Area: Lower Normandy, France

I am a single Mum with 2 girls aged 7 & 8. We are bilingual, but normally speak English at home. We also have two long term helpers, Claire 23 and Mike 32, and a new arrival John 26, who is a chef. We have two spaniels and two indoor cats, and quite a few outside cats. I work 4 days a week at a business school locally and have 3 vacation rental properties, which take up a fair amount of my time too. Two are on site, and one is at the beach about 35 minutes away. They are all rented out for between 25 and 30 weeks a year and we try to make the most of them when they are not rented out. We try to go to the beach house every weekend, unless it is rented out. We live in an old stone house, which used to be a farm, we are surrounded by horses and cows. This area of France is the dairy capital of Europe. We are currently looking for people that can help with the building of our new apartment - which will one day be for helpers - so you need to be strong and preferably like kids, dogs and food! Now the structural work is finished we need help with everything for the interior - insulating, walls, flooring, plasterboard, fitting a kitchen & bathroom, everything you can think of pretty much - plus help keeping all the other balls in the air - our rentals, my kids, my real job and food on the table! We also have a veggie garden and fruit garden which always need help escaping from the weeds and picking fruit in season. Our dogs, two spaniels, also need rather a lot of exercise. We are in a rural location so a driving licence is essential, and a willingness to drive a manual car. I often don't have much time available so it is important to be independant and a self starter. Normally we all eat together as a family in the evening, and we do our supermarket shop together so you can choose your breakfasts and lunches. Bizarrely Normandy has a pretty active music scene, especially in the Spring and Summer.

Area: Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India

Located at 30 km from Jaisalmer in the Thar desert, our camp is quiet and peaceful, the stars are sparkling in the night! The camp is managed and run by locals from Damodra Village. We love sharing our culture and traditions with our guests and volunteers. While most of us speak English fairly well, we need help with written English. Our volunteers can help with answering our emails and dealing with calls from potential guests. For volunteers who would like to put in some physical work, you can always help with our general camp maintenance (dishes, cleaning, garbage recycling…). For those who are interested in learning other skills, such as cooking Rajasthani food, we can arrange for that as well! We have some local musicians that perform in the evenings, if you are a musician yourself, they would be more than happy to share their knowledge with you. Perhaps they can teach you to play our traditional Indian instruments. For a few hours of work a day, we can provide accommodation in our Swiss tents and 3 meals a day, but beyond this, live and work daily with us can give you another view of Rajasthan.

Area: Southern Ireland

We are an Irish family of one parent and 4 children, 3 girls aged 14, 16 and 21 and a boy aged 18. We live in beautiful West Cork, just outside Skibbereen. Generally we tend towards music and the creative arts and we love good food, cooking and baking. We also like the outdoors, camping, walking, kayaking, riding, etc. We have a large garden, a rabbit, two cats. The house is an old renovated farmhouse,there is also a summerhouse which would be offered as accommodation for the volunteers. I have a part-time job but mostly I am at home. I am willing to accept any able-bodied, willing help for the agreed number of hours in return for a welcoming family atmosphere, very good grub, and the relaxed lifestyle that is West Cork. If you like music we have piano, keyboard, drums, guitars, violins and can exchange some skills in that area as well as imparting a high standard of english if that's what you need to improve.

Area: Skinnskatteberg

We live in a 127 year old school house in a beautiful, natural setting with hiking, biking, fishing, swimming, berry and mushroom gathering just outside our door. We are renovating this house to make it into an art, craft and culture center. We are 4 in the family with husband, wife and two daughters aged 7 and 3.