Working in collaboration with members of the local community, assist with developing and implementing initiatives that promote gender equality. This could involve organising and facilitating ongoing educational workshops for women and girls focused on a variety of topics, including self-confidence, sustainability, health and wellness and English literacy.
In Madagascar, gender disparities are still prevalent in various aspects of life and women and girls face significant challenges that limit their opportunities, including equal access to education and employment. The women on Nosy Be island have come together to form a network of women and girls focused on supporting each other, boosting self-confidence and agency, and providing training on career development, conservation awareness, and gender equality. You will work alongside this network to provide support, present workshops, and help with resource development and capacity building.
Alongside impactful community work, GVI’s Madagascar gender equality program also gives you a chance to challenge yourself, step outside your comfort zone, and immerse yourself in a new culture, all while developing a more global perspective and testing professional and personal skills like reliance, self-awareness and leadership.
Additionally, you will live and work on an eco-base on the edge of one of rarest and remotest ecosystems in the world, with local plant and animal species – including rare and endangered lemurs – right on your doorstep. With Nosy Be’s sweeping natural landscapes, beautiful swimming and diving spots, activities like hiking and camping, and rich and beautiful Malagasy culture, this is the adventure of a lifetime in one of the world’s most unique destinations.
Work with girls and women to improve their access to employment, life skills and economic empowerment.
Live on the edge of a national park filled with rare wildlife, tropical rainforest and adventure activities, and walking distance from the beach.
Don’t just travel like a tourist. Become part of the local community and culture to experience a unique way of living – authentically.
Support and empower ongoing community development projects on the ground that are led by inspiring local NGOs.
Partner with social impact projects that are owned and led by local organisations who guide initiatives according to community priorities.
Your unique expertise, skills and interests are matched to relevant community projects that address specific challenges.
Share meaningful experiences with like-minded, passionate changemakers from all over the globe.
With expert local staff, excellent reviews and 24/7 support at every step – you can relax and enjoy the experience stress-free.
Some of the example typical activities you could participate in on this program.
Receive expert training on gender equality project objectives and procedures, as well as gender in the local socio-economic context.
Lead workshops on trust and teamwork, confidence, human rights and health. Or run conservation-related workshops on topics like climate change.
Work with local women’s groups to define their goals and support them to achieve these objectives.
Gain experience teaching English as a foreign language to women and girls. Classes can be structured or informal.
Develop self-awareness, leadership, resilience and confidence, with support and advice from experienced GVI staff members.
Use your spare time during the week to self-reflect, raise awareness on community issues on social media, or fundraise for a local project.
In your free time on the weekend, visit national parks, the local market, enjoy the beach, or see what’s on offer in the bustling streets of Nosy Be.
General | Volunteer | Intern |
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Food | ||
Safe and basic accommodation (usually shared) | ||
Airport pick-up (unless otherwise stated) | ||
All project equipment | ||
24-hour in-country support from local staff | ||
24-hour emergency desks | ||
GVI Experiences |
Pre-program training | Volunteer | Intern |
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Group introductory call | ||
Welcome presentation | ||
Endorsed GVI Specialisation Course | ||
Endorsed Leadership Course |
Project work | Volunteer | Intern |
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Sustainable project work | ||
Leadership responsibilities | ||
Data collection and research | ||
Real projects with partners |
Remote support | Volunteer | Intern |
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Program training | ||
Weekly group check ins | ||
Remote Academic Internship Supervisor | ||
Remote Career Internship Supervisor |
Post-program | Volunteer | Intern |
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Preferential recruitment on GVI positions | ||
Job portal access | ||
Endorsed Careers Course | ||
Career coaching sessions |
Certificates and achievements | Volunteer | Intern |
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PDF reference - upon request | ||
Linkedin reference and skills endorsement |
General | Volunteer | Intern |
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Additional drinks and gratuities | ||
Extra local excursions | ||
Flights | ||
International and domestic airport taxes | ||
Medical and travel insurance | ||
Personal items and toiletries | ||
Police or background check | ||
Visa costs |
Our base is located on Nosy Be island – also known as the “Perfumed Island” because of its ylang-ylang plantations, which give off a beautiful floral scent during their flowering season. This island is also renowned for its extinct volcanoes, ancient rainforests and an abundance of rare and incredible species that cannot be found anywhere else in the world, such as the Nosy Be panther chameleon, the Hawks’ sportive lemur and the Madagascan fish eagle. Nosy Be means “big island” in the local Malagasy language, and is located off the northwestern coast of Madagascar.
On our community development programs, you’ll have the opportunity to work on projects with a focus on teaching English or gender equality.
On our teaching programs you’ll assist with teaching the English language – supporting the younger students with the language, as well as assisting with their grasp of environmental education. That will take place in the mornings. In the afternoons, you will be doing the same for adults. English is a vital skill for people to learn as it’s highly sought after in the local job market and tourism industry.
When you join a gender equality program, you’ll help tackle gender disparities. On Nosy Be island, women and girls have created a network centred on mutual support, confidence and skill growth. This initiative covers areas like career advancement, conservation awareness and gender equality. Your role involves collaborating, leading workshops, and assisting with community empowerment initiatives.
If you choose to complete a wildlife conservation program in Nosy Be your work will include trekking through the Lokobe National Park, (a “strict reserve”), looking for signs of critically endangered lemurs and the great variety of bird, reptile, amphibian and butterfly species that call this rainforest habitat home. Forest surveys are conducted in the morning or at night. With spectacular sunsets and sunrises over the Indian Ocean, there are bound to be many priceless photo opportunities during the course of your program.
Your accommodation – which is a stone’s throw from the beach – consists
Upgrades are available at Les Bungalows d’Ambonara guesthouse, which is a quick 10-minute drive from our base (you’ll need a taxi, wa...
Travelling to and from Fascene Airport takes around 25 minutes, and...
You will have limited access to long-distance communications while on the program, so make sure that your friends and family know how often they can expect to hear from you. Par...
The Malagasy diet is mostly rice- and bean-based. A typical main meal consists of rice alongside servings of seasonal vegetables in a sauce, with...
Nosy Be has a hot, tropical climate all year round. The rainy, hotter season is between November and April, and the dry season from May to October. You can expect temperatures o...
We want you to make the most of the chance to live in – and contribute towards – the most diverse and unique wildernesses and communities on earth. Introducing GVI Experiences – immersive adventure, cultural and wellness activities exclusive to GVI that have been specially designed in collaboration with our local partners to support and stimulate sustainable economic development.
Enhance your impact. Expand your adventure. Explore your world.
Joining a program not only allows you to collaborate with local communities, but also offers plenty of opportunities to explore the surrounding areas or travel further afield over weekends to see what other parts of the region have to offer.
Field staff are a great source of advice, and have helped us put together the following information on local travel options. Many decide to travel before or after their experience (subject to immigration restrictions), solidifying the lifetime friendships established on the program. Please note that the below suggestions are not included in the program fee, and are for you to organise at your own expense.
You can spend time in the village and visit a local market, cafe or...
Mont Passot is the highest point on Nosy Be island, at 329 metres above sea level. It’s surrounded by eight crater lakes that are considered sacr...
June to September is humpback whale-watching season. During this season you can book a tour with a responsible, ethical tour provider. If you’re ...
Book a recreational dive to experience the exceptional variety of Indian Ocean marine life up close. Among the vibrant corals, you can spot a vas...
Visit one of Nosy Be’s many palm-lined stretches of golden beach, such as Andilana, Ambondrona, Madirokely and Ambatoloaka, and enjoy a relaxing day swimming in the warm waters ...
Visit the Sacred Tree, located close to Mahatsinjo village, on the western side of Nosy Be island. This huge banyan tree was planted by the queen of the Sakalava people in 1836,...
We’re based right on the edge of Lokobe National Park which holds the last remaining preserved primitive forest on the island of Nosy Be. The for...
South Africa is a mere three-and-a-half-hour flight from Madagascar. Fly to Johannesburg and book a safari tour through the famous Kruger National Park or experience the beauty ...
This breathtaking archipelago of islands is home to pristine beaches, coral reefs, nature reserves, as well as rare animals such as the giant Ald...
Visit the mainland to see a greater variety of species and experience other distinct cultures of Madagascar. See ring-tailed lemurs in Isalo National Park, hike the stone forest...
Madagascar is surrounded by many islands and islets. From our location on Nosy Be Island
Engaging intimately with a new context teaches global awareness, adaptability and critical thinking – skills highly valued in the modern marketplace. Local and cultural immersion is encouraged on all our programs around the world, and will also be one of the most enjoyable aspects of your experience. Luckily, there are many different activities that you can get involved in during your free time, or before and after your program.
On our community programs, the focus is on cultural topics, while on marine or wildlife programs the emphasis is more on the environmental element. Use your evenings and weekends to explore topics like local cuisine and religion, or how sustainable development challenges are affecting local contexts.
Marodoka village, which means “the ancient village” in Swahili, is located a few kilometres from Nosy Be’s centre. With exceptional architectural...
As a result of the island’s long isolation from neighbouring continents, Madagascar is home to endemic flora and fauna found nowhere else o...
The warm waters of the Indian Ocean surrounding Madagascar are home to a variety of marine species such as clownfish and manta rays. Depending on...
Many of Madagascar’s cultures have long-standing artisanal craft traditions. Some of these include intricate embroidery and brightly coloured baskets. Madagascar is also the pri...
The most notable festivals on the island of Nosy Be are dedicated to music. The Nosy Be Jazz Festival is held in April and the Donia Music Festival is held towards the end of Ma...
Most people in Madagascar speak Malagasy, a language with many dialects. The dialect that is most commonly spoken in the area in which we are based is Sakalava. Due to the influ...
If you’d like to find out what the experience of joining a GVI project is really like, simply contact us and we’ll put you in touch with one of our many Alumni.
We’ll try to match you to an Alum based on your location, nationality, age, stage of academic career, gender, and program interests. This allows you to gain insights into the experience that is most relevant to you.
Depending on your location you might be able to speak to an Alum over the phone or online, or meet up with them face-to-face at a coffee shop nearby. We also run a series of small events around the world where you can speak to GVI Alumni, Ambassadors and staff members.
Program Manager
Meet Padraig, also known as Pod, our Program Manager in Nosy Be, Madagascar. Pod is a passionate wildlife photographer and used to work professionally in the film and TV industr ...
‘If only every student could do this. It changes your life in all the right ways,’ says Chris Heritage, parent of Luke Heritage, one of our teen volunteers who has participated on two GVI programs, one in Costa Rica and another in South Africa.
We are a parent-run organisation that is incredibly serious about health and safety, and increasing the impact, as well as the long-term career benefits of our programs. Our programs help young people develop the skills to select a career path that is personally fulfilling, and live a life aligned to the well-being of our planet and the global community.
GVI is a proud member of the Gap Year Association.
Ken and Linda Jeffrey, whose son Sam volunteered with GVI in Thailand, talk about how the experience affected Sam. He also went on to volunteer with GVI again in South Africa. ‘I know it sounds like a cliche but in a sense, he did go away as a boy and he came back as a young man. Both of us could recommend GVI without any hesitation to any other parent thinking about exploring an opportunity for their children to explore the world and to see different parts of it.’
Download the Parent Pack and learn more about:
Our staff: All our projects are run by staff, selected, vetted, trained, and managed by our central office.
Health and safety: Our safety practices include a child and vulnerable adult protection policy and high participant ratios.
Staying in touch: See what’s happening on base, by following a hub’s dedicated Facebook page.
Free parent consultations: We would love to talk to you about exciting opportunities available for your child.
When it comes to support, we ensure that each participant is provided with unparalleled, 360 degree support, from your initial contact with the GVI Family, all the way through your program, and even after, as you become part of the GVI Alumni Team.
As part of this promise, we will ensure, whenever possible, that one of our dedicated staff will be available to meet you at the airport. In most locations, we also set up a Whatsapp group to help with managing airport arrivals.
We will arrange with you prior to your departure that, should you arrive in the agreed upon pick up window, a member of our staff will be there to welcome you, easily identifiable in a GVI t-shirt or holding a GVI sign and wearing a friendly smile.
This means there will be someone there to greet you as you land, and from there you will be transported to your GVI base to start your adventure and meet the rest of your team.
All of our programs have short-, mid- and long-term objectives that align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). This enables us to report on our collaborative impact across the world in a streamlined manner, measuring which UN SDGs we are making a substantial contribution to. Furthermore, this will help our local partners and communities measure and visualise their contribution to the UN SDGs.
Prior to your arrival on base, you will be educated about the UN SDGs. Then once you arrive on base, you’ll learn about the specific goals we have in this particular location, our various objectives, and also clarification of how your personal, shorter-term involvement contributes to these.
Our aim is to educate you on local and global issues, so that you continue to be an active global citizen after your program, helping to fulfil our mission of building a global network of people united by their passion to make a difference.
With an abundance of diverse natural landscapes, a variety of unique, endemic species and a diversity of distinct cultures, there are many opportunities for expanding ethical and responsible ecotourism and cultural tourism throughout Madagascar, including on the Nosy Be island where we are based. The country’s truly special biodiversity makes it a precious conservation area. Our work on Nosy Be includes assisting local organisations and community members with gender equality initiatives and increasing their English language literacy so that they can better achieve education, economic development and conservation goals.
Conversational workshops with park rangers and other adults
We’re based at the edge of Lokobe National Park and work with the local community to improve their English language literacy through conversational English workshops. This skill assists them with achieving their conservation and professional development goals.
Primary school educator and student support
We work with several primary schooling educators in communities surrounding Lokobe National Park. We support them in improving their English language literary resources for learners between six and eleven years of age. In addition to creating resources for English language literacy, we also assist local educators with improving their resources on a range of other subjects and topics related to their goals for their students.
Community-led gender equality initiatives
Gender disparities exist in Madagascar, limiting opportunities for women and girls, especially in education and jobs. On Nosy Be, a women’s network promotes support, confidence and training, addressing key health and equality issues. We collaborate by expanding skill access, enhancing economic empowerment, and providing guidance for growth. This includes workshops, resource development, and capacity building within the network. Together, we work towards driving positive change.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals the GVI Nosy Be community hub contributes towards are Goal 4: Quality Education, Goal 5: Gender Equality, Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities, Goal 13: Climate Action and Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals.
GVI Nosy Be long-term objectives:
1. Improve English language literacy resources for adults in the communities surrounding Lokobe National Park.
2. Improve English language literacy for Lokobe National Park park rangers.
3. Improve resources for primary school educators and their students in communities surrounding Lokobe National Park.
4. Support teacher training through workshops in educational approaches, skills and techniques.
5. Improve the opportunities and autonomy of local women and girls and raise awareness about the importance of women’s empowerment.
Below is a list of core ethics and best practices we believe are essential to the operation of high quality, ethical volunteer and sustainable development programs. We believe that all responsible volunteer and sustainable development operations should focus upon these principles. If you are considering volunteering, these are some of the key considerations you should question, to ensure that your time and money contributes towards positive change.
We want to constantly develop our own understanding of ethical best practice. In so doing, we aim to provide an exemplary industry standard for other education institutions, international development organisations, and social enterprises. Our Badge of Ethics stands for the drive to always do good, better. Find out more, click on the Badge below.
We aim to design all our projects in collaboration with local organizations and communities and ensure that they are locally driven.
We aim to clearly define short-, mid-, and long-term objectives with sustainable outcomes for all our projects.
We aim to track, record, and publish the impact of each of our projects.
We aim to build in-country capacity by assisting local organizations in becoming self-sustaining.
For each local organization we work with, we aim to have a plan in place for withdrawing support responsibly.
We aim to ensure that every participant is assigned a clear role and that they are fully trained and supported to carry out their work by specialized staff.
In all our actions we aim to respect the skills and efforts of all and seek to protect the rights, culture and dignity of everyone who engages with GVI.
We work to ensure that credit for the results of any project, along with any data collected, research conducted, or Intellectual Property developed, remains the property of local organizations.
We do not condone and aim to withdraw support of orphanages and residential care centers.
We will live by our Child Protection and Vulnerable Adult policies.
As an organization, GVI is committed to striving toward best practice, and to educating both our potential participants, our partners, and the world at large about them. Both the volunteering and sustainable development sectors are increasingly, and rightly, under scrutiny. Many recent local and global articles highlight poor practices and questionable ethics. GVI is widely recognized for striving to apply global best practice in the volunteering, education and sustainable development sectors throughout our operations by reputable organizations such as ChildSafe.
However, global best practice is always evolving and we dedicate both time and resources to engage with internationally respected experts and learn from the latest research to ensure our programs both fulfil their potential to create maximum positive impact, and minimise their potential to create unintentional negative impact. Along with and as part of the sustainable development and volunteering community, we are constantly learning and applying this learning to practice. We do not always get everything right, but we seek feedback from our community members, partners, participants and our staff, and react accordingly. We know are already doing a great job, and feedback we have received confirms this, but we aim to do even better and are continuously refining our operations to improve upon our already excellent reputation.
We don’t support the use of wild animals for entertainment purposes. This includes riding animals, having them perform tricks, feeding or bathing them or getting close to them to take photos
We don’t encourage, support or allow the rearing of “orphaned” wild baby animals kept at a “sanctuary”. The conservation value of these types of programs is negligent and would only ethically be used in extremely rare cases
When wild animals are restricted for conservation purposes we follow the guidelines of Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA), approved by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.
We ensure that the Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare are followed. These include the freedom to express normal behaviour and freedom from distress, discomfort, hunger, thirst, fear, pain, injury or disease.
We ensure that conservation efforts are also always locally led, that community needs are front-and centre of any conservation effort and that our participants, projects and partners work to increase local community engagement in local conservation efforts.
We don’t offer any veterinary programs or animal rescue and rehabilitation programs. We don’t allow participants to do any work they would not be able to do in their home country.
We don’t support or allow participants to work in institutional residential care facilities, also known as orphanages. We partner with ReThink Orphanages and Freedom United.
Our Child and Vulnerable Adult Protection Policy requires all our staff and participants to complete a criminal background check and to learn why you shouldn’t reveal a child’s identifying factors in photographs. We support the ChildSafe Movement.
We don’t offer any programs where our participants engage in medical treatment. This is because our participants aren’t typically qualified to do this work and would therefore not be able to do this work in their home country. Our participants only assist with public health programs.
We don’t offer any programs where our participants work directly with people with disabilities. This is because our participants aren’t typically qualified to do this work and would therefore not be able to do this work in their home country.
We won’t sugarcoat it — traveling abroad is usually a complex process that carries an element of risk. But this is exactly why we’re passionate about providing extensive support throughout the process as well as the highest safety standards during the in-country phase. We believe that volunteering abroad should not only be impactful, but an enjoyable experience that carries as little risk as possible. This is exactly how we’ve been able to maintain our reputation as the most highly respected volunteering organisations in the sector over the past two decades.
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Make the most of our unique programs with these exclusively curated local adventure and wellness experiences.