Volunteering in Nepal

Volunteering can make a difference!

Good that you’re interested in volunteering in Nepal!

We’ve been to Kathmandu and met an amazing person there who arranges volunteer jobs for foreigners and really wants what’s best for Nepal. He believes in his country and his goal is to make Nepal prosperous. For this he will need lots of help!

He is looking for volunteers for one of his many projects like teaching primary school or high school, health education or an environmental campaign. These are only a few out of many projects you can do in Nepal. There’s about 80 projects available throughout the country.

The costs of volunteering

I heard that volunteers coming to Nepal often get sent here by different organisations that charge quite a lot of money. And this all goes into their own pockets, because the money never reaches Nepal. A shame, right?
Through us and our contact person you can skip the high interfering organisations and pay only the necessary costs. These costs being:

• 5000 rupees ($ 50) administration costs for the organisation in Nepal, which you get to pay upon arrival to the contact yourself.
• 1000 rupees ($ 10) for your accommodation when you stay in their guesthouse in Kathmandu. This money includes: sleeping, shower, breakfast, lunch and dinner. You pay this money to mom (after one day you will see her as your second mom) every night and she uses it to buy your food and maintain the house.
• 1000 rupees ($ 10) transportation fee to pick you up from the airport and take you to the guesthouse for your first night. You pay this also upon arrival to the contact.
• In some cases, depending on the project (mostly for rural areas) you have to pay for a guide or translator. Costs differ for each project, so make sure to check the exact costs after you picked a project you like.

These are all costs that you will have to pay while you are in Nepal and that will all contribute to the development of Nepal.

What other organisations ask as a fee is mainly their own salary. Nothing of this money ever gets to charity, which is a shame.
The cheapest organisation we found is still asking almost $ 400 dollars to set up the initial contact and provide you with information, which we think is outrageous.

Sadly enough we are also unable to do all this work for free, even though we would very much like to. That’s why we ask for a contribution of only € 50,-.
This money we will use to:

• maintain and improve our website
• invest in advertisements so Nepal gets more volunteers to help develop this beautiful country
• maintain contact with the projects in Nepal and keep them updated
• search for new projects in Nepal and other countries
• provide you with information about your project
• after these costs a small sum will remain which serves as:
  • a compensation for the time invested replying to all emails
  • operating as a contact for you to answer all your questions up front and during your project via mail, whatsapp, Skype
  • filtering the projects for you to find some that suits your skills and wishes (of course the final choice is yours)

Unfortunately it’s not possible to do it for free, but we think these are reasonable costs and the absolute minimum requirements to keep the good work going. When you apply for a volunteering job, we send you an applicant form. Filling out this form means that you agree with our administration costs. After sending us the form we will inform you more deeply on all the projects. When we agree on one, we will wait for confirmation of payment and after that, send you to our contact person. Of course you can always ask us for some more information by sending an email, free of charge.

Volunteering projects

There’s about 80 projects to choose from in Nepal through our contact person. Here in Kathmandu for example, you can do a project on a primary school for children from very poor families. You can teach (English for example) or do a health project. It’s important to have an idea about the children’s health and environment, because the school tries to help out as much as they can. In Kathmandu you will stay in a homestay where we’ve been during our stay in Nepal too. It’s only 1000 rupees a night with breakfast and dinner included and the family you stay with is very nice and makes your feel right at home.

If you choose a project in a rural area, you might want to team up with someone you know. It can be very hard in these remote areas where nobody speaks your language, but it surely is an adventure. In these cases there will be costs added for a translator and costs for transport will be higher because it’s further. Of course the choice of what project you want to do is completely up to you.

Costs for flying into Nepal and getting your visa are logically for you to pay, but this way you get complete freedom to do whatever you like and change your plans if you want to. Maybe you’d like to extend your stay after volunteering for another project or to travel around in the beautiful Nepal. When you’re seriously interested I can give you the contact information of my Nepali contact and together you can find a suitable project for your time, budget, experience and age.

Interested?

If you’re interested, please send an email to info@onesickdream.com and ask for an application form.

Please show this website to all your friends that might be interested, as Nepal needs a lot more volunteers to reach their goal.

Any questions? You can ask them here or send us an email.

What else to do in Nepal?

If you are done with your volunteer work in Nepal there is a lot more stuff you can do there, like going on a trekking!
When we were here the first time we did a trek to Everest Base Camp and the views there are amazing!

There’s also a lot of cultural places to visit and you can enjoy nature.

One promise we can make:
You will never forget Nepal!