Who said the work camp was dead? It's alive and thriving in eastern Europe, where the services of Britons of all ages are sought. School-building in Africa is still affordable, and those who are really broke can always get a cheap flight to a project in Ireland. None of the fees quoted below include travel costs.
Rhododendron clearing in an Irish national park
£17 for a week.
groundwork.ie
Volunteering Ireland (volunteeringireland.com/IWantToVolunteer/ResidentialOpportunities.htm) has a list of other Irish charities looking for volunteers.
Working on organic farms
Small membership fee.
wwoof.org
World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) is really a list of contacts. You get in touch with the foreign branch of WWOOF, pay their membership fee (around £20-£30) and receive a directory of farms to approach with your offer of free labour. It has outposts in a number of countries (including Hawaii, Togo, Australia, the US, South Korea, Japan and Italy), with sites of varying usefulness.
Building a school in Ghana
£252 for three weeks.
alliance-network.org
One of the better organised English-language sites is Volunteers for Peace (vfp.org), from which this project was taken. There are dozens of others listed at the Alliance Network.
Working on a conservation project in Costa Rica
£750 for two weeks.
i-to-i.com
This project is a 'mini-venture' and includes a day's Spanish tuition. Teaching work in Mongolia and game management in South Africa are two of the other short projects available.
Excavating the Peruvian town of Buena Vista
£1,106 for a six weeks.
archaeological.org/webinfo
The Archaeological Society of America has plenty of opportunities to join US-organised digs abroad. Other possibilities are the Council for British Achaeology (britarch.ac.uk/briefing/field.html), and the cheaper French option of Rempart(rempart.com), which helps to restore castles.
Researching crocodiles in Cuba
£1,695 for two weeks.
earthwatch.org
Earthwatch has an exciting, if costly, choice of projects for amateurs. Divers may like to join one of the Coral Cay (coralcay.org) reef expeditions to Honduras, Fiji or the Philippines.
