GIVE: Laos Volunteer Excursion & Wildlife Conservation

Wow, is Give Volunteer special! This company provided a safe, positive, welcoming, and motivating environment for my month long adventure in Southeast Asia! Words cant describe how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to travel to both Thailand and Laos! The trips included inspiring guides with endless knowledge and welcoming energy, unforgettable endeavors in caves, rivers, villages, and more, and a packed yet organized itinerary! I truly felt safe the entire trip which helped me be present in the culture and activities! I learned so much more than I even imagined about permaculture, teaching english, Buddhism, and more. Not only were the guides amazing but all of the participants and I became family! This program is set up to encourage likeminded people to come together to make the world a better place. I encourage anyone considering taking a leap of faith to attend a Give trip, you will not regret it:)

There seems to be a subtle charm to Laos not many people get to see and I felt incredible lucky to experience. The beautiful green landscape of this country is beyond beautiful. I loved the pace of the program. We had a lot of time to take in such beauty and engage in meditation and even deep conversations with our fellow travelers. Although the level of comfort fluctuated throughout the trip, it felt intentional and you get to grow to love it. Staying at a remote small village, Sop Chem, felt unreal and extremely different from what you are probably used to. Giving back to this community through education, permaculture projects, and overall social engagement felt effortless. The people here are so warm and welcoming. I can genuinely say I'll carry all I learned with me for a long long time.

GIVE is an absolutely incredible organization and you would be silly to chose anyone else. When you travel with GIVE you are fully immersed in the culture, you live and feel like a local. With GIVE you get experiences like no other tourist will ever get, you get to do good by volunteering in your host communities while having fun too! I was transformed by my time in Southeast Asia with GIVE, I got to experience a culture completely different from the one I was raised in a safe and meaningful way. When traveling I became apart of the communities we were volunteering in and I felt like I was family to these communities that had only known me for a few days to weeks and it was so wonderful. GIVE has opened my minded to a whole new world of possibilities, they have shown me through a number of experiences how amazing it can feel going outside your comfort zone - it is there that life truly begins! I urge you if you are unsure or on the edge about traveling with GIVE just do it, take that leap of faith, it will be the best decision you ever make!