We invited Camilla Marsh to share her amazing work and views on travellers and NPOs uniting through conscious and ethical volunteering. Camilla is part of the Brownie Points family, she was part of the team in the early days and we will forever be grateful for her contribution.

We are also inspired by her work and passion to make a meaningful difference.

Flee from the fast lane of consumerism-based tourism and sidle into the idle country lane of slow and sustainable travel. Find out below how you can be included in Gemtrack’s first ever conscious and ethical volunteer guide to South Africa.

Here at Gemtrack we aim to change the way the world experiences travel, taking it from superficial encounters to deep enriching experiences, from exploitation to education and from single use greetings to united cultures and communities. We believe in cultural exchange and engagement, authentic immersion and knowledge sharing, the fostering of true bonds between travellers and host communities that sends ripples of positive impact across our globe.

And this ripple rapidly turns to a fast flowing current of change when travelers and NPOs unite through conscious and ethical volunteering.

As An NPO, Why Host Volunteers?

In tow with a fresh and creative perspective, volunteers bring with them a toolbox of innovative skills which can be used to shape and expand the success of your NPO in new, previously untapped ways. Need help managing your social media? Want to translate your newsletter into German to reach a whole new sector? Or simply require more hands in the soup kitchen? Hiring volunteers is the way to go.

Each volunteer is an entry point into a whole new network that could potentially broaden the scope of your NPO nationally as well as internationally, garnering amplified support for your cause.

“Slow travel is a set of practices that come with a certain state of mind. Curiosity is key, immersion is crucial and much can be gained with an open heart and open mind.” Aishwarya Shah, Gemtrack Travel

As A Traveler, Why Volunteer?

Giving your time and skills to good causes and the upliftment of others is guaranteed to uplift your own mood and state of mind. You will learn to see life through a radically new lens, letting go of limiting beliefs and exponentially expanding the horizons of what you believe to be possible in this world.

“Slow and sustainable travel gives you the opportunity to speak with the locals and do as the locals do, promoting cross cultural exchanges and cultural submersion, which has been scientifically suggested to have a positive effect on personality.” CJ Sincliar of  Go Travel and Talk

Ethical and conscious volunteering is a symbiotic exchange between traveler and host community where both benefit equally, albeit differently, from the relationship. Whereas the traveler may come away with a heightened appreciation for diversity and the true meaning of community, locals may practice language skills or expose their children to a broader world view.

This creates a sense of unity across differences which is key to consciously changing the way our world works.

As An NPO, Here’s How You Can Collaborate With Gemtrack

We are so excited to announce that we’re creating our first slow and sustainable travel guide to South Africa, and in fact our first travel guide in Africa! We have already created guides across four regions of South East Asia which have proven very popular, with over 1000 downloads on the first day of release. Our guides are free to access and are downloadable from our site as well as from the platforms of our cross-collaboration partners.

The focus for our niche travel guide is a “Conscious and Ethical Volunteer Guide to South Africa,”  which will provide thousands of travelers both within South Africa and abroad with comprehensive insider knowledge on the best conscious causes to lend their time and skills to.

As an NPO featured in our guide, you will also be given a profile on Gemtrack for an entire year, increasing your visibility through site traffic as well as through our social media channels.

If you would like your NPO to be featured, or know of another conscious business that might be interested, from eco-stays to nature conservations, permaculture farms to community projects – get in touch with me.

You can reach me at:

Camilla Marsh

[email protected]

+27 66 492 7184

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