由c3全额资助, every year we send one team member to volunteer abroad anywhere in the world for a charity of their choice.
去年的冠军是CRO & 用户体验经理, 雷切尔·哈里森, who put forward a winning application to volunteer in Chiang Mai, Thailand to help rescued elephants from working in the tourism industry.
Rachel has always been passionate about elephants, so this was a no-brainer for her. Rachel not only had the opportunity to study elephants in the wild but also live in a beautiful rural village surrounded by mountains and learn Pakinyaw (the local language). 瑞秋最近旅行回来了, and we caught up with her to find out what she got up to and what she gained from the experience.
去泰国旅游
To start off my trip I headed to Bangkok and had two nights there, 其中之一是强制隔离之夜. Once I had been given all clear and my test results came back negative, 我在曼谷度过了愉快的一天.
I had the opportunity to see some of the beautiful temples and learn how to cook some traditional Thai recipes. I also took the opportunity to meet up with one of the other volunteers on the programme early, who I spent a lot of time with during my time in Thailand.
抵达清迈
几天后，我到达了清迈, where we had an initial induction and I got to meet the remaining volunteers on my intake. 此时此刻, we were all really eager and excited to get to the village and find out where we would be living for the upcoming weeks.
徒步攀登柏丘山脉
Finally, after a long 4-hour drive up winding mountains, we reached Huay Pakoot. 我们到达后, we met the remaining volunteers and were introduced to our homestays - where we would be eating the majority of our meals and sleeping at night.
我们还参观了村子, which was spread out across a huge hill - luckily my homestay was at the top of one of the less brutal hills!
遇见大象
Each weekday morning we would have breakfast and then promptly head on our elephant hike at 8 am. 我们每天都被分配到不同的徒步旅行, which ultimately determined which ele and data we would be collecting. 每一天都是不可思议的, allowing us to meet elephants ranging anything from 7 years old to 60 years old.
一旦我们收集了相关的数据, we would either head back to base or have lunch in the forest. Usually, we would have a short break to sit down and eat before our afternoon activities began.
During the afternoons we had the opportunity to learn Pakinyaw - the local language in the village that we were staying in. Having a basic knowledge of the language allowed us to be able to communicate with the villagers and also thank them for cooking for us. Alongside the language lessons there were other various activities that we took part in during the stay:
- 村庄清理和基地改进
- Elephant biology and learning about their social biology
- 道德旅游课程
The evening was typically our free time where we would have dinner with the other volunteers and do anything from going up to Roots coffee shop, 在基地玩棋盘游戏, 或者晚上看电影.
Gvi和志愿者
Being introduced to the elephants was undoubtedly one of my favourite moments during my volunteering experience, 然而, the people that I was surrounded by completed my trip.
我选择做志愿者的公司是 GVI 哪个公司有环游世界的道德之旅, helping communities and individuals have unreal experiences that alternatively they wouldn't have been able to have. GVI puts a huge amount of work into integrating the programme seamlessly into the life of the villagers so that they aren't forced to put their elephants back into the tourism industry. The additional revenue that GVI can put into the village means that the elephants can live in the wild and have a happy life.
My trip to Huay Pakoot has inspired me and seeing the difference that GVI is making there has inspired me to continue doing more volunteering over the upcoming years.
就这样，我的时代结束了! Thank you to connective3 for letting me take part in this experience, the villagers for welcoming me into their lives with open arms and taught me all about their culture.
Are you interested in working for a company that could send you on a volunteering programme of your choice? 前往 网站 了解更多!
