Volunteering travel is a big success with the 50-plus

An interview with Dick Stroud, MD of 20plus30.com.

1. Can you tell us something about i-to-i? What does the company do, how long has been in business, what are the numbers of people you have helped volunteer.

i-to-i is an international volunteer travel and TEFL training (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) organisation. We offer around 400 projects in 21 countries, all of which enable travellers to make a vital difference abroad whilst immersing themselves in another culture. Projects range from teaching English to children in Kenya, to helping conserve Giant Pandas in China, to building homes for underprivileged families in Costa Rica. Around 4,000 people volunteer with i-to-i each year, adding up to a more than 1 million hours spent helping overseas communities annually.

2. Volunteering can mean a lot of things – can you give a couple of examples of typical things that volunteers do.

The main areas of volunteering include teaching English, conservation, community development, building and sports ventures. For example, a community project might involve working with orphaned children in Sri Lanka providing support with homework and English language lessons and generally playing with the youngsters. At one of our conservation projects in South Africa, volunteers can work at a lion park where they get involved with feeding and caring for the big cats, keeping their environment clean and maintaining the park. We also offer humanitarian packages that combine a standard tour with work such as distributing packages to AIDs victims or helping out at an elephant orphanage.

3. What type of people use i-to-i. Can you describe the range of people ages, gender and backgrounds?

Traditionally overseas volunteering used to be seen as the province of the gap year student, but more and more older people are getting involved, either through career breaks or during their retirement. The over-50s sector is now our fastest growing group. Generally we have more women than men – a 70/30 split. Because people don’t need specific qualifications for most projects, we welcome people from all backgrounds.

4. When did you start to see an increase in the number of older people looking to experience volunteering? Can you give a couple of real life examples of older volunteers?

Probably around two or three years ago – numbers of over-50s have doubled year on year for the last three years. We have had some amazing stories, such as David Howells, a 66-year old traveller who taught English at a school in Ghana. He has since returned to his village many times and has been made an honorary chief for his fundraising efforts for the school. We have also seen a married couple, Linda and Bob Woodland volunteer with us a number of times as part of their attempt to visit all the countries in the world!

5. Are there any differences in the way that the over-50s differ from your younger clients in the way they respond to the challenges they face?

Over-5Os make excellent volunteers as they bring with them different life skills and a different outlook to younger volunteers. They tend to be more patient and have very good communication and people skills.

Older volunteers sometimes take on a role as an unofficial group leader when placed with younger volunteers which seems to work well. All the skills complement each other.

6. Do you ever find that mixing the generation causes a problem? For instance some Youth Hostels are having problems because they a full of older people!

Not at all! As I’ve mentioned above, having a range of ages at a project makes it more interesting for both the group and the placement as different talents are brought along. And as one 60-year-old pointed out, when you go to a placement, you are a volunteer, working towards a common goal – age is unimportant

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7. How do you see the older volunteering market developing?

The volunteer travel sector is becoming more and more mainstream (for instance we are now affiliated with mainstream online agent Opodo) which is great as it opens the door to more and more people of all ages. As larger numbers of people learn about the opportunities overseas, and possibly follow in the footsteps of their children or grandchildren, I see increasing numbers of older people taking up the volunteer reins. Basically, the sky’s the limit!