Volunteer Opportunities for University Students

Are you a university student with a desire of volunteering abroad during your university break? If this is your case, but you are you concerned that traveling abroad might hurt your budget, worry not! RCDP has the best and most affordable volunteering opportunity for university students who want to explore new countries while making a positive difference at the same time.

RCDP has volunteer programs for university students in eight exotic countries, namely Thailand, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Kenya, Brazil, Ghana, Uganda, and Peru. You can choose from various volunteering projects in elephant conservation, education, medicine, handicrafts, health, orphanages, and environmental conservation. Keeping in consideration your passion, budget, time availability, and travel goals, RCDP has put together a perfect program for you.

Join us on this journey to make the world a better place.

Benefits of Volunteer Opportunities for University Students

Along with the opportunity to travel to a new country, volunteering for different projects brings along lots of other benefits that will help you to grow in many aspects.

Volunteering enhances interpersonal skills

Volunteering activities help you to understand people and learn about dealing with arduous situations in a wise way that motivates others. So being a part of such a project will help you groom your different skills.

It improves your communication abilities

Communication plays a vital role in almost all fields and volunteering is believed to enhance this very skill. Working as a university student volunteer in different projects requires you to communicate with your team members, coordinators and with the different people whom you will be helping during the program; therefore, your communication skills will downright get boosted.

It adds to your resume

Volunteering helps you to acquire relevant skills for different jobs. This is why a resume with volunteering experience tends to attract different job opportunities. So, if you are a university student looking for a volunteering opportunity, this experience will surely help you in your future career.

It has a positive impact on your health

As per different research held on the benefits of volunteering, many have concluded that it leads to a healthy life. Similarly, a report for a corporation for national and community service states that the people who volunteer tend to have a lower depression and mortality rates and greater functional ability.

It builds empathy

Volunteering is an act of helping people in need with selfless motivation. This will give you eternal satisfaction for taking part in good deeds. It is also believed that the more volunteer work you do, the happier you become.

Therefore, participating in the volunteering opportunities in different programs for university students will not only make you happy, but it will build empathy in you. You will also strengthen your ability to socialize and bond. 

RCDP Affordable Volunteer Opportunities for University Students

RCDP has an incredible selection of volunteering opportunities for university students all across the globe. The perfect program is waiting for you! Here are some of RCDP’s top options for you to choose from.

Elephant Conservation Project in Sri Lanka

Are you an animal lover willing to be a part of an adventurous journey? The opportunity for university students to volunteer in Sri Lanka for the elephant conservation project takes you to a sanctuary where there are many elephants that need your care. The elephants in the sanctuary have been relocated there because they were no longer able to provide a living for their previous masters due to old age, sickness or injuries. Hence, the project ensures that those elephants get to spend the rest of their days in peace and comfort.

Taking care of elephants is a fulltime job, which is why the elephant conservation volunteer program in Sri Lanka needs your help. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to spend your days looking after these magnificent creatures. You will help the mahouts to feed, bathe, and walk the elephants to the ponds. You won’t require any specific qualifications or experience to be a part of this project.

Teaching in Buddhist Temple School in Thailand

Thailand is a country with over 30,000 Buddhist temples in which monks live, meditate and study for all their life. Many Buddhist temples contribute to the local communities by providing education to children from poor families who cannot afford other schools. The temple schools are invaluable, but the English being taught there isn’t impressive, which is why they need your help.

You can join the Teaching in Buddhist Temple School volunteering package for university students in Thailand to help those students build a brighter future. The Temples in Thailand run primary and secondary schools where the volunteers are supposed to teach. You will follow the official curriculum and teach the local students for five days a week from Monday till Friday.

You don’t need to have a prior teaching experience and you don’t have to be a native English speaker. However, you should be fluent in English. You will also be expected to be patient, flexible and respectful towards Thailand’s Buddhist tradition, custom and local people.

Teaching English in Kenya

Since English is a universal language and one of the official languages in Kenya, the ability to communicate in English helps young Kenyans to get good job opportunities. However, not everyone in Kenya has access to an education and many families cannot afford private tutoring for their children.

Thus, by joining the English teaching volunteer program for university students in Kenya, you can help those underprivileged students to prepare for a successful future. The students will be very well behaved and equally eager to learn from you. Aside from a willingness to lend a helping hand to those children, you should have a degree in education, a teaching certification, or any other form of teaching experience.

During your volunteering period at the English teaching project for university students, you will undertake the work of an English teacher in the schools. You can either start teaching right away or you can assist the local teachers first to gain some confidence. The volunteers will need to follow the official curriculum, but you can implement your own teaching methods.

You will also be holding discussions and debates to make learning fun and enhance the student’s ability to comprehend English. You can also organize some extra-curricular activities to help the students develop other skills. While working as a volunteer for the English Teaching project in Kenya, the age group of the students will be from five to 10 years old for the primary school whereas for junior secondary you will be teaching students from 11 to 16 years of age.

Handicraft Project in Brazil

Are you good at handicrafts? Would you like to help disadvantaged women in Brazil by teaching them those skills? If you do wish to be of help to them, volunteering opportunity for university students for the Handicraft project is the best program for you. Life can be tough for women in the favelas who have to rely on their partner’s income to manage their livelihood. Due to poor economic conditions, they cannot even fulfill their basic needs, which is saddening.

If you chose to volunteer in Brazil for the Handicraft project, you will help to promote those women’s entrepreneurial ability and make them competent to earn their own livelihood. They will appreciate learning creative skills that will enable them to become financially independent. Volunteers can teach the women sewing, painting, pottery, sandal design, candle making and other skills. You also can develop lesson plans to organize your own class.

The basic requirement for the volunteers to work for the Handicraft project as a university student is to have handicraft skills. Similarly, if you have any entrepreneurial knowledge, that will be an extra benefit. It is also recommended to have a basic proficiency in Portuguese, as it will facilitate communication; but it isn’t a requirement. Volunteers are expected to be resourceful, open-minded, and adaptable.

Health Project in Ghana

There is a substantial need for university healthcare student volunteers in Ghana to assist the local medical professionals. You can help to provide healthcare services to the people who cannot afford private medical attention. There is also a great need for volunteers to promote health education within the rural and remote communities in Ghana. This is because many citizens of Ghana have failed to fight back treatable diseases.

The health project volunteering journey in Ghana allows you to help the Ghanaians to enrich their lives while you gain experience simultaneously. As you promote health education and offer public health projects, you will travel to places where there are no proper medical facilities in order to help the local people to live a healthier life

Depending on your expertise and experience, your responsibilities will differ while volunteering for the Health Project as a university student. Volunteers' work might include assisting the medical staff and doctors with their tasks, measuring temperature, BP, height, and weight, providing immunization, treating minor wounds or injuries, dispensing medications, counseling patients, and helping in health camps.

To volunteer in Ghana’s Health Project you need a healthcare certification like nursing or physician’s credentials, ID of a medical student, or paramedic certification of EMT. Similarly, you will also be considered for volunteering if you are undergoing the process of obtaining the certification and you have documents to support your claim.

Work in Orphanage in Uganda

Struck by poverty and an unfortunate catastrophe of HIV/AIDS, thousands of youngsters in Uganda are prone to becoming homeless and orphaned every year. The government isn’t able to help such citizens; therefore, they are left to fend for themselves. Thus, by becoming a university student volunteer for an Orphanage in Uganda, you will be able to help orphaned children to live a healthy life and create a brighter future.

There are many orphanages that provide housing, education, clothing, and food to the orphans. But despite their philanthropic deeds, the orphanages are struggling for financial resources. Therefore, under such circumstances, if you can provide your valuable service to do volunteering work for an orphanage in Uganda, it will be much appreciated.

While being a part of the university student orphanage volunteer, there are various things that you can do. During your stay in the orphanage, you will get to work with the children for three hours every day. You can teach them any subjects, but English is preferred the most. Likewise, volunteers can also be involved in extracurricular activities like music, art, dance, etc.

You can also work on the children’s personal hygiene and engage in cooking and cleaning activities. In addition, you can work in the garden with the children, help the orphanage in administrative tasks, or be a part of fundraising campaigns.

Conservation Work Project in Peru

Peru which is one of the 17 diverse countries around the globe that deals with issues such as poor farming practices, oil prospecting, unregulated extraction laws, timber extraction, gold-mining and many others. Therefore, volunteering for the conservation project in Peru is a unique opportunity to work alongside local experts in biology and conservation who are meticulously trying to preserve the bio-diversity.

Volunteers are supposed to team up with the local organizations to work towards ecological restoration. For the nursery work, volunteers have to perform weeding, irrigating, digging, filling, and other related works. Similarly, in Andean Conservation work, you get to become involved in a conservation and cultural program. During your volunteering period for the conservation project, you will be an ambassador for the conservation and protection of the future.

You don’t need to have any specific skills to volunteer in the conservation project for university students. The only thing expected of you is that you are passionate about the environment. The work can be physically demanding at times, so the volunteers need to be prepared for this. In addition, we prefer volunteers who possess basic knowledge of Spanish so that communication with local people is easier. 

Medical Project in Cambodia

Are you a medical student looking to gain practical experience while you help people in need? If you at least have eight weeks of your time to spare to participate in a volunteering program, then the volunteering for a medical project in Cambodia is the perfect opportunity to put your knowledge to practice.

This program allows you to help the Cambodian people who are in need of medical and health services. During your volunteering period as a university student in Cambodia’s medical project, you will work closely with local medical professionals at hospitals or medical clinics. Your service will ultimately help to save the lives of many Cambodians who cannot afford regular health services.

The responsibilities of university student volunteers participating in the medical project of Cambodia include providing basic care, consultation, and immunizations; promoting health education, family planning, and personal hygiene; and carrying out first aid and other similar tasks. To be eligible for volunteering in this project, you will have to submit documents stating your medical credentials and you need to be over 18 years of age as well.

Aside from Volunteer opportunities for university students, RCDP also offers a great selection of wildlife conservation volunteer, winter break to volunteer and so much more. Contact RCDP for more information.