Voluntourists at CEA
What is voluntourism?
While there are a variety of definitions, for us, voluntourism is an opportunity for vacationers or residents who wish to volunteer on a part-time basis alongside their touristic/personal activities—it could be 10 mornings over the course of a 2-week holiday or once per week over for six months.
The key point is that we have willing participants in all stages and ages who want to get involved for various reasons yet have a limited time frame. Rather then turn them away because they don’t fit into the requirements of our traditional volunteer program, we too are embracing this emerging trend and kicked off our voluntourism program earlier this year, launching it as a pilot project, specifically for the turtle program.
How does the voluntourism program work?
Once a voluntourist has been accepted, they go through an orientation and a preliminary training session, which includes both class and beach training. The voluntourists are then scheduled into the turtle program with specific tasks according to their level of training.
Typically those here for a short time will only enter the first round of training, which allows them to support the Tortugueros and assist in hands-off beach work—standing guard over a nest about to hatch, keeping watch on a nesting female, presenting information to tourists, or doing the much-needed behind the scenes work such as painting stakes.
Voluntourists that are vacationing for an extended period of time or reside close to Akumal will go through more comprehensive training sessions. This gives them more responsibility and the ability to do more hands-on work under the direction and supervision of our tortugueros.
Our voluntourists
See what some of our voluntourists have been doing in the past few months.
A group of incredibly dedicated residents (pictured here from Tulum, TAO Inspired Living, and Chan Chemuyil) have been instrumental in supporting the turtle program, including their help with the not so glamorous, yet important behind-the-scenes work.
Linda was a volunteer last year for one-month and joins us this year as a voluntourist for two weeks. When she is not up to her elbows cleaning a nest in Akumal, she spends a great deal of time operating a medical clinic in a small village in Haiti.
Mia and Alex, our youngest voluntourists who were partnered with a parent, participated in evening and morning patrols alongside a tortuguero.
With the end of turtle season fast approaching, we will be looking at how this pilot project went and hopefully develop it into something permanent for the 2017 season and beyond.
We thank all the voluntourists so far this season for their work and feedback, and to Rozanne Quintero for her dedication and commitment to making this pilot project work.
