Best Places to Volunteer during the Summer
There are many great places you can volunteer during the summer which will help you gain experience while benefiting others. Which you choose will depend on your priorities. You may decide you’d like to offer your services to help people less fortunate than you or to protect the environment and animals. On the other hand you may feel that now is the right time to gain work experience via an internship. Volunteering to take a job in an area involved in your career destination could stand you in good stead for the future.
Volunteering abroad
Many third world countries are crying out for assistance. Volunteers are needed to help witheducating childrenfrom poor families, conserving the environment, protecting endangered species and helping inmedicalestablishments.Orphanagesare crammed full of children who could benefit from practical and emotional help, and there are various building projects underway which require extra pairs of hands to complete.
If you are considering volunteering abroad ask for information at your local voluntary center, browse through websites and ask for help in job centers and careers offices. For the price of a small accommodation fee and travel fare you could embark upon an experience of a lifetime which will change your world.
Closer to home
There’s no need to go abroad if you wish to be helpful but don’t enjoy travelling. Soup kitchens, homeless shelters, urban clean-up projects, charity shops, animal shelters and many other places require volunteers on a regular basis in-order to stay up and running. Offer to assist and you are bound to be welcomed with open arms.
One opportunity for volunteers often overlooked involves caring for the elderly. Although aged individuals may receive state benefit or assistance this may not really be adequate to fulfil all their needs. Even if they have enough food in their larders they don’t always have anyone to cook if for them, and although a nurse may visit them to take their blood pressure now and then they may still feel lonely and abandoned. Offering to keep them company and carry out chores can increase their quality of life.
Summer camps
Many young people go to camps during the summer. There they learn team work, play games, and are taught crafts and skills amongst other things. You may like to volunteer to help with sports or games, teach art, or apply to become a camp counsellor and assist children with emotional issues while they’re away from home.
Charitable events
If you have an urge to volunteer your services to do good in the world but are concerned that doing so may tie you down and take up too much time you may like to consider helping at charitable events. Charities often have fund-raising fairs, fetes, and open days. When such events occur it’s a case that all available hands are on deck, and workers are often stretched to be in charge of too many aspects pertaining to the day. When you see an advertisement for a charitable fundraiser why not contact the person in charge and volunteer to be responsible for helping organize the event, or run a refreshment tent, cake stall or sell bric-a-brac to make money for charity.
Internships
Volunteer for aninternshippertaining to your career choice and you can gain valuable experience to help you get your foot in the door, whether it be entry to a great course or a job as a trainee. You may want to apply for an internship where you live or venture further away and take up a post abroad. Whether you want to work in tourism, become ajournalist, television producer orhuman rightsworker there are positions available.
Volunteering during the summer months can help you spend the season wisely. While others spend their entire break soaking up the sun you could be educating children in Africa, saving wild rhino or taking your first step on the career ladder of your choice.
