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If you feel like you need to delay the inevitable transition to the “Real World” a little while longer, WWOOFing might be the perfect alternative. World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (also known as Willing Workers on Organic Farms) (WWOOF) is an organization which facilitates the placement of volunteer workers on organic farms around the world. There are WWOOF groups in dozens of countries and across the U.S. each maintaining similar standards and working together to promote the aims of the WWOOF idea.

WWOOF volunteers (’WWOOFers’) do not receive any financial payment for their work; instead the host farm provides volunteers with food, accommodation and opportunities to learn, in exchange for assistance with farming or gardening activities.

The only expenses for the WWOOFer are the transpiration fees to get to their host farm, and a small annual membership fee to join the organization in the country they wish to work in order to access the database of participating farms in that country.

The advantages of WWOOFing:

There are many obvious advantages of taking time to WWOOF after graduation. For starters, you can WWOOF anywhere from a couple of weeks to a few months. However, you’re essentially free to begin and stop whenever you’d like - unlike popular programs like Ameri*Corps or the Peace Corps, where you’re committed to the program for a number of years. With WWOOFing, you can treat it more like a summer vacation of doing-good before you begin your “Real World” job search.

The additional benefits are that you would be doing a great service to the world - promoting organic farming; you would meet a fantastic new group of people, providing you with a fabulous networking opportunity; it’s a much less expensive alternative to popular “work camps” or “volunteer vacations”; and lastly, any long-term, world-wide volunteer experience like this looks great on a resume.

The Disadvantages:

WWOOFing can be a lot more disorganized than a more established program (like the “work camps” and “volunteer vacations” mentioned above) and most volunteers are left largely on their own to find and facilitate their placement and arrange for their travel. Not all farms are held to the same standards, either. And while it’s generally pretty easy to find out from fellow WWOOFers which farms are the best and which to stay away from, sometimes choosing a farm to work for can be very hit-or-miss. And lastly, one of the large premises of RealWorldReally.com - while volunteering for an organization like WWOOF is a fantastic opportunity — for both personal enrichment and resume building — you’re still only delaying the inevitable.

For More Information:

• www.wwoofinternational.org
  
• www.wwoof.org
• http://groups.myspace.com/wwoofers

[image by yancs]

Technorati Tags: WWOOF, WWOOFing, college, graduation, gap year, organic, farming, volunteer, green

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