a) Listen and say.
b) How can the activities in the pictures be related to a volunteer holiday. Listen and read to find out.
Voluntourism: how to make a difference!
More and more young people are taking on volunteer work nowadays. Some even travel to the other side of the world and do unpaid work for a charity or other non-profit organisation there. They help to build homes for poor families, teach children English, take care of orphans, or help protect an endangered species. There is a wide variety of voluntary jobs to choose from.
A number of charity groups organise educational programmes for children around the world. Many students volunteer for these types of projects. They teach subjects like English and Mathematics to children while staying in their community and getting to know the people and their culture. It is also a great develop their own skills. It is a learning experience for both the children and the teacher.
Young people who are good with their hands or simply would like to help in a very practical way can participate in one of the many conservation projects. Several charity organisations help build houses or schools for poor children around the world. In the village of Kamakwie in Sierra Leone, for example, a team of 20 young volunteers built a secondary school for poor orphans. Other similar projects are going on across poor villages of Africa, making sure that kids get an education.
For people interested wildlife, conservation groups organise volunteer holidays throughout the world. You can help wildlife research in countries like Kenya and Botswana or protect 25 turtles in mexico, Zanzibar, or elsewhere. On Redang Island in Malaysia volunteers come from all over the world to help conserve the endangered green turtle. Participants monitor the turtles that come onto the beach and protect them and their eggs. They also get to enjoy the beach and even snorkel with the 30 turtles sometimes.
A volunteer holiday is for people who want to make a difference in the world and are prepared to give up their own time, money, and, effort to do it. Volunteers have to be realistic though and understand that they cannot change the world in two 35 or three weeks. To some volunteers it seems that they are not doing much by helping out for only a couple of weeks but, in fact, every bit of help counts. Thanks to young volunteers, the lives of millions of people around the world are improving and, in their eyes, the sun is probably shining brighter than it used to.
Read the text again and say if the sentences below are T (true), F (false), or NS (not stated).