Volunteering with children
In Sri Lanka, you might be assisting local teachers at a community kindergarten, using educational song to encourage children to speak English. In Tanzania you might be pitching in with extracurricular activities in a remote village. And in Madagascar, you could be working alongside conservation research project staff, showing children how they can protect the environment they live in and depend on.
What we’re aiming to show is that there is huge breadth of opportunities when it comes to volunteering with children, but that all of them need to take place within an existing organisational framework to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the child is the core focus at all times. Operators will seek to match your skills with the appropriate project, and you will only find vacations on our website that you can be confident meet our guidelines for safe volunteering.
Our Volunteer travel Vacations
Tanzania volunteering projects
Have fun by helping people help themselves
Teaching assistant volunteering in Kerala
Make the most of your vacations with volunteer travel India
Volunteer with children & animals in South Africa
Volunteer with children and wild animals in South Africa.
Madagascar conservation volunteering vacation
Conservation in beautiful Madagascar
Over 50s volunteering in India
Use your 50's to travel and give back to the community!
Volunteer in Peru, teaching and sports
Experience a different side to Peru by living & volunteering
Teaching assistant volunteering in South Africa
Help disadvantaged kids to learn English in South Africa
Ghana childcare volunteering vacation
Volunteer in the heart of an African community
Sports coaching in South Africa
Coach your favourite sport & inspire disadvantaged children
India volunteering & highlights
Experience Real India with an epic tour & volunteering
Community volunteering in Tanzania
Have fun helping people help themselves
Youth support volunteering in Croatia
- Educational Support - Social and Interpersonal Skills
Volunteering in the Himalayas, Nepal
Unforgettable Volunteering in Nepal in the land of Himalayas
Nepal teacher volunteering
Volunteer with children in Pokhara, Nepal.
Our guidelines for volunteering with vulnerable children
Responsible Travel have received advice and input from industry experts to help us develop a set of guidelines for volunteering with children to address both the volunteers themselves, and the setting – the priority, at all times, is the safety and wellbeing of the children involved.
Our guidelines cover, but are not limited to:
Volunteers must have appropriate qualifications, skills, experience and understanding of vulnerable childcare and our partner must skills-match.
Volunteer teaching (curricular) placements must be for a minimum time period of four weeks - extra-curricular teaching placements can be as short as one week: see above
All volunteers (British) are DBS checked (or national equivalent).
Partner organisation must have clear and comprehensive child protection policies in place to which all volunteers must agree to adhere.
Partner organisation must have undertaken thorough due diligence, which means the organisation is properly registered and operating under local law. The children within the setting have arrived through credible government or NGO agencies with the organisation having clear intake procedures and case management files of new children. School age children have access to suitable education.
Read more about our guidelines for volunteering with children.
Our top Volunteer travel Vacation
Tanzania volunteering projects
Have fun by helping people help themselves
2021: 27 Feb, 27 Mar, 10 Apr, 8 May, 22 May, 5 Jun, 19 Jun, 17 Jul, 31 Jul, 7 Aug, 21 Aug, 9 Oct
The problem with orphanage volunteering
Residential care should be a last resort, but with the growth of orphanage volunteering, parents are tempted to give up their children in the belief that it’s the best way for them to be well-fed and educated.
Learn more about the issues around volunteering with children.