Volunteer Overseas in Thailand

Through our partner organization Travel-to-Teach (T2T) we offer volunteer opportunities in Thailand. The Thai people are very welcoming and have a great desire to learn English. The Thai landscape is very beautiful and the culture of accepting outsiders makes Thailand an ideal place for volunteering.

Volunteer Locations in Thailand

Our partner company, T2T, is based in Nongkhai in the northeastern Isan region of Thailand, but they have now expanded into other areas of Isan and now have volunteer programs in the northwest.

North East/Isan

The North Eastern part of Thailand, Isan is the poorest and least developed region in Thailand with rice farming the dominant source of income. This region exports labor to Bangkok and the beaches in southern Thailand, as well as abroad. Isan people are ethnically and linguistically related to the people of Laos. In the northeast region, volunteer work consists of teaching English as a foreign language, school development projects, and teaching in temples.

In Isan T2T has volunteer programs in Nongkhai, Namsom, and many other villages in the Isan region. If you are interested in meditation and Buddhism we also have a program at Wat Nuen Pananao, a forest temple close to Nongkhai where volunteers stay in the temple and teach English in a temple school during the day.

North Region

Chiang Mai is Thailand's second largest city, the capital of the North and Thailand's culturally most interesting city. T2T has set up its own school in Chiang Mai and teaches children and young adults that, for various reasons, cannot attend Thai schools.

Our second northwestern volunteer location is in the small town of Mae Hong which is located on the Burmese border. Our volunteers work with several schools for Burmese refugees and at a local orphanage for Shan (Burmese) children.

Volunteer Programs in Thailand

Teaching English

Although Thailand is such a hugely popular tourist destination, Thai people have the second worst English ability in southeast Asia. Volunteer English teachers are desperately needed to build students confidence and encourage them to use their English language skills. There are many different ways that you can teach in Thailand even if you have no prior teaching experience. Below is a list of the English teaching placements offered.

Teacher/Classroom Assistant	As an English teacher in Thailand most volunteers will work alongside a Thai English teacher helping in areas such as pronunciation and general conversation. However, the Thai teacher often encourages you to take the lead role in the classroom, since their level of English is almost always lower than the volunteers’. Therefore, you will often find yourself leading the class, sometimes on your own.
Summer Camps	English camps are held during the school holidays. In Thailand this is between February - May and for the entire month of October. A typical day at English camp will last five hours. The first two hours will be teaching, you will break for one hour for lunch and the final two hours are for games and activities. The main objective of English camps is to build the students confidence and encourage them to practice their English skills. We do camps together with Thai schools but we also set up our own camps.
Teaching Monks	In addition to school teaching during the day, in the evenings our volunteers in Nongkhai and Namsom provide free English classes to monks at local temples. Volunteers usually take turns teaching the monks, usually teaching in pairs around once a week. The general standard of English of the monks is good enough to make the conversation interesting and enable you to learn about their lives as monks and to share your own life with them. Teaching is usually very relaxed and volunteers prepare lessons and teaching materials themselves.
Temple Teaching	For volunteers that are interested in Buddhism and mediation we run temple teaching programs close to Nongkhai which involve staying in a forest temple and teaching English at a local school during the day.

Volunteer Restoration Projects

Volunteer restoration projects occur mostly during school holiday periods (February-May and October.) Based in the rural parts of Thailand, we work in the small communities that don’t have enough funding to maintain their school facilities. Therefore, the money you bring to the project has a direct beneficial impact on the local community. The projects are often designed according the to the skills of the volunteers so if you already have experience or are a craftsmen, electrician, etc., these projects are an excellent opportunity to put some of your skills to good use or to gain some useful experience. Volunteers who have no previous experience need not worry as there are plenty of simple tasks to do such as cleaning, gardening and painting. For bigger tasks we employ local masons, carpenters, electricians and craftsmen. The working schedule is varied depending on external factors

To Apply or Learn More

To learn more about volunteering in Thailand, please fill out the form below and then press the Send button. Please be sure to provide your correct email address - you will receive automatic confirmation email shortly and we will respond to your request as soon as possible.

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