The Benefits

There are many benefits to volunteering.

Most importantly, the people or environment you are helping will benefit. Sometimes the impact is immediate, sometimes the results only come into view after a few years. You can help create real positive change whether you are helping to build a new school building in Bangladesh or teaching about the natural environment in Poland. The positive benefits arising from the work of our volunteers are as diverse and widespread as the volunteers we attract!

But, not only do those you are helping benefit, there is a good chance you will too. There is a lot of research to show how much joy we get from helping others, from giving, from making a difference. We shouldn’t enter into volunteering just to feel this warmth. Sometimes, when what we are experiencing is challenging and upsetting it might take a long time for any positive emotions to emerge, but, when they do, it is a lovely side-effect.

Volunteering can really help you to develop as a person, you do it because you care about issues bigger than yourself , but you end up learning new skills, improving existing ones and finding out things about yourself that you never knew before.

Global Footsteps, at its heart is an educational programme; volunteering with us is always an educational experience. By immersing yourself in the culture and ways of living of those you are helping you get an experiential learning experience that can never be replicated in the classroom or lecture theatre. If you don’t come away having learned a great deal and with a hunger to learn more then we have failed.