Volunteering in Thailand

Thai children

If you’d like to volunteer in Thailand, you’ll find that most placements focus on community development, education, and childcare—though really, if environment and wildlife are where your interests lie, then you’re equally in luck! Volunteers of all ages and all walks of life can find a large diversity of opportunities to match their skills, expertise, and interests. Let’s take a look at a few organizations you might consider volunteering with in Thailand.

With placement in Bangkok, Hope Beyond Worldwide’s Thailand volunteers teach English and provide support to other classroom subjects and extracurricular activities. Volunteers work six hours per day, five days per week, from two weeks to six months. Most program participants are 16 or older, and don’t need background in the project area in order to help.

Fees range from $400 for two weeks to $2,200 for six months—costs vary for couples, groups, and families, so be sure to check with Hope Beyond Worldwide for the most up-to-date fee information. This helps to cover pre-departure training, orientation, in-country support, cultural training, Internet access, and accommodation and food at the shared volunteer house. Volunteers must arrange their own airfare, visa, telephone costs, travel insurance, vaccinations, and personal expenses.

IVHQ places volunteers in Chiang Rai, northern Thailand to assist with English teaching for populations who don’t have access to formal education; agriculture (ex: building water tanks, working in vegetable gardens, and assisting with construction and renovation); and community development, which encompasses infrastructure and local building projects. Participants must be 18 or older and have a high school education in order to sign up.

Programs start on the first and third Monday of each month, and volunteers are welcome to stay on the project from one week to three months, working eight-hour days, five days per week. Accommodations are provided at the partner organization’s dormitory style headquarters with staff and other volunteers.

Project fees range from $320 for one week to $1,320 for three months—this covers marketing materials, a volunteer information packet, in-country support, administrative costs, staff travel costs (allowing them to check in with various projects’ development), airport pickup and drop-off, orientation, and accommodation and meals. Volunteers must cover their visa, flights, travel insurance, vaccinations, and any side trips or souvenirs they’d like to purchase while in the country.

Children in Thailand

WAVA places volunteers in nearly 20 countries worldwide, with diverse programs ranging from education, to wildlife, to construction, to information technology. With nine placements in Thailand alone, volunteers can choose from a variety of programs, including assistance in an elephant sanctuary, tsunami orphanage support, community development and infrastructure, underwater environmental conservation, and teaching in a school for children with disabilities. Volunteers are asked to stay two to four weeks’ minimum, and placements are available throughout the country, starting year-round. To sign up, you must be 18 or older, and depending on the project, background experience in the program area may be preferred.

Thailand trips start from £132 per week, including airport pickup and drop-off in Chiang Mai, orientation and training, in-country support, a project donation, and accommodation and meals at a shared volunteer house. As with most volunteer abroad programs, participants must cover their own flights, insurance, vaccinations, and visa expenses.

Conclusion

Have you volunteered in Thailand? Post your suggestions and stories below! And to find more volunteer abroad opportunities in Thailand and throughout Asia, click here.