Charity Farm in England

When I was a teenager on a break from college I travelled to the United Kingdom to stay with my grandmother. She lived outside of London in the county of Essex. I did lots of the usual sightseeing and visiting family while in the UK but I also wanted to do something more productive and interesting with my time.

About half an hour away from my grandmother’s house was a petting farm run by a local charity. I decided to volunteer to help out around the farm. It was a wonderful place which organised groups of disadvantaged and disabled children to visit and meet with the various animals. It was an extremely therapeutic experience for them and the children loved to stroke and meet the various animals – cows, sheep, ducks, horses, donkeys – the full farmyard variety!

One activity which was particularly popular was feeding the baby lambs - the children were given baby bottles filled with formula and they could actually feed the lambs themselves – they loved it! It was such a rewarding time for me and I spent many weeks working on the farm – taking the children on guided tours, feeding and mucking out animals and generally trying to be useful.

It was made even more rewarding to know I was volunteering rather than being paid to help out. I would definitely recommend volunteering to people of all ages, but particularly younger people as I believe it teaches some important values such as hard work, selflessness and a dedication to helping others.