 Many people desire to travel, but think that it is too expensive and therefore completely unattainable to them. But the good news is, there are inexpensive ways to travel on a budget where we can still expand our minds, travel sustainably, and give back to the communities that we pass through. Today, I'm really excited to introduce you to my friend Melika who's going to share a handful of websites that she uses in order to travel on a budget sustainably and give back to the communities. Hey everyone, this is Melika from Iran. I have been traveling and volunteering around Latin America for two and a half years. And right now I'm in a small village called Chai Balito in Guatemala. Today I want to talk a little bit about volunteering, why volunteer, different types of volunteering. And I want to introduce you some websites where you can find volunteer opportunities all around the world. What does it mean to volunteer? To volunteer means to help, to freely offer to do something. When we volunteer, we learn and practice not to expect from other people. People volunteer for so many different reasons. They volunteer because it feels good. They volunteer because it's good for their career. They volunteer to develop a sense of purpose and motivation. And so many people including me volunteer for their personal growth. Because the more opportunities you take to learn new skills and to gain knowledge, the more you develop as a person. When I wanted to start this journey, one of my friends asked me why would you like to go around Latin America and do what you do for free? Why would you like to work with children for free? There's a co-op that says that volunteers are not paid, not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless. Yes, when you volunteer you're donating your time, energy and knowledge. And in return you are getting accommodation and food, but beyond that you're getting a lot more. You're getting experiences that are good for your mind, body and soul. You are learning new skills, you are learning new languages, you're developing purpose, you are building self-confidence, and you cannot buy these experiences with money. Volunteering has a power to change your life in many different ways. When you use your time and vacation days to volunteer, you're opening yourself up to new experiences. Breaking your cultural barriers and extending your comfort zone makes you grow as an individual. I want to introduce you to 10 different types of volunteering today. You can volunteer at NGOs, non-governmental organizations. You can volunteer in different schools all around the world and work with children. You can join different families, which is the best way to dive deep into a new culture. You can join different communities all around the world. You can do house-sitting and take care of people's houses while they're away. That's basically what I'm doing right now. If you are into sailing or if you're eager to learn and don't have any experiences, you can join different boats all around the world. And you can do animal welfare and pet-sitting, which you learn about different kinds of animals. And there are so many different permaculture projects, farm stays, and sustainable projects where you can join. I'm going to introduce you to some websites. And the first one is workaway.info. I have been using this website for two and a half years now, and I love it because it has different types of volunteering. It has a subscription of $44 for an individual and $56 for two people. And it's valid for one year. It works well for me because, for example, when I'm a long-term volunteer and a non-sub-traveller, and for example I want to volunteer at some schools for some months and then I want to change and volunteer at a farm, I can use the same websites and the same membership to volunteer at different kinds of projects. Another thing that I love about workaway is that you can find other work-awayers around you by location. I have used this option and I have found so many amazing people. And if you introduce workaway to a friend and they sign up using the link that you gave them, you can extend your membership for three more months, which is nice. To be a work-awayer means to work five hours a day, five days a week in exchange for accommodation and food. Sometimes the hosts offer you only accommodation and they ask you to work for less hours and sometimes they offer you a wage if you work for more hours. The second website is woof.net. Worldwide opportunities on organic farms. I have used this website in Argentina. It was like I volunteered at a farm with 14 llamas. I didn't know anything about sustainable building and growing my own food and it was just a life-changing experience. First, when you want to use woof.net, first you have to choose which country you want to go and become a woofer at. So first you have to choose the country and the membership and the subscription depends on the country. It can be anything from zero to $72. To give you an example, if you want to go and become a woofer in Canada, it's a subscription of $50 for an individual and $75 for two people and it's valid for two years. Woofing is for permaculture lovers for the ones who want to learn more about growing their own food and they want to make sustainable changes in their lives. I really recommend this website. The third website is worldpackers.com. It's also very easy to use it. Somehow similar to work away, different types of volunteering. It has different types of membership. They have worldpacker academy, worldpacker trips and worldpacker pack. But if you want to be able to contact the hosts and you choose worldpacker trips, for example, it's a subscription of $49 and it's valid for a year and a half. I have had many friends that use this website and they really liked it. The fourth website is helpex.net. I have really close friends that use this website and they volunteered in Australia. That's how I got to know about this website. You can become a member of helpex.net for free. So it has a free membership. But only the hosts are able to contact you. So if you want to be able to contact the hosts, you have to upgrade yourself to a premier membership, which is 20 euros and it's valid for two years for both individual and twin memberships, which is this website is cheaper than the other websites. There are so many different websites for volunteering out there. So many different nonprofit organizations. People have their own websites for their own project and they get volunteers from their own websites. I can just name a few like khayavolunteer.com volunteermatch.org volunteeraluganda.com which is in Africa and a lot more. So you just have to search and learn how to use the website and then make a profile for yourself, find your perfect host and just get going. Another thing, so many people ask me why should we use this website? Why can't we just go out and find hosts? Because I've seen so many travelers that they just go out, go traveling, they ask around and they join a hostel or a farm or a family. Well, I really recommend it for safety, especially if you're a solo traveler or if you're a female traveler. I think it's safer to use these websites to volunteer around the world because of the references and the reviews. When I want to contact a host, I see the reviews and I see how other people felt, how other travelers felt when they were living with this family for a while. And if, which is very, very rare, but if you have a bad experience, you can honestly write about your experience with that host and let other travelers know how you felt while living with that people. And also if a host doesn't feel good with the volunteer, they can honestly write a review about that volunteer and this makes the whole community way safer. So when I see the reviews, I feel safer to contact the host when I see how other travelers felt while being with that host. I really hope that we can all go out and have wonderful experiences volunteering all around the world and I hope that this information was useful for you. Thank you so much and have a wonderful day. I hope that you have found Melika's experience and knowledge to be very helpful to you if you are desiring to travel on a budget. Check the links in the description in order to follow her as well as read more of her work and make sure to subscribe to this channel where there are many more inspirational and educational videos to come. I love you all very much and I'll see you again real soon.