Do something amazing - make a difference

MORPH3US

Hi Folks,

Watching castaway tonight, I was inspired to hear them all talking about what a great experience they are having.

That got me thinking that I need a challange or something amazing to do in my life.

I have options:

1. Helping out disadvantaged people - found this website http://www.i-to-i.com/projects/ that has some great projects, but its quite expensive when you add flights in although something like this one http://www.i-to-i.com/placements/662/ would be amazing....

2. A friend I have is doing Kilamanjaro and I would like to do that or Everest (base camp or more?!?!) but don't know where to start...

Ideally I would like something that requires a flight and maybe food (but better if accom and food included) in return for work but I don't want to just do something like fruit picking, I want it to be fun but to make a difference or in the case of option 2, a challange to test me...

I have been lucky enough to travel round the world for a year in the past and the bug is coming back to get me... problem is now I have a house and a job so it needs to be something I can do as a holiday (up to a month).

Any help / advice appreciated!

Would like to hear if anyone else has done / planns to do something similar too...

M

melancholly

just hit charity walks or charity trek into google and these came up:

marie curie (everything from peru to nepal to kilamanjaro (brazilian waterfalls looks like a good option!)
http://www.mariecurie.org.uk/events/overseas_challenges/

some of the same options at breast cancer care
http://www.breastcancercare.org.uk/content.php?page_id=2521

through Kuoni - walking through petra would be amazing - can go for a (fairly big) selection of charities they are associated with, or with the open challenges support any charity you want
http://www.challengeforcharity.co.uk/open-challenges/index.shtml

save the rhino have some too!
http://www.savetherhino.org/etargetsrinm/site/608/default.aspx

VSO are always a great place to start with working abroad for a charity - and they have walks too:
http://www.vso.org.uk/events/challenges_worldwide.asp

that's what i can think of off the top of my head, but if anything else comes to mind, i'll post again!

lynzpower

Morpheus

Dont use Ito I

My mate went to costa rica and it cost about 2 grand. she wasmeant to be volunteering on a turle sanctuary. she was meant to get
*a donation to the project
*bed and 2 meal board in a family home
*support from staff

Staff dropped her and 2 others off in the town and took them to where they would be staying, a garage with hammocks in . meals were a basket of bread left out for them. they had no contact with any family.

the turtle project was about to collapse as they hadnt had any money out of ItoI for some years. they didnt need free staff, they needed money to operate, hence the relationship with i to i

they have very bad reports from many who hve gone with them. they are a profit making company, and thier profits are taken from the projects they claim to support.

there are hundreds of volunteer projects world wide, that can be arranged direct with the project, you sort your own flights out and pay bed & board direct, cutting out the profiteers in the meanwhile & making sure your money goes where it should.

MORPH3US

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

@ melancholly - I have looked at quite a few of those links, but i'm affraid I am nowhere rich enough to even consider most of the "charity" options....

I know it is money for charity but for example the Marie Curie Everest Base Camp is almost £3000!!!! If I had that kind of money I could do a lot more than 3 weeks away with it. Appreciate most of it is sponsorship but I hate people asking me for sponsorship (because so many people do it and you feel guilty if you don't sponsor everyone) so I don't really want to go down that route myself.

When I went travelling for a year it only cost about £6000 and most of that was spent living in the US, Oz and NZ.

Maybe I should just go travelling to somewhere cheap but I wanted to do something different and help people less fortunate without paying the earth...

Sorry, I'm rambling now. Don't take any of the above the wrong way, I appreciate your help!

M

melancholly

MORPH3US wrote: »

@ melancholly - I have looked at quite a few of those links, but i'm affraid I am nowhere rich enough to even consider most of the "charity" options....

I know it is money for charity but for example the Marie Curie Everest Base Camp is almost £3000!!!! If I had that kind of money I could do a lot more than 3 weeks away with it. Appreciate most of it is sponsorship but I hate people asking me for sponsorship (because so many people do it and you feel guilty if you don't sponsor everyone) so I don't really want to go down that route myself.

I know what you mean! You can use your money yourself to do a lot more (but then they would argue that the support they give is worth the money or something!).

maybe you could pick a destination and then find local charities and see if you can contact them to offer help? i've done that route before and got to do some interesting (and some very dull and tedious!) stuff!

NafUk

Go cycling. Check out cycletourer.co.uk for many amazing travelogues e.g UK to Australia. You meet people on a bike and you don't fly so you don't pollute. One person bought a cheap (£30?) bike in China and started cycling to Europe.