When living in a place for longer, you might feel like contributing to the community. Volunteer work is a great way to do so. Let me share with you my experiences about volunteer work opportunities in Ireland, mainly the Cork area (southeast).
Volunteer Work in Ireland
Penny Dinners
Penny Dinners is a charity that prepares food and gives it to homeless people. They serve around 2000 meals per week.
When volunteering there, we had to prepare the food, serve the people and clean the kitchen afterward. Super easy and fun volunteer work opportunity in Ireland!
Christmas Shoe Box Wrapping
Every year in November/December you can help out Team Hope by donating old shoe boxes and wrap them up in wrapping paper. It also helps if you buy some things to put in these boxes, such as pencils, soft toys, clothes, etc.
When volunteering there you fill the boxes, depending on age and gender, and put them in bigger boxes. Those will then be shipped off in a huge container to less developed countries so that the people there can find some joy during the Christmas season as well! This certainly is a volunteer work opportunity in Ireland that comes from the heart.
Field of Dreams
One charity that supports adults with Down Syndrome and provides opportunities to acquire life and working skills is the Field of Dreams.
During this volunteer work opportunity in Ireland, we had to dig up the ground, get rid of weed for 2 hours and discovered my non-existing gardening skills. However, it was a fun day with colleagues, super sunny and in the end, we were provided with a great lunch including sandwiches, cake, tea, and coffee.
Beach Cleaning
Another great volunteer work opportunity in Ireland and probably one that you can do anywhere in the world is beach clean up. I volunteered at Clean Coasts in Cork.
You basically collect rubbish that people leave behind at the beach, or what the waves wash ashore especially plastic. You will be surprised by what you find!
Why we should volunteer?
In my opinion, we should all do volunteer work regularly out of the following reasons:
- You will make a positive impact on other people’s life.
- It strengthens the community which in return means that the quality of life will improve, it gets safer, you get healthier, etc.
- You will meet inspiring people along the way and learn new skills, you might not even know you have.
And finally, because it just feels good to help ❤️
Also check out my other volunteer work abroad opportunities in Laos, Japan, and South Korea.
I am very interested in volunteering in Ireland. I visited Ireland about 3 years ago and loved it. Where do volunteers stay?
Hi Sue,
Happy to hear! It always depends on the volunteering. Maybe you share a room, maybe you have your own, etc. Check out websites like Workaway and Worldpackers to get an idea.
Am from algeria, l love traveling and volunteering, i have visted many contries in Europe, i would like to volunteer in ireland, how Can i do this?
Hi Tariq!
Thats great to hear that you want to volunteer abroad. I am currently also volunteering in Asia. I found our the best way to find volunteer opportunities is with http://www.workaway.com have you heard of this platform?
Hello, how do I participate in volunteer work?
You can just contact these organisations and then they will let you know what times they have available for volunteering. Are you from Cork area?