctuary in Thailand, which has since been shut down) to creating my own fundraiser for children in the Philippines, to working at an Elephant Sanctuary in Thailand, I have had my fair share of volunteering experiences and missteps.

But in no uncertain terms, let me be clear: volunteering while you are traveling is one of the best things you will ever do. Not only are you getting to experience a foreign culture, you will get the chance to contribute to a project that will give you those warm butterflies long after you are back home.

But how do you find the right project for you and not end up contributing to a questionable organization? Good points all around. Here are some questions you should think long and hard about before selecting your volunteering adventure.

Photo by Joshua Berman. He and his wife, pictured above at a health clinic in Ghana, served three volunteer assignments while their honeymoon.

A Guest post from Joshua Berman http://joshuaberman.net

Have you ever thought about volunteering abroad during your honeymoon? Joshua and Sutay Berman did exactly that during their 16-month round-the-world honeymoon to 16 countries (here's a map of their route). They served as volunteers for three months in an Indian tea-growing village, two months working with Sri Lankan tea farmers, and finally, two months supporting Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana in Accra. From their past experience, they knew the benefits of approaching a region as volunteers. As Joshua writes, volunteering would only increase their chances for unplanned encounters and shared adversity—both surefire relationship strengtheners (or relationship killers – they were aware of the risks!).
 
After several months traveling in Pakistan and northern India, the newlyweds' first volunteering adventure began in Calcutta, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, where they had to report for duty before traveling to their work site even farther north. The following is an excerpt from my book about this experience, Crocodile Love: Travel Tales from an Extended Honeymoon (Tranquilo Travel Publishing, 2016).

When Sutay and I met—via mutual friends from our respective U.S. Peace Corps experiences (I’d served in Nicaragua and she in The Gambia), we got engaged pretty quickly, in a matter of months. We began planning a wedding, then suddently canceled the reception and diverted the money to a plane ticket fund. We applied to serve as professional volunteers through American Jewish World Service, and eventually completed assignments with local non-governmental organizations in India, Sri Lanka, and Ghana.

The following is an excerpt from my book about this experience, Crocodile Love: Travel Tales from an Extended Honeymoon (Tranquilo Travel Publishing, 2016).