Volunteer in Nepal | Most Affordable Projects Starting From $200

My volunteer visit to Nepal was amazing! The people were friendly and welcoming, and the diverse landscape was amazing. The day I started my Language and Culture class, I looked out the window and asked my instructor if the mountains I saw in the distance got snow. She giggled and told me those weren't mountains, they were hills. She promised I'd see real mountains when we went into Kathmandu later in the day. As I walked over a bridge to get to Kathmandu Dubar Square, I looked towards the "hills" and saw beautiful white peaks behind them. I was amazed to see the mighty Himalayas!! Now, THOSE were mountains!
Everywhere you look in Nepal is another treasure for the senses. The beautiful, ancient architecture marries beautifully with the chaos of the city. The hustle and bustle of everyday life contrasts sharply with the shrines that seem to be everywhere, yet at any given moment, one can hear the chiming of a bell that signifies someone has uttered a prayer. The spiritual and the corporal intertwine in a beautiful dance.
If Kathmandu is the center of city life, then Pokhara is its quieter, gentler sister. The 8 hour bus ride to Pokhara treats the traveler to amazing agricultural landscapes. The road also follows a river, which is serene in some places and has tumbling rapids in others. Once in Pokhara, the lake is the main attraction. Calm and quiet, it gently beckons the traveler to take a boat ride and explore its many outlets. The highlight of my time there was seeing the rays of the rising sun shine on the snow capped peaks of the Anapurana mountain range. I am not eloquent enough to fully describe the beauty of that moment.
Once back in Kathmandu, I spent a week at my assigned orphanage. The girls were wonderful! I learned so much from them! I only hope I made at least a small difference in their lives. These were sweet, beautiful girls with inquisitive minds. It was my privilege to serve them.
I miss many things about my time in Nepal. I miss the chaos of the city, the beauty of the scenery, and the depth of the culture. However, the thing I miss the most is the warm and welcoming people.My life perception has been changed by the people I have met and by the extraordinary children I served. Friendships were made and sealed by fun and laughter. The world has become smaller and my mind has become broader by this amazing experience. NAMASTE!!

Volunteering Experience Feedback 2015

In July 2015, I enrolled in a volunteering trip to Nepal. The program that I signed up for was the medical volunteering program as I am a student currently studying physiology at McGill University.

Whilst I was nervous due to the earthquakes that preceded my trip, I was mentally motivated, determined to help make a change. The program set up by VolunteeringSolutions allowed me just that. I arrived and was picked up by the designated driver on time and was shown around the city on my way to the residence. I stayed with Miss Uma, who felt like a mother to me by the end of my experience. Her children, both adopted and not, felt like siblings and the hospitality was unforgettable. Daily her food made us feel like we were local residents of the community, and the humble accommodation showed us what life was truly like. Miss Uma was also extremely understanding of each individual’s background and facilitated the processes of travelling throughout the country. She also assisted in establishing relations with the appropriate volunteering programs by dropping us there, introducing us to the appropriate people and setting up a proper plan for our stay.

The hospital that I volunteered at was Shahid Memorial Hospital. The walk to and fro the hospital was 25 minutes and provided me with time to take in my surroundings and prepare myself for the day. Once at the hospital, my duties varied. I had a schedule which changed between departments throughout the hospital ranging from the emergency room, the ICU, the general ward and the operating room. The tasks assigned were appropriate to my skill level; as I am still studying the profession and have not been exposed to appropriate hands on activity, the program allowed me to learn practical skills such as taking vitals and patient interaction as well as theoretical understanding by access to medical professionals. The most engaging and interesting experience throughout my time at the hospital was working with Dr. Deepak in the operating theater, he allowed us to assist on surgeries in ways that were appropriate for us, taught us how to scrub in and explained to us his procedure.

Furthermore, the city of Kathmandu was beautiful, there is so much to do in and around Kathmandu that allowed me to engage with the city and make me want to stay. There are cultural excursions to temples such as the ‘Monkey Temple’ and ‘Pashupatinath’, there is night life in the Thamel area which is always buzzing with life, there is beautiful nature and forestry surrounding the city and I truly felt connected to the people by interacting with them. The freedom in the program allows one to travel throughout the country, explore particular interests yet the schedule allows one to make a positive change.

I felt appropriately equipped as the handbook that was provided before the trip had prepped me well for the trip. However, the one suggestion that I had was keeping some more money than recommended as there are costs such as eating out, travelling around the country, activities and transport.

I strongly believe that the program that I was enrolled in taught me the practicalities of the medical industry in a developing nation, and throughout the facilitation of our host parent, I was able to interact with local orphanages, and specially-abled individuals’ homes to help in as many ways as I could.

A beautiful product came out of the experience; friendships with people that I had never met before. In one room, we sat and had dinner representing over 10 nations who all got along and connected through a common goal of making a change and learning something new. I can positively say that I did just that and I had a lot of fun along the way!

I am definite on returning to VolunteeringSolutions to try and volunteer more and explore more of the programs available as I believe that I have developed as an individual and learnt to have a more positive impact on the global community.

Thank you VolunteeringSolutions,

Neil Tanna

I had the chance to start my 2014 year in Nepal doing good!

It was my first experience in volunteering abroad, the children were amazing, our host house was perfect. The orphanage was chocking at first but we managed to spend time with the children trying to create some activities and help them out with their homework. The accommodation was very clean and very well equipped to host volunteers from different places n the world. Tt was extremely cold though, temperature was sometimes 0C at night.

overall it was a great experience getting to know local people and help as much as possible. I was fascinated with the level of spirituality in the country, people are so zen and helpful. My girlfriends and I were so happy with this holistic experience.

To volunteer; is to contribute your goodness and works to humanity unselfishly, without seeking any rewards. It was worth spending the holidays with these angels.

Many people have the same thoughts or asked me the same first question when I told them I was in Nepal for 2 weeks. "Is it safe?" "How's the people there now?" To these questions, all I can say is this,"Nepal is an awesome place to be in, and a very safe one as well. No aftershocks felt by me in the 2 weeks I was there. The people are their usual friendly self. No chaos etc. Ultra safe." I would like to appeal to everyone to consider volunteering in Nepal, because they are one of the nicest bunch of citizens I've come across. Despite the 2 tragedies that struck their country, they carry on living their lives with dignity and pride. Their spirit is something we all should learn from, and to be able to help their society return back to normal was the greatest pleasure I had, knowing that I'm contributing to a strong and United country with the loveliest citizens.

I worked Monday trough Saturday in the Departments of General Surgery and Emergency Room of a Nepalese Community Hospital (Sahid Memorial Hospital). I had the opportunity to deepen my knowledge on various illnesses and clinical cases particularly present in Nepal (TB, meningitis, cellulitis, RTA etc...).
I also spent some time in a male orphanage, helping in the maintenance of the orphanage facilities and in the education of the children.
Thanks to this program I had the opportunity to really live with Nepalese people and to understand at least some aspect of Nepalese life and a lot concerning Nepalese Health Care System.

I loved my experience in Nepal this summer. I'll begin by telling you everything that I loved about your program:
- The accomodation at Uma's house were simply perfect. So much better than what we expected.
- The weekend activities were really easy and simple to organize. It helped us to be motivated by every weekend that were coming.
- During our first week, we had a lot of problems with our program. Uma was really open and immediately reassures us and started to look for something else for us. Then, we really started to enjoy our experience.

There is also some aspects that can improve:
- When we arrived at the airport, the guy that picked us up did not present himself. We were anxious and not sure if we were being kidnapped...ahaha.
- Sometimes it takes too long to have an answer to our emails.

In general I really enjoy to travel with VS.

I liked the program placement very much. The kids were joy to work with and it was a very enriching experience for me and my fellow volunteers. The highlight of my volunteering experience was to live with a local host family and to learn Nepalese culture and way of living. Our home stay mother cooked extremely delicious food. The meals will be one of the things that I will miss terribly. The accommodation was very clean and had all the basic necessities. I enjoyed staying at the home stay.I will surely recommend this program to anyone.

I really liked living with other volunteers so that you could have great moments with them during those times when you had nothing to do. Having free time after your work experience is great, for example, in the afternoon when we had nothing to do we could go sight seeing near our placement and be back in time for dinner, it would be great fun and it filled out our day splendidly.
Eventhough everyone felt very safe in our volunteer house, the host family insisted in locking us in during the night. We didn't like that much since it meant that sometimes we were forced to stay in when we wanted to go to the corner shop (before the indicated time to be back home at night) or in the morning when you had to leave early and they still hadn't opened the gate. Perhaps they should rethink this strategy or leave a key within the house, so as to have a possibility of opening the gate in case we needed it.