What’s Involved
Our Sri Lanka family volunteering program is about escaping the norm and designed so you can experience this incredible country as participants rather than simply guests or tourists. For most families, volunteering while on holiday gives you an opportunity to ‘give something back’ or to put one’s skills to good use in an environment or community where they are needed. They are also about introducing children to a completely different world, giving them a chance to learn about wildlife and the environment, and some encouragement to break the moulds of consumer and indeed digitally driven life.
Many families also want to spend quality time together contributing to a genuine conservation project, sharing that feeling of achievement when they have spent a night ensuring that all the baby turtles that hatched that night made their way safely to sea for instance.
Our Sri Lanka family program is the perfect blend of projects combining community development through education and and conservation work with sea turtles. As a country Sri Lanka is extremely underrated, however the culture and natural heritage here is so rich, making the trip inspiring from beginning to end. And Sri Lankan culture celebrates family, so the welcome is beyond humbling. And, if you have cricket bat and ball for free time, beyond fun.
Our family program in Sri Lanka is suitable to all age groups. Based in around Galle around the South West coast of Sri Lanka this family program offers clean and comfortable accommodation. The projects you can do include sea turtles conservation work and community work such as teaching English. Both program can combined and there is flexibility in start dates.
Sri Lanka is a very child friendly location for you to engage in further travel before or after the program. You can visit Yala National Park for an animal safari or take the children to the many beaches or spend time exploring tea and coffee plantations in Kandy and Nuwara Ela. The options are endless and we highly recommend you spend an extra few days discovering this amazing country.
Quick Overview
Our family program in Sri Lanka will give you the opportunity to engage in different meaningful and rewarding projects helping local communities and also local conservation efforts to save sea turtles that are coming to nest on the shores of Sri Lanka. You do not necessarily have to be involved in everything and you will get an opportunity to choose what you want to be involved in.
Teaching : Our education program helps young children in local schools who are struggling with English and allows you to engage in art, playtime, singing, and any educational activities and games. You will work with age groups from 3 to 8 years old and support local Sri Lankan teachers in their daily work.
Turtles : The aim of the sea turtle project is to conserve the local nesting sites in the area and to increase turtle populations by raising and releasing baby turtles. One of the most important ways this is achieved is through the development and maintenance of hatcheries, where turtle eggs are relocated to hatch safely, away from predators before being released into the sea at night-time. The weaker turtle babies are held back from release for a ‘head-starting’ process, so that they are given the best chance of survival. You will be able to get involved with a variety of tasks, caring for turtles that live at the centre, maintaining the project area and the beach, cleaning the hatcheries, feeding the turtles and releasing them back into the wild. Kids of all age groups absolutely love this!
Galle, Sri Lanka
13th and 14th April 2020 is Sinhala New Year so we will not be able to offer you projects on those dates.
2019 | 2020 | |||
3rd November | 5th January | 19th April | 26th July | 25th October |
10th November | 12th January | 26th April | 2nd August | 1st November |
17th November | 19th January | 9th August | 8th November | |
24th November | 26th January | 26th April | 16th August | 15th November |
1st December | 2nd February | 3rd May | 23rd August | 22nd November |
8th December | 9th February | 10th May | 30th August | 29th November |
15th December | 16th February | 17th May | 6th September | 6th December |
22nd December | 23rd February | 24th May | 13th September | 13th December |
29th December | 1st March | 31st May | 20th September | 20th December |
8th March | 7th June | 27th September | 27th December | |
15th March | 5th July | 4th October | ||
22nd March | 12th July | 11th October | ||
29th March | 19th July | 18th October |
For 2021 you can select any Sunday start date of any month except April.
NUMBER OF WEEKS | 1 | 2 | |
Family- Teaching/Turtle Program | VJ PRICE in USD $ | $700 pp | $850 pp |
2 pax | $1,400 | $1,700 | |
3 pax | $2,100 | $2,550 | |
4 pax | $2,800 | $3,400 |
Price Includes
- Pre-departure guide – to prepare you for your trip
- Pick-up and drop from Colombo Airport on Sunday
- Accommodation in shared volunteer house**
- Wifi in the house
- Experienced bilingual local staff team
- All Meals in the volunteer house
- Project orientation
Whats Not Included in your program fee :
- Flights to the program destination
- Medical and travel insurance
- Visa costs
- Vaccinations
- Personal shopping and gratuities
- Local excursions
- The nearest airport for this program is Colombo Airport ( CMB )
- We recommend you apply for Visas before you arrive. Our Sri Lanka Volunteer Guide will give you guidance on how to get your visas.
- Travel Insurance is compulsory on this program. You can get in touch with our team if you need travel insurance organised.
- Vaccinations are important. We recommend you visit your local travel clinic to find out what vaccines you should take.
- We work with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office for travel to India. Goto www.gov.uk/knowbeforeyougo to find out how best to avoid trouble when abroad. Packed with essential travel advice and tips, the website also offers up-to-date country information.
- We understand it can be difficult to pay for your flights, program fees and other travel costs. Many fundraise for their journey. If you need ideas and a platform for fundraising ideas Click Here
- For support on any of the above email us hello@volunteeringjourneys.com
What Happens When I Arrive?
Living Arrangements
You will stay in the beautiful Galle district of Southern Sri Lanka. You will be staying in a volunteer house with a dining area, front lawn and private terrace. The house is located in a laid-back peaceful village surrounded by lush greenery and tropical beauty. It is only 15 minutes from historic Galle Fort and Unwatuna beach. The house is adjoined to our Program Managers house so you can get support and help anytime you require. You will get freshly cooked Sri Lankan meals everyday. Wifi is available and you can use tuktuks to get around town.
In the evenings there is plenty to do- we can help to organise cooking class or you can walk around the Galle Fort Area or go down to the wonderful beaches.
Things to do: Beaches / Galle Fort

