Foreigners who would like to get involved in the Sri Lankan community have a wide variety of projects to participate in, which address a range of issues such as poverty, the marginalization of vulnerable groups and the rebuilding of communities.
Volunteering in Sri Lanka to boost a career
On December 26, 2004, a tsunami triggered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit Sri Lanka and left the island in ruins. People from all over the world came to aid Sri Lanka and volunteered as disaster relief, which in turn, provided many of these volunteers with career-making opportunities.
As it can sometimes be quite difficult for recent foreign graduates to find a job placement, many opt to volunteer. Sri Lanka provides vast opportunities for volunteer work with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which, no doubt, a person will enhance skills or develop new talents.
Popular volunteer jobs include:
- Domestic work such as in local orphanages or with underprivileged families
- Teaching Buddhist monks, or caring for children, teenagers and people with disabilities
- Archaeological/cultural anthropological work such as community development projects
- Restoring industrial heritage
- Environmental work such as surveying and monitoring plants
- Animal care such as working at an elephant orphanage or turtle conservation project.
NGO volunteer opportunities in Sri Lanka are usually self-funded. Many NGOs have developed affordable volunteer programs, with the fee covering a volunteer’s lodging and meals, as most volunteers arrange to stay with a host family that is well screened by the organizers or the sponsoring institution. Some also include language, history and culture lessons, training materials, travel insurance, and sightseeing tours and other recreational activities as part of the package.
Teaching jobs in Sri Lanka
If it is your desire to teach, it is recommended that you consider teaching English. The English language is fairly inaccessible to the majority of the population, so it is often seen as spoken only by the privileged classes and Western-educated elite. Although, since the end of the three-decade conflict lasting until 2009, there has been a surge of interest in learning English. Therefore, there is an ever-growing need for English teachers, thus many opportunities to teach English in Sri Lanka, but again, the majority of these are on a voluntary basis.
If you are seeking a paid teaching position, it would be best for you to obtain a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate. This will be proof of your credentials and may provide more opportunities for a paid position, one of which a volunteer without the certificate would not be qualified for.
Another option to get paid to teach in Sri Lanka is to advertise your sevices yourself, such as online on expat websites or in English-language newspapers. This may be a less promising way to secure a teaching job in Sri Lanka, but if in need of some extra cash during your stay, this may be a good solution for you - just remember to get a work visa, or you may be faced with deportation.