Edge of Seven Announces 2013 Trek with a Purpose to Everest Base Camp to Provide Education for Girls in Nepal

Combining a once-in-a-lifetime adventure with the opportunity to help educate girls in the developing world, Edge of Seven, a nonprofit based in Denver, Colo., is excited to announce our 21-day Trek with a Purpose to Everest Base Camp departing in October 2013. Read more

Dianne Sharma-Winter runs Women Travel India and here she writes about voluteering in India:

Hot on the heels of a recent article I wrote about why India doesn’t need you to volunteer, I was lured into doing the very thing I advised against! For the next three months I have committed my time and energy to volunteering at Sambhali Women and Girl Empowerment Centre in Jodhpur, Rajasthan and am currently living with 15 rambunctious girls in a boarding house. Read more

Women Travel is committed to sustainable living and sustainable travel, one of the ways of living this out is to travel with a purpose, and Travel2Change is the latest network we have come across that help to make this possible, through their commitment to connecting travelers with locals to create change.  We have just added them to our  Volunteering links page  Travel2Change  on Twitter  on Facebook Read more

Drinks on the terrace

Our last few hours in the energetic Cambodian city of Phnom Penh were spent in the gentle ambience of the Foreign Correspondents Club , sipping cold drinks on the terrace, and looking out on the murky Mekong River. The FCC feels like a colonial outpost for expats, and is a great place to read flyers about events and exhibitions. It is on the corner of Street 178, famous for artists, clothing designers and the Royal Palace.

Beware unmarked cars

On the road to the airport our taxi was subjected to a barrage of tooting, as a cavalcade of Lexus cars with no number plates commandeered the road. The driver muttered about government ministers, privilege, corruption- a story we had heard several times. As our guide explained, Cambodia has a long way to go yet.

Sleepy day in Vientiane

Laos , on the other hand, felt quite different as soon as we touched down in the capital, Vientiane. It was National Day, celebrating 37 years of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. The streets were very quiet, shops and some restaurants were closed – it felt like Invercargill in the south of New Zealand on a wet Sunday. Read more

Guest post by Karen Robson:

This article looks at at the sort of tours operated globally by companies in the adventure and socially responsible vacation business. From student tours to volunteering, there is a chance to experience the world in an entirely new way. Read more

Guest Blog by Lauren Seidl

Many people dream of taking a year to live and work abroad, but the task of finding a job in another country seems so daunting they don’t even try. Teaching abroad is one simple way to combine work and travel that is often overlooked. With English becoming such a widespread language, schools across the globe are seeking native English speakers to teach the language to their students.

Not a teacher? Not a problem. If you want to teach English abroad, all you need to do is spend a few weeks earning a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate and you’ll be good to go.

Now that you know teaching abroad is a possibility, you may be wondering why you should actually go through with it. Here’s a handful of reasons: Read more

Susan Taylor writes:

Donating your time to a worthy cause provides you with a sense of having a higher purpose, and can be very gratifying. While many volunteer opportunities exist across the United States, you may choose to volunteer abroad instead. Not only do many countries rely on the assistance of volunteers, it will give you the chance to visit a foreign country, interact with people of a different culture, and gain a unique experience. Several organizations offer overseas volunteer opportunities. Here are three that manage their programs differently, allowing you to choose which works best for your volunteering goals, and your budget. Read more

Thinking of traveling abroad? Would you like to do more than sample new tastes and soak in cultural landmarks? Suppose you could make a difference to other women whilst traveling through another part of the globe? Well, you certainly can, and you’re spoilt for choice!

As Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American female congresswoman, has said, “Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.” And, perhaps, for an enriched traveling experience upon it.

Opportunities exist to engage in meaningful volunteer work particularly in the field of women’s health, enterprise, justice and social programs across the globe. Here are a few (of many) not-for-profit and charity organizations which offer on-the-ground, functioning programs where you can contribute your skills and passions to a worthwhile cause: Read more

“How many times have you been travelling and visited a school or community or local charity that you would love to help? The school needs books, or a map or pencils; an orphanage needs children’s clothes or toys. All things that, if only you’d known, you could’ve stuffed in your rucksack. But once you get home you forget, or you’ve lost the address, or worry that whatever you send will be stolen before it even gets there…” Read more

The idea of volunteering in another country has long been considered the province of students and recent graduates; images of intrepid twenty-year-old Peace Corps workers in a remote Sierra Leone village might spring to mind. Today, however, the idea has reached far beyond that to become accessible, and highly popular, among travelers of all types and ages. Volunteer travel has grown so popular that a term has even been coined for it: Voluntourism. Read more