Volunteering abroad can be a highly satisfying experience. Not only do you get to hone your volunteered skills, you have the opportunity to touch lives in the process. What’s more, you truly get an opportunity to intimately interact and understand the people and culture you are with. Here are some great volunteering opportunities abroad.

Work at an Orphanage in India

India’s sub-continental country is home to over a billion people, stretching across over 1.2 square miles of land. This vast stretch is home to some of the world’s most stunning scenery and culture, but also home to millions of orphans who become destitute for many reasons.

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All across India, you will find orphanages running and in need of skilled labor to operate effectively. Not only are these orphanages understaffed and underfunded, they are in a state of being “underloved”. Add your hands and heart to the staff team of the care givers, and change both your life and the life of those you touch.

As a volunteer in an Indian orphanage, you will mostly be expected to give basic lessons to the children, as well as a base of emotional support. You may also be expected to help with bath time, take them through exercises, play with the children, as well as assist with logistics in partnership with other staff. Special cases apply where you may deal with special needs children as well.

Sports Coaching in South Africa

Youth and poverty initiatives in South Africa have taken an interesting angle: using sports to promote economic growth, peace, and integration. These programs teach a variety of sports to the community, particularly children, with a view of keeping them positively engaged and healthy.

You have the chance to help a child discover the joys of productive fun. Teaching football, rugby, cricket, basketball, among other sports helps keeps children healthy and occupied. It also gives you an opportunity to experience the real South Africa, as you listen to how this country really runs and thrives.

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Conservation in Australia

Australia’s outdoor life is well known. Their fearsome outdoors are teeming with wildlife waiting to be explored and enjoyed. With a wide variety of flora and fauna, the Australian community does take conservation pretty seriously. There are many conservation issues facing Australia, including creeping human population on natural forest land, changing burning patterns of land leading to serious environmental degradation, among many other things.

There are many ways to participate as a conservation volunteer in Australia, as well as a variety of programs to choose from. You can specifically choose to work with endangered animals, helping find ways of ensuring that they do not join the dodo in extinction. Alternatively, you can work with landcare, where you liaise with various stakeholders to improve land use. You also have a chance to work in a park or reserve, participating in its continued use and maintenance.

Whatever your background and skill, what is most important is your attitude toward the environment, and your burning desire to make a change.