An Adventure for Life

Volunteer Travels around the World

Waking up at home in your comfortable bed and starting the week with all your ordinary everyday routines can feel like an enormous change when you just a week earlier experienced the poorest parts of Ghana, or the most vulnerable nature reserves in Zimbabwe.

Travelling as a volunteer is an amazing adventure into reality – no filter. You journey out into the world to participate in the work of a local long-term wildlife, environmental or social project, an experience that will take you close to the local culture and population. In addition to giving your time and commitment to a local project, gaining an authentic experience of the country, its culture, nature and wildlife are also important parts of a volunteer trip, and what makes it unique.

The Perfect World Foundation works side by side with its sister organization Volunteer Travels, with the common goal of making the world a better place for future generations. We want everyone to have the opportunity to experience wild rhinos in the savannah, learn English, dive among colourful coral reefs, and have the chance to live a life of freedom. For this to be possible, commitment is required. Volunteer Travels helps curious and passionate people to get out into the world and help local projects, working for the same things as we do.

Volunteer Travels works with about 100 local wildlife, environmental, marine and humanitarian projects around the world. The worldwide projects are often run by enthusiasts, and they rarely have the resources to hire enough staff. Because the volunteers pay for their living expenses, the projects can continue and local people are hired to take care of visiting volunteers around the clock.

Through Volunteer Travels, The Perfect World Foundation wants to create opportunities to send as many ambassadors as possible to the projects we work with. Part of the reason for this is to get people involved, to help on site and to see and understand the problems first-hand, but we also want the volunteers to be our eyes and ears on the ground, and to report back to us about the conditions there, and what’s most urgent.

Anyone can go on a volunteer trip. You can travel alone, with family and friends or as a business or organization. It’s the perfect trip for anyone who wants to discover the world and make a difference. We organize regular volunteer trips for companies and municipalities who want to send their employees on a journey that contributes to something positive and shows global responsibility, and that they also value their CSR work. We also have families and groups who want to go on volunteer trips together, which is always appreciated. If you’d rather go alone, perhaps during a sabbatical year, holiday or after retiring, we’ll arrange it. You decide when you want to go and for how long. Our partners are flexible, and grateful for all the help they can get.

No one is left indifferent by a volunteer trip. It’s an adventure of a lifetime and you’ll come home with new insights, experiences and contacts, to continue the work you started by spreading knowledge and raising awareness of the problems and possibilities that you have witnessed yourself.

PROJECTS AND DESTINATIONS

MARINE PROJECTS – Australia, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Indonesia

Marine projects are suitable for people who love the ocean and diving, and are curious about life under the surface. In these projects you can either work on marine research by collecting data during marine expeditions at sea, or on land to help injured and vulnerable turtles. As a volunteer, you work closely with researchers and marine biologists to identify threats to wildlife and coral in our oceans, and help to improve living conditions for all species living in and by the ocean.

EXPERIENCE & EDUCATION – South Africa, Namibia, Galapagos Islands

If you’re looking for an authentic experience that will take you closer to the local way of living, our experience trips are for you. Adventures in natural environments surrounded by wild animals await you. These programmes include education to increase your understanding of animals and the environment, giving you a broader perspective and authentic experiences with magical wildlife in unspoilt natural surroundings. The aim of these programmes is to highlight the threats our wildlife and ecosystems are facing, and create commitment for the future.

RESCUE CENTRES IN THE JUNGLE – Costa Rica, Ecuador, Indonesia, Thailand

Are you, like us, fascinated by the jungle and everything that lives there, and want all animals to be given a second chance? This programme gives you the opportunity to help out in a rescue centre for injured animals in the middle of the lush jungle. Most of these animals have been mistreated by people – they’ve been used as tourist attractions, fallen victim to the black market or been found injured in the wild. As a volunteer you take part in the centre’s daily work of taking care of these animals, and if you’re lucky you’ll even witness them being released back into the wild.

ANIMALS IN AFRICA – South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya

Few people are unaware of the devastation of the savannah, where the wild animals are killed in trophy hunts and poaching. At our animal projects in Africa, local enthusiasts work to stop this extinction and save the wildlife in their areas, as well as to preserve and breed endangered species. As a volunteer, you take part in this important work and help with everything from taking care of rhino calves that have lost their mothers, working with lions rescued from the horrific industry of lion parks and ‘canned hunting’ or patrolling areas to deter poachers, to being part of efforts to conserve vulnerable animal species.

AUSTRALIA’S ANIMALS – Orphaned Animals, Bat Rehabilitation

Experience Australia’s exotic flora and fauna by taking care of injured or orphaned animals. Every year, hundreds of injured animals come to our projects in Australia, where volunteers work together with keepers to save, rehabilitate and release the animals back into the wild. The animals that can’t ever be released due to serious injuries or other mistreatment at the hands of people will stay at the sanctuary for the rest of their lives and live in as natural habitats as possible, that you as volunteer help to create.

YOU’LL FIND MORE PROJECTS AND DESTINATIONS ON www.volunteertravels.com