Since I was a teenager, I've used volunteering opportunities as a way to help out in ways I'm not used to, meet people from very diverse backgrounds, and lately, as a way to travel and experience countries beyond conventional tourism.
For the last two years, I've been volunteering with All Hands and Hearts, a disaster relief organisation that works alongside local residents to help families and communities recover by building safe, resilient schools, homes, and community infrastructure.
My Fundraising Page →From medieval ruins in the Pyrenees as a teen, to typhoon recovery in the Philippines. Each project shaped the next.
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Back with All Hands and Hearts, this time helping families and schools recover from successive typhoons in the southern Philippines. Building back stronger — disaster-resilient schools designed to weather the next storm.
My first deployment with All Hands and Hearts — rebuilding earthquake-damaged schools in rural Nepal. Hard work at altitude, an extraordinary team, and lifelong friendships with locals and volunteers from across the world.
Conservation work in the floodplain forests east of Vienna — clearing invasive species, maintaining trails, and protecting one of Central Europe's last large wetland ecosystems.
A small town on the Elbe with a long industrial past. Two weeks restoring public spaces alongside German and international volunteers — concrete, paint, sweat, and surprisingly good currywurst.
The following summer, a Roman-era dig on the Mediterranean coast — uncovering pottery, mosaics, and the bones of a 2,000-year-old wine industry that turned out to be one of the largest of Hispania Citerior.
Two weeks excavating medieval ruins in the Catalan Pyrenees as a teenager. My first taste of "volunteering as travel" — sleeping in dorms, eating with the team, and getting my hands dirty under a 12th-century church.
