Voluntourism

Brooke Bailey was new to both yoga and volunteer work in 2006. But after seeing the devastation Hurricane Katrina wrought on New Orleans in 2005, Bailey decided she needed to do something.

So it was that Bailey found herself doing yoga in the morning and at night, and filling the middle of her day with the gutting, cleaning, painting and renewal work the city so desperately needed. It was her first volunteer vacation, but it hasn’t been her last. Since then, she’s received her yoga accreditation in hatha yoga, and organized so-called karma yoga volunteer groups.

“It was amazing for everyone on the trip — life-changing,” she says now. “I really learned about giving just to give, not expecting anything in return. I realized that even if they aren’t literally my community within two blocks of me, even if they’re 5,000 miles from you or halfway around the world, they’re still humanity.”

It’s not the cheapest way to travel — Bailey estimates she paid about $1,400 for the trip — but she found the combination of yoga and volunteer work essential. There are lots of ways to volunteer on your vacations — and entire books dedicated to hundreds of volunteer vacations.

 

Check out voluntourism.org, volunteeradventures.com, crossculturalsolutions.org or charityguide.org for more info.