If you enjoy contributing meaningfully to the communities you visit, we would love to invite you to stay with us! We welcome guests from all over the world to work alongside our team. Each volunteer has unique skills, and we are always excited to hear your ideas on how we can grow! 

What are we looking for?

Our project focuses on setting up a natural habitat of native species with natural flora and fauna, which serves educational purposes for visitors, students, families, tourists, and researchers. Our goal is to have the best natural habitat and we have started developing the land and planted more than 400 trees, flowers and herbs throughout the last 3 years already. 

We need a variety of help from environmental research, beekeeping, to establishing an online presence, as well as maintenance work throughout the property. Feel free to reach out to us via Workaway, or contact us here.

Projects & Potential Tasks

We hope that the Goroka Natural Habitat can be a space for you to bring your own unique ideas and experiences. We welcome your ideas and are more than happy to work with you. That said, below are some ideas of projects and potential tasks that would be helpful around the habitat.

Beekeeping & Honey Extraction

Above all, Helping Hands Honey is an honey farm focused on sustainability and empowering local communities. Therefore, people who have or would like to gain experience in beekeeping are more than welcome to work with and learn from us. You will have the chance to help with a variety of tasks, such as beekeeping and honey extraction (season-dependent), educating villagers on how to keep highland honeybees, building bee boxes, and maintaining and looking after the property.

Environmental Research & Conservation

For botanical enthusiasts and biologists, there is always the possibility of helping with the signage of certain endemic flowers and trees, as well as the animals we are keeping in the habitat. By helping to create a catalogue of the entire flora and fauna you can make it easier for us and the visitors to understand and learn about our rich environment. 

Construction & Building

If you have construction experience, we welcome new ideas in building natural houses and buildings. We aim to keep the property as authentic and sustainable as possible. We would also appreciate help with fencing, setting up new infrastructure for tourists and designing the land (e.g. paths, electric lines) as well as helping us plan and execute structural water solutions (irrigation and drainage, rainwater collection methods, septic tank cleaning).

Website, Photography & Digital Communication

We would like to welcome volunteers with media skills to aid us in establishing an online presence. We would appreciate help in establishing and updating social media channels, updating our website, taking care of email communication (English) with our guests, and document development for future visitors. We are also always looking for skilled photographers to assist in taking photos of the honeybee process, culture, flora, and fauna around the Habitat. Additionally, we welcome all new creative ideas, so please feel free to share!

Outings, Experiences & Excursions

Besides learning about the flora and fauna of the Natural Habitat and the Eastern Highlands, you will have the chance to experience the rich PNG culture. My family will be happy to take good care of you and escort you to all the places you would like to see. We can arrange a variety of cultural experiences and excursions, such as:

  • Seeing the world-famous Asaro Mudman
  • Climbing Mt. Wilhelm and other mountains in the area
  • Wildlife viewing/bird watching and sleeping in the jungle
  • Visiting nearby villages with traditional artifacts
  • Exploring Goroka (local rugby games, rivers, museum…)
  • The annual Goroka Show (typically around our Independence Day in September)

Please note that for the longer/farther excursions, you will have to pay for bus fare, food, and a tip for your local guide. We recommend budgeting for this. Additionally, if there are other parts of PNG you wish to see or experience, we will be happy to try to arrange that for you!