Travel with a Purpose: Why Volunteering Abroad is the New Bucket List Item
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In recent years, several travel trends have emerged and each of them has something unique to offer. While traveling abroad to a new destination is always exciting, many young people are now choosing to take a step beyond conventional tourism and are more keen to engage with communities, try new things, and offer something valuable through volunteer work.
Traveling with a purpose and volunteering abroad is now a trend that’s here to stay and for many, who are eager to experience the world on a deeper level, this is a bucket list item. From school students to recent graduates as well as gap year travelers, everyone is opting to volunteer abroad and make a difference.
It’s the best way to meet and connect with the locals of the place, understand their society and soak in their culture, understand their crisis, and work alongside professionals to bridge the gap and create a positive impact.
Here’s why you should also consider volunteering abroad and add it to your travel bucket list for 2025:
1. You will not only meet the locals, but you’ll get to make an impact on their lives.
When you go for a vacation, you get an idea of the culture and lifestyle of the people, but you probably need to make more effort to connect with the locals. But when you take a volunteer trip abroad, you’ll essentially spend time in underprivileged neighborhoods, where you can engage deeply with the local communities, understand their day-to-day problems, and find solutions to provide them with a better life.
A volunteer trip will surely make you realize that traveling can be more than just spending days at a hotel and going sightseeing. Traveling can be impactful if done in the right way.
2. Your journey will add to your personal and professional growth.
Yeah, you read that right. A volunteering trip abroad isn’t just another holiday as I had mentioned earlier, it’s going to be an intense learning journey, that’ll surely add to your personal and professional growth.
Volunteering is like a double-sided coin – and when you choose to create a positive impact on society, you eventually push yourself beyond your comfort zone, working with a bunch of like-minded fellows, aiming to achieve a common goal, and thus, you will ace at teamwork, time and crisis management as well as, gain confidence to make a difference.
And while working in a new country, you’ll have the chance to learn a new language. You’ll become a more adaptive, open-minded, and compassionate human being.
3. You’ll take a step towards becoming a responsible traveler.
In today’s age, responsible traveling has become more important than ever. With rising issues like climate change and global warming, it has become immensely important to embrace sustainable traveling. In such a scenario, you can contribute meaningfully by signing up for an environmental conservation volunteer program and working alongside professional environmentalists and climate activists, you can save Mother Earth.
For example, you can choose to volunteer for the marine conservation program in Bali and protect the coral reefs of the region, by spreading awareness among the local communities and encouraging them to embrace sustainable fishing practices. Similarly, you can also opt for the turtle conservation program in Sri Lanka, save the turtle eggs from poachers, organize beach cleaning drives, and educate the community kids about the importance of protecting endangered species.
To say the least, it might seem like a small step, but you can actually create a big impact as a responsible traveler while volunteering abroad.
4. You’ll have a unique travel experience.
A massage session in Thailand. An iced coffee in Vietnam. Surfing in Sri Lanka. Road trip around Spain. Game drives in Kenya. Table mountain hike in South Africa.
These are the obvious things that almost every traveler visiting these countries would do. But how about volunteering with elephants in a village in Thailand? Or maybe teaching underprivileged kids in Vietnam? Or teaching monks in Sri Lanka? Or a marine conservation program in Spain? How about volunteering at a childcare center in Kenya or a wildlife care center in South Africa?
Sounds interesting, right? Well, not everyone will sign up for these, and if you choose to do so, you’ll surely be a part of a unique travel experience that’ll make a mark in your memory.
Every volunteering program has something different to offer. No matter which program you choose to be a part of, you’ll end up gaining valuable first-hand experience that you’ll cherish for a lifetime.
Before we end this, I would like to mention that in a world that’s increasingly interconnected (especially in this age when social media has everything to offer at our fingertips), volunteering abroad is more than just a trend – rather, it’s a powerful way to travel with positive intentions to help others, while discovering yourself in new lights.
Here are the 5 best volunteering programs that you can add to your travel bucket list for 2025:
Street Children Volunteering in India
If you’ve been thinking of traveling to India, then there can be no better option than this! As a volunteer for the Street Children Program, you’ll be working in New Delhi at a shelter home where underprivileged kids are taken care of. You can teach the children basic English and Maths, play with them, take them on educational tours of the city, and fundraise for their food, clothing, stationery, and other essentials.
You’ll be free to explore the capital city during the evenings, as well as on the weekends. You can go and see the Taj Mahal in Agra, as well as take a trip to the royal city of Jaipur in Rajasthan.
Turtle Conservation Volunteering Program in Sri Lanka
Imagine how beautiful it would be to live in the coastal town of Galle and work alongside the locals, to protect the endangered sea turtles in Sri Lanka. The main focus of this project is to protect the turtle eggs as well as the baby turtles, and subsequently increase their population.
Your daily tasks would involve preserving the eggs from predators and poachers, providing a haven for hatchings to occur, caring for the baby, sick and injured turtles, feeding them daily, and releasing the healthy ones into the ocean when ready.
And since you’ll be working by the beaches, you can always go and take a dip in the blue, or make good use of the mornings to learn surfing. During the weekends, make sure to explore the Galle Fort, as well as the nearby towns of Unawantuna, Mirissa, and Weligama.
Elephant Village Volunteering in Thailand
Love elephants? Well, this definitely is one of our most popular volunteering programs and it’s located in the quaint hill town of Chiang Mai in Thailand. You’ll mostly work alongside the mahouts (caretakers of the elephants), helping them to feed the elephants, take them out for walks, and also bathe them! But the best part of this program is to make paper out of elephant poop!
You can also explore the gorgeous temples of Chiang Mai, go for waterfall hikes, and of course, enjoy the vibrant nightlife here.
Healthcare Volunteering Program in Tanzania
If you are a pre-med, medical, or nursing student or a healthcare professional planning to travel abroad meaningfully, then this program is highly recommended. As a developing African country, the healthcare system in Tanzania is not as advanced, and the hospitals, dispensaries, and clinics are hugely understaffed.
As a medical volunteer in Tanzania, you’ll be working in Arusha, alongside professional doctors and nurses, helping them with the day-to-day processes.
You can make the most of your weekends, by exploring the wilderness of Serengeti and Ngorongoro, spotting the Big 5.
Marine Conservation Program in Spain
Spain is there on every traveler’s bucket list and if you are thinking of ticking it off in 2025, then you can choose to travel responsibly and volunteer for the Underwater Conservation Program in Barcelona.
As a volunteer, you’ll be working alongside professional marine conservationists, and your main tasks would be to clean up the seabed by reducing the marine debris, removing the marine living organisms from the trash collected and putting it back in the sea, logging information on items and trash collected, etc.
So if you’re curating your travel bucket list for 2025, make sure to add at least one volunteering trip abroad and sign up to be a part of change. To know more about our programs, write to us at [email protected] and our Program Advisors will connect with you.
Also, follow us on Instagram to know more about what our volunteers are up to, and connect with our past volunteers to learn about their experiences.
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