Volunteer with Elephants at Thailand’s Elephant Nature Park

Resident Elephant at Elephant Nature Park

Image source: Phototracs.com

Elephants are some of the world’s most majestic creatures. They’re the largest living land animals on Earth. Known for their memory and intelligence, Elephants are a symbol of wisdom in Asian cultures. When I was a girl living in Kenya, I spent long days by the game preserve’s salt lick, watching the elephants interacting with each other and caring for their young. Once, three hyenas tried to attack one of the babies and the adults surrounded her in a giant circle, trumpeting their furious sounds and rearing up, thrashing their massive tusks in the air. The hyenas skulked back into the underbrush. The baby was safe. Elephants migrate over huge distances, through deserts, to find watering holes. The matriarchs teach the younger females how to find the water, where to find food, how far to march… elephants are some of the only animals besides humans that have culture. They have history. They have communities. They have no natural predators and yet, elephants all over the world are facing possible extinction.

Volunteer Travel: Families Navigate the New Mainstream

Family Volunteering

Image source: Handsonblog.org

Just a few short years ago, volunteering with your family may have sounded like a strange, foreign concept. There have always been outgoing families, ready for adventure. But in the mainstream culture, volunteer vacations weren’t something people did very often. Volunteering has traditionally been under the purview of the young and unattached. The stereotype was of the hippie explorer, wide-eyed and idealistic, with his backpack and bare feet. It was the PeaceCorps—more of a commitment than a discreet project—a two-year foray into a career of service, not a two week vacation with family. But today, that has all changed, and in a big way. Mainstream media outlets are touting the benefits of family volunteering, and families are listening. It’s a great time to have kids. Organizations are catering to young families too—families with five and six-year-olds, kids whose lives can be forever altered by experiencing new cultures in new places.

Honeymoon Volunteering: One Couple’s Story

A Volunteer Couple (this is not Jane and Travis)

Image source: Worldendeavors.com

My friends, Jane and Travis, just got married. Initially, they were planning on a cruise in the Caribbean for their honeymoon. They’ve never been on one and Jane thought it would be the best of both worlds: legitimately fun and kitschily ironic. Travis was on board (so to speak) but he had reservations. He is a community activist in our city and he kept worrying that a cruise was just too wasteful, predictable, and commercial. I agreed with Travis but since it wasn’t my honeymoon I stayed out of it. Then I remembered: they’d never been on a cruise before! I, on the other hand, have been on several. Each one was a family vacation, paid for by my grandparents, and each one seemed more quintessentially American than the last. The ships were like giant malls complete with expensive cocktail bars, clothing shops, and fake plants. Sure, the accommodations were comfortable but it all felt so generic, so spring break, if you know what I mean. My experiences have left me rather jaded about the whole cruise thing and I didn’t want my friends to be disappointed. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I had to say something.

Voluntours with the Harnas Wildlife Foundation

Harnas Volunteer Covered in Monkeys

Image source: Harnasusa.org

Harnas Wildlife Foundation started on a cattle farm in the Namibian wilderness. The owners, Nick and Marieta van der Merwe, were farmers, making a living on the land, when a sick vervet monkey inspired them to do more. They began adopting animals, taking in the sick and infirm, even adopting a healthy pride of lions from a defunct zoo. As their love for animals grew, so did the farm. They hired a staff and expanded their facilities, eventually opening the farm to the public in 1993.

Using a Forum to Create a Community: Connections, Education, Fun

Globe Aware: A Volunteer Community in Cambodia

As we’ve explored here before, attracting volunteers to your organization can be a challenge. It seems like new organizations emerge every day, and so many of them have solid, responsible infrastructures that support worthy causes. There are a lot of volunteers out there, and chances are, if your organization is sound, some of them will find you. But how do you cultivate a volunteer base? What is the best way to draw volunteers to your organization, like bee pollinators, ready to spread your message and nurture your cause?