Ambassadors For Children is in one sense a volunteer placement agency; it’s a non-profit organization which makes ties with local projects or organizations and plan trips which include a few days volunteering and a few days of organized cultural excursions and/or sightseeing. In addition to the organized trips, it also is involved in impact projects it has deemed sustainable, and it works with these projects on a longer-term basis, providing support for and raising awareness about them.

You can check out a list of their upcoming trips here. Examples include a trip focusing on Rishikesh, India, including three days of participating in voluntary activities in an orphanage attached to an ashram. The cost for 16 days – for a “double” – is $1399, including accommodation, most food and activities, but not airfare.

Another trip involves seven days in Serbia, which is certainly not a common destination for volunteer trips. Seven days is of course a compact time, and volunteer activities are connected to one day each in two different centers – one for youth and one for mothers and babies. The cost, including various excursions and (I’m not kidding) a “Visit to the Royal Palace where tea will be served with HRH Prince Alexander and HRH Princess Katherine” (?!), is $1199 for a double.

I’ve profiled many different organizations arranging volunteer work here and certainly different types of organizations appeal to different types of people; Ambassadors for Children seems to me to fall more under the category of organized tours, though there is definitely a volunteer component. Still, a wide variety of experiences can have value.