Wwoofing

What is it?

Wwoofing was born in London thanks to Sue Coppard, a city-dweller and nature lover. Every weekend, she goes to the countryside, helping farmers in order to run away from noise, stress and pollution. When she gets an answer to a classified ad posted on the newspaper about finding people to help her, she realizes a lot of city-dwellers are nature lovers too. The first wwoofing experience happens in 1971, in Sussex, in an organic farm and becomes a real success, specially thanks to word of mouth. Wwoofing was born!

At the beginning, the acronym Wwoofing meant "Working Weekends On Organic Farms". Now it's "World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farms".
Wwoofing develops little by little all around the world. It's possible to wwoof in each continent, France, Spain, China, Australia or Ghana!
Wwoofing is based on exchange: hosts offer bed and board and wwoofers work for them in a farm. Tasks are various: selling products during a market, gardening, DIY, cooking, etc.
Be careful wwoofing isn't for travellers looking for free housing nor for farmers looking for unpaid employees they could take advantage of!

Wwoofing is opened to everyone, no matter your age or your nationality. No need to have special skills either because the aim is sharing knowledge with wwoofers.

Some hosts acept families and animals too.

How does it work?

First, you need to subscribe on the wwoof website corresponding to the country you want to visit. The registration lasts 1 year and the cost is different, depends which country you choose (20€ for France, $30 for Argentina, $25 for India, etc.).
If you want to suscribe with someone else, you'll pay less. It's also possible asking for a leaflet listing each farm from the country chosen (the price will increase thought) or just consulting each profile on the wwoof website.
Go to http://www.wwoofinternational.org/ to suscribe.
Once registered, you need to fill your profile (name, first name, age, country and description) so hosts learn more about you.

Then, contact chosen farms after reading their profiles. You'll tell them what you're looking for, why did you choose them and when you want to come to their place.

Where can I wwoof?

It's possible to wwoof in all continents!
In Africa, you could go to au Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda, Algeria, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Mauritius, Morocco, Senegal, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Go to http://www.wwoofafrica.org/

In Asia, you could go to Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Nepal, New Zeland, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Taiwan, Fiji, French Polynesia, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Samoa, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

Go to http://wwoof.asia/

In Europe you could go to Austria, Bulgaria, Czech, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italia, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey and UK.

Go to http://wwoofeurope.net/

In America, you could go to Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, USA, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.

Go to http://www.wwooflatinamerica.com/, http://www.wwoof.ca/ or http://www.wwoofusa.org/