Volunteering in Thailand

First of all we would like to welcome you! We are very grateful that you are taking your time to look at our website and consider volunteering with us!

Gaia Ashram is an eco learning center in the Northeast of Thailand. Gaia Ashram offers courses and workshops on Permaculture Design, Ecovillage Design, and Deep Ecology! At Gaia Ashram we aim to live in harmony with nature and all her beings

At Gaia Ashram we practice:

• Organic Farming
• Permaculture
• Ecosystem Restoration
• Reforestation of our land
• Natural Building
• Processing Natural Products
• Work with local community
• Art & creativity
• Spirituality
• Reconnecting with Nature
• Yoga & Meditation
• Living in Community

How to volunteer at Gaia Ashram in Thailand?

Joining this introduction week will give you an introduction to Ecovillage Lifestyle and Ecovillage design principles, you’ll get to know our land, our areas of work, our ethics and values, and learn the basics of natural building, gardening, and introduction into Permaculture and Deep Ecology. This introduction week will also help you to understands various aspects of community living. It will make your volunteering experience at Gaia much more enriching with the awareness and understanding of the principles behind what we are doing at Gaia. This introduction week will also give you a clearer idea how you can best contribute to ongoing projects. If you stay for a long time, we can find a work area together that suits you, our project, and Mother Earth.

If you join us for an Ecovillage Lifestyle Experience Week (ELEW) and then volunteer, the minimum time commitment to stay as a volunteer is 1 week after the conclusion of the ELEW. If you come to volunteer but you’re not able to attend an ELEW, the minimum volunteer commitment is 2 weeks. If you would like to come and experience Gaia but you cannot stay long enough to volunteer, we will be happy to welcome you as an eco-farmstay guest. You may also join as a guest if you need more leisure time and a less structured stay. This will give you the freedom to decide when to join or not.

We ask our volunteers to support us 5 to 6 hours per day. Wednesday afternoons and weekends are off. On the weekends, we can help volunteers to organize trips to the nearby cities of Nong Khai and Udon Thani if they are interested. There are a range of leisure activities available to guests and volunteers (see leisure section below). 

Gaia Ashram welcomes families and people with kids who want to volunteer and join the community. Families should take care of their kids themselves and Gaia Ashram will give the families the time and space to do so. Kids are welcome to join our activities that are appropriate for them.

If you are interested in volunteering with us, please contact us and make sure that you read through the information below to the end and read through our vision and values.

Volunteer activities on our tropical permaculture farm in Thailand!

As mentioned above, we recommend all volunteers to join our ECOVILLAGE LIFESTYLE EXPERIENCE WEEK at first to get an overview of the working areas on our land. This way you also can find out what area you like the most and how you can support us in a way that suits you and our project.

Generally we have a few main kinds of volunteer activities at Gaia Ashram:

• Natural building
• Organic gardening & permaculture farming
• Ecosystem restoration and nature regeneration
• Making natural products such as essential oils and hydrofoils
• Others (Architecture, Arts, Marketing, Documentation, Designing etc)

Working with natural cycles and patterns:

We have 3 seasons in Thailand and our activities are strongly related to the natural cycles and changes:

Rainy Season: July until October

At this time we are planting lots of trees and some water-loving veggies. There also might be some ongoing building projects going on that we will be working on.

Cool season: November until February

This is the main time for vegetable production and organic gardening but also a good time for building projects as it is dry.

Dry/Hot Season: March until June.

Generally, the hot season is a time for building and a good time for us to go to places that are not so hot.

Learn about Natural and Earthen Building at Gaia Ashram!

At the moment, we have 7 natural buildings on our land. We are still working on some structures, maintaining existing ones, and renovating others. We try to use as many natural materials as possible and we try to design our systems to have a very low to zero environmental impact. Some of the things you might be learning regarding natural building during your stay:

• Making Adobe bricks!
• Building wall
• Natural plasters
• Natural Paints
• Wattle and cob
• Earthbag building

Ecosystem Restoration & Regeneration

Our aim is to regenerate the land and help Mother Earth and all her beings to thrive. From nature’s perspective, Gaia Ashram is in the establishing phase. The land we are regenerating is about 12 hectares and used to be a rice field up until 2014, with degraded soils and pretty much nothing on it. Now, in 2024, we can see that the land has come a long way towards restoring itself & transforming. Pioneering species are doing their work, native trees have come up again, and we are assisting nature, or Gaia, in its self-restorative ability. This process of assisting nature is one of the most important volunteer jobs.

A part of the volunteers’ purpose here is to help regenerate and work on ecosystem restoration. We work on our agroforestry systems, organic gardens, and a lot more. By doing this, volunteers can get an understanding of what it takes to support Mother Earth in her natural restoring and healing systems, i.e. from a zero bare situation towards a thriving throbbing with life productive edible ecosystem and thereby making its contribution to the larger biosphere.

To heal nature and ourselves is what we are all about at Gaia Ashram. Gaia Ashram aims to be a place that inspires people to do the same.

Other volunteer Activities

We are also sometimes looking for people who have skills and can help in:

Architecture:

• Making designs for the structures on our new land + assisting with construction. We are especially looking for someone who is experienced with both architecture and natural building for this position. 

Office:

• social media development
• website development
• marketing
• event promotion
• organisation

Art & creativity:

• design and implementation of artwork such murals, mosaicking, natural sculpting etc.

Spirituality:

• offering yoga sessions
• meditation session
• other spiritual sharings

Gaia Cafe

• serve customers
• help in kitchen
• make and sell natural products

Work Structure for volunteers

During the week we work on a range of projects depending on the needs of the time. We have a morning session, a break for lunch and resting, and another session in the afternoon (see daily schedule below).

Volunteers & interns also join into the chore groups that help us to organize our community life and also to take responsibility for our shared home. Volunteers cook breakfast, take care of the dishes, take care of the compost on a daily rotational basis & clean the community spaces. When you arrive this will be explained by the long-term community members. If something is not clear please do not hesitate to ask the team or any longer-term volunteers.

Daily Schedule

Our days are most of the time structured like this but can change slightly due to season, activities, ongoing courses, and the number of volunteers:

 Weekly structure 

• Monday:        Cleaning blitz / Intro to week / Afternoon: making eco-bricks 
• Tuesday:        Regular Working Sessions
• Wednesday: Morning Working Session / Afternoon: Trip to Market
• Thursday:      Regular Work Sessions / Evening: Documentary
• Friday:            Regular Work Sessions
• Saturday:      Day off. Optional trip to Nong Khai or Udon Thani.
• Sunday:         Day off. Optional trip to Nong Khai or Udon Thani.

Practical Information:

Gaia Ashram has developed to the stage where we are now funded through personal investments by the founders, through our educational offerings, through donations, and through contributions from our volunteers, interns, and guests.

To volunteer we recommend volunteers to first join the ECOVILLAGE LIFESTYLE EXPERIENCE WEEK first if possible. The Ecovillage Lifestyle Experience week will cost you 7,500THB p.p. for the week. Included in this price is dorm accommodation, 3 vegetarian/vegan meals per day, yoga and meditation, as well as all sessions on Ecovillage Design, Permaculture, and Natural Building.

Volunteer Contributions:

For every additional week as a volunteer, we ask for a contribution of 350 THB per night. We ask volunteers to stay a minimum of a week or 7 nights after the ELEW, or at least two weeks if not attending the ELEW. The volunteering fee, for adult, per week after the ELEW is 2,450 THB. Volunteering fee, for youth (4 to 13 years old), is 1,225 THB per week. These fees include food. Children below 4 years old are free to stay with us without cost.

As mentioned above, if you cannot stay that long or need more time for your own projects and leisure, then you are welcome to join the Gaia Ashram Eco Farmstay instead. As a volunteer we ask for your support on the land for 5-6 hours a day (Wednesday afternoon is free & weekends too).

The volunteer fee helps cover day to day daily living expenses (such as electricity, groceries, water, etc.) and upkeep of land and infrastructure, as well as going towards the salaries for Thai staff who support the project & the volunteers. 

From our end, aside from food and accommodation, this exchange means that you receive access to:

• Education and hands-on experience with the volunteering activities we do during your stay (natural building, permaculture gardening, etc)
• A range of programming which usually costs a few hundred baht per session/class to attend elsewhere; these offerings might include yoga and/or tai chi, meditation, dance, community-building activities, game nights, workshops, and more.
• A beautiful natural environment that has been lovingly restored over the course of the past ~10 years 
• An immersion in community living

 

Your contribution helps sustain and grow Gaia Ashram project. We are very grateful for your support. 

 

The room rate includes 3 vegetarian meals from the Gaia Community Kitchen.  There is the option to join the Gaia Ashram Internship program after joining the ELEW and having volunteered for three weeks.

 

Gaia Ashram Residential Internships

If you want to dive deeper into Permaculture, Ecovillage Design, and Holistic Living, and you are motivated, dedicated, and committed, you have the option to become an Intern.

You can join as an intern after having joined the Experience Week & have been volunteering with us for three weeks. Then you would need to commit to stay at least for 2 full months.

For more information have a look at our INTERNSHIP page.

Thai visa

If you are coming for a short time to Thailand most countries can get a visa on arrival which is valid for one month after you can extend it for another month at a local immigration office (for Gaia Ashram at Udon Thani).

If you are planning to stay longer we recommend volunteers to get a Thai Tourist Visa from the Thai embassy in their home country. Generally, you can get a 2 months visa which can be extended at the local immigration office in Udon Thani for a month.  If you want stay longer then these 90 days you can cross the border to Vientiane, Laos and extend your visa at the Thai Embassy there. We are relatively near Vientiane (about one hour of travel).

Please be aware that the important dates are on the stamp given on arrival by the Thai immigration officer at the airport/land crossing.

If you intend to stay longer than 3 months at Gaia Ashram please let us know and we can give you more information.

Volunteer Insurance

We ask volunteers to get appropriate travel insurance that covers volunteering in Thailand in case of any incidents. Please check out the following insurance companies as a reference who are specialized in travelers and would cover volunteering:

• World Nomads
• OVEurope

What to bring?

• Flashlight
• In the cool season (November till the beginning of March) some warm clothes
• Rainy season boots are helpful/raincoat or umbrella
• Mosquito spray (also available in our shop)
• Work clothes
• If you have some projects to share bring the relevant information to share.

There are many ways to get to Gaia Ashram and for a more detailed description we would like to refer you to the following page:

Where to find us

Our Facilities

Our facilities are basic but very comfy. The volunteer fee of 350 baht includes accommodation in our recently renovated dormitory that is on the first floor of the Sala, our main community building at the heart of Gaia Ashram. Private accommodation is available for an additional fee (see below).

Fairy House:

For those that want more privacy there is the Fairy House which is right next to the forest. We call it the fairy house because the little forest is wild and full of fairies and other unseen beings. Rooms there can be booked for an additional fee (see ‘financial contributions’ above). 

Gaia Cafe

At our Gaia Cafe our guest and volunteers can wind down and relax. At Gaia Cafe we sell our natural products from the land and at certain times we serve coffee/teas and drinks and food. We have a good wifi internet connection.

 

Gaia Ashram welcomes people on bicycles that are traveling the world and for people traveling with their own tents to Gaia Ashram there are available spaces to set them up. We advice not to camp out in rainy season. Please inform us beforehand if you plan to stay in your tent.

May all the work that we do be of benefit to all beings and mother Earth!
May Mother Earth Gaia and all her beings be happy and thriving!
May we dedicate our lives to take care of ourselves, each other, Mother Earth and all beings!