Laurel (China)

why i volunteer

I started looking for volunteer opportunities in Myanmar almost one month before my trip. I contacted SOT cuz the wonderful comments it received from other volunteers. I’m so glad I did that. I mainly helped with the marketing/branding for the hostel. Fiona has a clear idea of the image for the hostel - representing local culture and help local community. My duty is to deliver the image out to more people. Fiona and Erica gave me a lot of trusts. I helped to set up the volunteer page, blogs, Things To Do page, and booking confirmation email & thanks for staying with us email. I also wanted to contact famous traveling bloggers to invite them to stay with SOT. Unfortunately I didn’t get the time to finish that. 

The staff at the hostel were super friendly and happy most of the time. All of them really treat me like family. I joined the monthly staff birthday party. We had a big dinner together, drank together, and sang karaoke together. That was quite fun. Not just to me. They would go out of their way to make sure all guests feel like home at the hostel. 

During my three weeks volunteer there I didn't just do marketing for them but also tried to teach the staff how and most importantly why. I brought my knowledge of marketing to them. In return they taught me how pure relationships between humans can actually be. They took the materialism out of me. 

If you can rate volunteer experience then SOT is defo a five star.