By Alison Gardner –  Editor, Travel with a Challenge

From the mountain capital, Quito, to the edge of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest, I shared a six-hour car trip with an inspiring British police officer who dedicates a month’s holiday each year to volunteer in some part of the world. That year, he had chosen a wild animal rescue center where his tasks would include preparing meals customized for each animal guest, as well as cleaning, repairing and building facilities spread across a large jungle setting.

This is one holiday option of Ecuador’s premier in-country volunteer and travel adventure organization, Lead Adventures, which attracts volunteers mainly from the U.S., Britain and Canada since 2004. Twenty years earlier Michele Gran and her husband, Bud Philbrook, co-founded Global Volunteers in the U.S. “The idea of combining service with international travel was largely a curiosity when we started,” recalls Gran. “Organizations such as Earthwatch and Habitat for Humanity® were already mobilizing citizen activists to assist with specific service agendas. However, Global Volunteers was the first to offer broad-based community development projects for one week or several weeks at a time. Since 1984, we’ve sent volunteers of all ages to serve in 110 communities in 34 countries on six continents with some serving 18 times.”

Call it volunteer travel, service holidays or voluntourism, the global market is estimated to be worth over USD$2 billion annually and roughly 10 million people are taking part each year. There are an estimated 2,000 non-profit and for-profit volunteer travel organizations and companies worldwide. Volunteer travel is largely an unregulated phenomenon with choice of destinations and tasks ever-growing, so personal research is definitely advised before signing up. Age, abilities and local language are no barriers to those with a sense of adventure and some flexibility. Look for clear programming and excellent references while remembering that this is never going to be an entirely predictable experience. As non-profit organizations and for-profit companies recognize the growing demand for inter-generational family travel with meaningful experiences woven into the choice of vacation, existing operators have designed options within their menus that creatively include younger participants. Many parents and grandparents expressly want younger family members to develop a spirit of giving back and learning about unfamiliar cultures at a grassroots level before they become adults. The starting age for multi-generational volunteer vacations now averages 10 years old. Adult children and their older family members are also finding that volunteering together strengthens relationship bonds.

U.K.-based Hands Up Holidays (handsupholidays.com) offers one kind of hybrid vacation, planning scheduled time between meaningful volunteer programming and luxury recreational vacationing, all customized for families. Perhaps surprisingly, 80% of its clients are North American and 5% are from Australia and New Zealand. “When I first started the company in 2006,” explains founder, Christopher Hill, “I tailored itineraries to young professionals like myself who wanted to blend some time volunteering with a chance to relax and have fun…we were all cash rich and time poor. However, I soon discovered a lively demand for vacation planning from families who faced the same time challenge as young professionals. This re-focused the company’s attention to what it is today. Consistently, family goals of our clients are to bond more closely with their children or grandchildren, to instill admirable values such as compassion and helping others, and to immerse in another culture at a grassroots level. Since I now have children of my own, I appreciate these goals very personally.”

I first discovered Crow Canyon Archaeological Center (crowcanyon.org) in 1996 by participating in its one-week Lifelong Learner Archaeological Research Program. Th e Center is still going strong and so is the program offered in June, September and October. Staying in circular Navajo-style hogans and eating delicious meals in the cafeteria, we novice archaeologists combined hands-on research and education in the laboratory and excavation of current field sites with stimulating evening lectures about local cultural history. These make for busy days divided between learning and volunteering, but there is clearly an activity balance that appeals to a clientele that averages 66 years of age! Other programs on the roster appeal to different ages throughout the year. One in three “alumni” returns, some over decades, to complete more programs and even become trusted volunteer crew members on the campus and at the excavations.

Ecuador’s Lead Adventures (leadadventures.com) has also built a strong international reputation with a menu of projects throughout the country and a staff that shepherds each client from touchdown in Quito through selected volunteer weeks. If desired, it also designs adventure travel segments, Spanish lessons, transportation, homestays and more to complete the package. Started by Ecuadorian economist, Enrique Torres, this company’s local knowledge and network of contacts guarantee a grassroots experience with clear benefits to the local economy and its remarkable natural environment. If time permits, I highly recommend a week of volunteering in Quito’s preschool for children of teenage and single mothers, a week at the wild animal rescue center in the Amazon region and a week on the Galapagos Islands. Ask Lead Adventures to add more time in the Galapagos for some well-planned inexpensive adventures that include ferrying between islands and staying in hostels or hotels. At the end of your trip, you will want to adopt this South American country as I did!

There is nothing mix and match about Global Volunteers (“GV”) (globalvolunteers.org): its mission is pure volunteer travel from top to bottom. It has always encouraged family volunteering, and today families of all compositions comprise a growing percentage of participants. Some family-friendly programs accommodate children as young as six to serve alongside parents or guardians together with staff specifically trained to help volunteering families reach their full potential. “With all our programs regardless of age or interest,” says Michele Gran, “we’ve always held fast to our original vision – to off er genuine development assistance by providing essential services to needy children and families. GV is well-respected for its partnerships with governments, faith-based organizations and international agencies to develop and deliver effective programs. We just need thousands more volunteers as links in a chain of service that can make a world of difference!”

During his U.S. presidential bid as an independent candidate in the 1990s, Ross Perot is perhaps best remembered for his ringing declaration, “Words are cheap … deeds are precious.” It didn’t win him the presidency, but most certainly this statement holds true for volunteer travel, which is precious in so many ways to both the donor and the recipient.