Gap Year Voluntary Work

GAP YEAR :: Studying | Volunteering | Travel Insurance

One of the most rewarding ways to spend a gap year must surely be voluntary work.

It will give you a unique insight into a different culture and memories that you will cherish for the rest of your life.

Voluntary work is extremely varied, you can find yourself seeing people living in terrible conditions, with hunger and disease yet you will come away with a huge sense of achievement and pride. For many people the experience changes there life forever and sheds new perspective on their future career direction.

IMPORTANT! Travel Insurance will cover you for your leisure time but please note that most travel insurance will not be able to provide cover for risks related to volunteer work. Check with the organisers first!

Recent worldwide events such as the Asian tsunami, the Make Poverty History campaign and the Live 8 gigs have highlighted the issues of extreme poverty and inequality meaning that many more people feel the urge to help.

There are loads of organisations that arrange voluntary gap year placements. Places can be hard to come by however, so you really need to sell yourself and show that you will be committed. The last thing that one of these organisations wants is to spend out on getting you over there only for you to drop out after a couple of days! You should be aware that the work can often be extremely labour intensive and in some of the more remote areas high tech tools and equipment will be scarce.

There are two types of companies that can arrange voluntary work abroad, non-profit making and those who are in it to make money. To be perfectly honest there is really nothing wrong with the profit making companies as they tend to actually increase the numbers of volunteer places available, which can’t be a bad thing. However you should steer clear of profit making businesses who attempt to conceal the fact. Any companies that are genuinely in it for non-profit reasons will be a registered charity, which is easy to check.

We, like the majority of travel insurance policies won’t cover you if you decide to take on voluntary work abroad. We recommend using search engines such as Google or Yahoo to look for gap year cover which includes voluntary work cover.

Gap Year Volunteers Travel Directory

• GAP Activity Projects
  Volunteering experiences overseas for your year out for 17 ot 25 years olds.
• Travellers Worldwide
  Voluntary work overseas for gap year and others, in teaching, conservation and tourism.
• Global Vision International
  Volunteering Abroad - Volunteering Opportunties, TEFL courses, conservation and wilkd life volunteers.
• UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office
  Detailing country by country advice and information as to the advisability to travel to countries and regions of the world.