This project is available in Chiang Mai.
It’s hard to think of a worthier cause than supporting abandoned and underprivileged children. By enlisting in this project, you’ll join forces with one of the most important advocates for child welfare in Northern Thailand. Over the course of your assignment, you’ll measure your success in smiles, laughter and successfully planned activities. Or you can take the long view – work carried out today contributes directly to reshaped futures.
Children’s Home Volunteer Project Video
Volunteering in Thailand – A Day in the Life
Our volunteers collaborate with one of Northern Thailand’s largest children’s homes. It’s an organization, administrated by a few families, looking to help the lives of underprivileged boys and girls. The home is directly or indirectly responsible for the welfare of roughly 50 children.
Volunteer Tasks
As a Friends for Asia volunteer, you’ll be working with children who range from four to eighteen-year-olds. There’s no single narrative running through the children’s home. Some of the children are orphans of illness or accidents, others of abuse or abandonment. Many come from at-risk ethnic minority villages; others are refugees of the turmoil in Myanmar.
Most volunteers’ core responsibility is spending time with the kids, but there’s ample opportunity to diversify your workload. This is a full-on community with a host of peripheral needs. In fact, some of our volunteers devote their entire project to maintenance tasks like painting, tending grounds or fixing appliances. In short, a desire to work with underprivledged children is not a prerequisite for enrollment in this project.
Making a Difference by Volunteering in Thailand
Your contribution resonates on two levels. First, there is a genuine need for on-the-ground assistance with daily tasks. The families that look over the children work long hours, and the facility simply doesn’t have the resources to hire as many employees as are needed. 
By helping with childcare and routine tasks like cleaning up, painting and grounds keeping, volunteers ensure that the full time staff have time to fulfill their duties or even take an overdue day off when appropriate.
That translates into better quality of life for the children even after you’ve returned home. Offsetting the task load of these overworked care givers frees them up to spend more quality time with the children. Even the shortest two-week project paves the way to healthier relationships between the kids and those who care for them.
Of course, you’ll have your own opportunity to interact with the kids. Making inroads with children who have backgrounds of abuse or abandonment is essential to their emotional development. These children need to know that others value them, and that none of their misfortune reflects on their own value. Simply spending time with children on an individual basis, whether that means playing games or walking the grounds, goes a long way toward mending self image.
The games and activities you plan can be just as formative. Too often, orphans and abandoned children suffer form a dearth of pleasant memories. Volunteers are encouraged to organize games and activities, contributing to engaging experiences that the kids will remember for the rest of their lives.
Volunteer Stories
“The kids’ faces and the sound of their laughter will stick with me forever.” – Katie Chapman, Auckland, New Zealand
“There was always a baby or toddler who needed some special attention and the cuddles were a delight. The longer you volunteer there the more responsibility you can take in caring for the children.” – Jo Alcock, Auckland, New Zealand
Volunteer Project Fees
Participation in the Children’s Home Volunteer Project starts at a minimum of two weeks at $799. Each additional week is $119.
Volunteer Project Fee Includes
Airport pick up, accommodation during orientation and entire project time, breakfast every morning, lunch every work day, 2 day orientation (including half day city tour, cultural dinner and show), onsite coordinator, 24 hour emergency assistance and written record of service completion.
Volunteer Fee Does Not Include
Plane tickets, travel insurance, cost of criminal police background check required for this project, cost of transportation to and from the project site and accommodation (roughly $5 per day), ride to the airport after service, lunch and dinner.
View more information about the Children’s Home Volunteer Project
Apply Now to Volunteer for this Project – Free to Apply
