What is Voluntourism or Volunteering Holidays ?

Voluntourism or Volunteering Tourism is a generous / humane activity where an individual or group provides services for non-financial or social gain to benefit another person, group, environment or organization while they are on holiday.  

Simply, voluntourism is a new trend of international travel, where you use your time, money & energy to help others while exploring a different country and its culture. It’s a great way to add value to your travel experience while you experience life overseas. Volunteering holidays gives you an opportunity to immerse yourself in the local culture whilst exchanging knowledge of both cultures. 

Volunteer travel is a combined act of volunteering while you are on your holiday where volunteer services are delivered at the destination you travel which covers variety of activities in different cultural contexts. 

Volunteering holidays Sri Lanka 

Sri Lanka is one of the best Voluntourism destinations in the world. Since its rural parts are still opening up for developments and thereby lots of volunteering opportunities are in Sri Lanka. Volunteering holidays in Sri Lanka allow you to escape from the norm of the regular travel with sightseeing and gives you an opportunity to Give Something Back or to put one’s skills to good use in an environment or community where they are needed.

Sri Lanka is considered to have perfect volunteer opportunities where you could direct your own children to activities like animal care volunteering / nature conservation volunteering / community volunteering together with education, teaching and sports volunteering where you will be able to introduce them to a completely different culture / environment.

Ceylon Expeditions help you to select the most suitable voluntourism opportunities in Sri Lanka considering your interest / no of days you intended to travel and all other important factors. 

During volunteer holiday in Sri Lanka, you will also experience cultural attractions such as UNESCO World Heritages of Anuradhapura & Polonnaruwa ancient cities / Sigiriya rock fortress / cave temple Dambulla together with adventure activities especially, cultural triangles / wildlife safari tours / hot air balloon rides / waterfalls / white water rafting / water sport activities / trekking / Whale Watching in Mirissa etc. 

Volunteer Travel Opportunities in Sri Lanka

Sanitary facility in rural areas

Sponsor a low income family in rural area
Many volunteer tourist families have a tradition of adopting a local family for gift giving. Ceylon Expeditions voluntourism team can match you with a family in need and suggest what gifts they would appreciate usually dry rations / clothes / toys / stationery / and, of course, toys! Also, you can provide a set of text book / stationaries for whole year and cost would be 30 -40 $. You may bring these stuffs from your home or same can be simply purchased from Sri Lanka. 

Disability care volunteering holidays.
You can join hands with special needs children’s centers to improve their skills and capabilities while also helping with day-to-day chores and attending to their daily needs. The one-on-one attention that these children so desperately need can be fulfilled by you by spending some time with them and doing different activities that would help boost their levels of confidence. Also you can hand over dry rations / cleaning agents / chocolates etc to the said chile homes during your holiday in Sri Lanka. 

Bring your used Computer 
You can bring your used desktop or lap top computer and hand over to rural school or students from very low income families. This will be a great help to students who cannot afford for a brand new computer. Ceylon Expeditions will carefully select the needy student or school and you may hand over the machine directly to the student or school while you are on your volunteering holiday.  

Share books
You can bring used or brand new books (English Language) such as novels / short stories / educational books which can be used in school libraries. You may coordinate with Ceylon Expeditions tour consultant before you pack these books and he will organize a school / public library or any other facility where your books can be displayed and use. Recommended community based tourism activity.  

Greeting Cards
Turn your creativity into an act of kindness. You can encourage your children to create greeting cards and give to children suffering from serious illnesses especially at Colombo Apeksha Cancer Hospital (Apeksha = Hope) or spreading cheer in elder’s nursing homes.

Medicine for low income patients 
During your holidays, you may sponsor a low-income patient to buy prescribed medicine or assist him to perform prescribed medical tests especially who are in Colombo Apeksha Cancer Hospital (Apeksha = Hope). Or else you may bring required medicine from your home country. Ceylon Expeditions will assist you to by coordinating among you and the hospital and communicate to you the exact list of medicines that you can either purchase in Sri Lanka or bring from your homeland and handover directly to the hospitalized patient yourself. This is very recommended volunteer travel opportunity in Sri Lanka. 
 

Environmental Conservation Work
There are countless environmental projects organized by many organizations you could be a part of. Ceylon Expeditions can coordinate between you and the said organizations and you can then be assigned to projects like mangrove reforestation, recycling projects, coral restoration, beach and river cleanups. 

Kindergarten & Teaching volunteering in Sri Lanka.
Just like in every other developing nation, literacy is still a prevailing social problem in Sri Lanka. Your volunteering holiday could be put to good use by involving the kids in activity-based learning and also support the teachers to polish their existing skills. 

Women Empowerment volunteering in Sri Lanka 
A major approach towards empowering women is through raising their status through education, awareness, literacy and training. Ceylon Expeditions can connect you with an organization working towards these sorts of projects that are located close to your travel destination so that you can have your perfect volunteer holiday!

Help needy women to start home based income source. 
74% of the women population in Sri Lanka is economically inactive. In order to lessen this amount, you can support these ladies earn a little extra income through selling traditional sarees online, selling handicrafts or selling paintings etc. You can support these ladies purchase necessary raw material and machinery for example like sewing machines etc. 

Turtle Conservation projects. 
Ceylon expeditions can arrange you your perfect holiday in Kosgoda for that beach and marine life lover in you. You can get a hands-on experience on turtles, turtle conservation, beach conservation etc. During your free time in your voluntourism experience in Sri Lanka you can also go whale watching in Mirissa. 

Wild Elephant & wildlife conservation volunteering in Sri Lanka
During your voluntourism getaway you can work alongside local wildlife conservation teams to support their initiatives to help elephants and communities live together in harmony. You will assist their research to increase the understanding and knowledge of the 300+ elephants and other wildlife living in the surrounding area helping to protect them in the future.

Sri Lanka dog welfare volunteering. 
Sri Lanka has a couple of renowned street dog welfare projects like Embark and Tails of Freedoms to care for stray, abandoned or abused dogs and also cats. Ceylon Expeditions can find an ideal volunteer opportunity for you so that you can also help the 40million odd count of stray dogs that are suffering from hunger and untreated diseases and help them live the life they truly deserve!

Pay a visit to a lonely patient 
Each year, over 3 million people are confined to places like hospitals and care facilities, and 60 percent of those receive no visitors. Your family can help them feel less lonely by simply sharing your time. Before going, call to find out the best time for a visit. Take along small gifts or homemade treats to share.

Orphanage childcare voluntourism. 
If you’re enthusiastic and energetic, and enjoy working with children, this project is a perfect fit for you. You can be involved in teaching English, assisting with homework, arranging games and activities and assisting staff with everyday day work in the orphanage. 

Volunteer Travel / Community based Tourism with Ceylon Expeditions 

• Personal care is guaranteed – Your volunteer holiday in Sri Lanka will be handled by a qualified / dedicated travel expert until departure.  
• All our tour leaders are English Speaking / professionally qualified / licensed / trained and are experienced in personal care.
• Being one of the responsible & best travel companies in Sri Lanka, our prime concern is “Safety”. We are maintaining regular audits on ALL service providers.
• Medical care while you are on tour - some visitors might need periodic medical care, therapy or health checkups and Ceylon Expeditions is fully geared to assist while you are on your experiential trip in Sri Lanka. 
• We use only carefully selected Sri Lankan adventure sports service providers especially who own “Operating License” issued by a regulatory authority for Whale Watching Boats / White Water Rafting / Hot Air Balloons operators / Helicopter providers / water sports providers / Wildlife safari vehicles / transport fleet. 
• Special complimentary airport assistance for arrival and departure on request (Specially for senior citizens).
• Low emission / young fleet of comfortable vehicles will be deployed to all holiday itineraries in Sri Lanka.  
• On-call Medical Officers through-out holiday in Sri Lanka & Maldives. 
• Carefully tailor-made best experience vacations in Sri Lanka considering all your concerns. 
• 24 x 7 x 365 Operational assistance from Colombo. Every single moment will be monitored from Colombo office and you will be in contact with us through-out the trip. 
• Duly registered Sri Lankan locally owned Travel agent in Sri Lanka 
• We’ve contracted with highly recommended family friendly hotels & resorts in Sri Lanka & Maldives.  
• Guaranteed best rates for all our holidays packages in Sri Lanka.