Three Cheers for Volunteers: Chiang Mai University makes long term stays in Thailand simple and rewarding via their new volunteer program.

It’s an old adage that the more you give in life, the more you receive. However, questions remain: what’s the best way to give? And what is it you’re keen to receive in return?

Now there’s an exciting new volunteer program spearheaded by Chiang Mai University’s Language Institute which makes answering those questions a whole lot easier. In matching foreign tourists and expats with a wide array of local volunteer opportunities, the Institute aims to benefit not only the local Thai community, but also make it easy and rewarding for foreigners to discover Thailand’s true roads less-travelled. The program places an emphasis on building relationships through cross-cultural exchange, ensuring lively and treasured memories for everyone involved, and fostering long-term, sustainable development.

What’s more, the Institute helps make it exceptionally easy for volunteers to stay in the country for the duration of the program. A minimum four-hour per week (or 16 hours a month) commitment grants volunteers instant eligibility for a coveted one-year renewable Non Immigrant “O” visa.

Notably, the program is designed to be inexpensive. Set up as a non-profit, only a modest fee is required from foreign applicants to help cover administrative costs associated with maintaining an up-to-date network of placement sites, as well as providing individualized orientation, counselling, and the securing of any necessary visas.

Though volunteers are most commonly placed as English teachers (official qualifications are not necessary), those with special abilities such as in health care, teaching art or music, etc. can be specially accommodated as well.

So what’s the catch? There isn’t any: The success of the Institute’s popular TEFL programs has allowed it to provide this much-needed new service to foreigners and locals alike. Moreover, they do offer packages for those who want to combine a TEFL degree or a Thai Language and Culture course with a volunteer experience. So everybody gives, and everybody receives in kind. For more information refer to our Opportunities page.