The first India VoluntEars trip took place from 16th February to 1st March 2025. Our group spent 2 weeks in Kerala, in the south of India. It’s a tropical paradise filled with coconut palms, sandy beaches, inland lagoons called “the backwaters”, and sprinkled with Indian colour with everything from lorries and buses to shops being brightly coloured!

Our group included a married couple, a pair of friends, and several people who joined as individuals.

The accommodation for this trip was a private apartment on the first floor of a newly built family house, with Minnie, Swetha and her family living on the ground floor. We were all happy to have air-conditioned bedrooms, all with ensuite bathrooms, a shared kitchen and dining area and a nice terrace to sit together. From the rooftop we could see the sunrise through the palm trees over Kochi every morning!

Volunteering with the Indian Deaf community

As with all VoluntEars trips, we split our time between volunteering with the local deaf community and seeing the local area.

In India we worked with 2 deaf communities: a deaf school and a deaf women’s foundation.

At school, the kids were so excited to spend some time with deaf people from another country! We arranged lots of activities and games; Amrit and Shashi taught origami and received henna tattoos from some of the students; David and Lynne played dominoes and uno (which always gets competitive!), Linda taught mime and Sam and Max’s group embraced technology with games on i-pads!

In return they welcomed us with big smiles and treated us to an Indian dancing show – they have some amazing moves!!

Linda demonstrating mime with students at a deaf school in Kerala, India – VoluntEars

Sam playing games on an i-pad with students at a deaf school in India – VoluntEars

Amrit and Shashi teaching origami to students at a deaf school in India – VoluntEars

At the Deaf Women’s Foundation they train local deaf women baking, sewing, hairdressing, and IT. We demonstrated baking flapjacks and healthy chocolate brownies (!?), Max worked with a man called Shins on social media and website development to help promote their foundation, and there was a discussion about deaf culture in India and an exchange of experiences between UK and India in the deaf community. We also offered to assist by reviewing their funding proposals before sending them to potential sponsors.

Our group having lunch with deaf women from their foundation

Trips around Kerala

As well as our volunteering work wit the deaf school and women’s foundation, we visited some memorable local places:

Munnar and Thekkady – a weekend road trip with tea plantations, elephants and a boat trip!

For the middle weekend Friday to Sunday we took off on an Indian road trip! First we travelled up into the Wester Ghat mountains and stayed overnight in the hill station Munnar. Surrounded by tea plantations at 1,500m metres above sea level, the early mornings are quite cool with mist covering the hills and valleys which feels completely different to the hot and humid coast we left behind. The bedrooms had been carefully selected to all have balconies overlooking the hills and plantations – a nice place to sit with a drink in the evening or early morning.

From here we travelled to another hill station called Thekkady so we could visit Periyar Tiger Reserve, one of the few places in India where sometimes you can see wild tigers. We didn’t see tigers (hardly anyone does!) BUT we did a boat trip on the lake and were lucky enough to see groups of wild elephants wandering along the shores of the lake, even including a really cute baby elephant!

Sunrise over the tea plantations in Munnar, India – VoluntEars

The lake at Periyar Tiger Reserve in India – VoluntEars

Wild elephants by the lake at Periyar Tiger Reserve in India – VoluntEars

Chinese fishing nets

Back in Kochi some fishermen let us have a go at lifting one of the traditional Chinese fishing nets up from the sea. They are lowered to let the sea water flow over them and lifted to catch fish. We only caught a few fish despite lots of shouting!

Volunteers pulling up a Chinese fishing net in Kochi, India

South Indian food – a cooking class

The FOOOD! The food in Kerala is SOOO tasty – think mild curries made with creamy coconut sauces, fragrant jasmin and lemon rice, light fluffy parotta and naans. We just had to learn how to make some of it so VoluntEars arranged a cooking class one evening with a local lady called Ranjisushi. She showed us how to make sweet and spicy mango curry, bright red beetroot raitha, yellow potato stew and perfectly round rothis with brown rice. What a tasty feast we had!!

Ranjisushi teaching our group how to make Indian food – VoluntEars

Cherai beach

After volunteering at the women’s deaf foundation, we drove in tuktuks to Cherai beach, which runs along a narrow strip of land just north of Kochi. It has the sea and an endless sandy beach on one side and a lagoon on the side. Relaxing in the pool and watching the sun set over the Indian ocean was the perfect end to another memorable day.

VoluntEars group on Cherai beach in Kerala, India

Kathakali performance

One evening we had VIP tickets to a local Kathakali show. Somehow VoluntEars Director Richard Clowes had made connections with a deaf man called Nixon who does the makeup for the Kathakali performers. Our group got to meet him before the show and chat in sign language to find out all about his work. The performance was literally eye-opening!

Nixon, the deaf makeup artist, explaining Kathakali performance to the VoluntEars group

Kathakali performer on stage in Kochi, Kerala, India – VoluntEars

Kerala Backwater boat trip

On the penultimate day we did a boat trip on the backwaters just south of Kochi. VoluntEars arranged an old traditional wooden boat paddled by hand by two men who expertly navigated us through narrow canals and wide lagoons. It was sooo relaxing!! A perfect end to the trip 😊 Or was it???

Traditional wooden boat on the backwaters in Kerala, India – VoluntEars

The view from a traditional wooden boat on the backwaters in Kerala, India – VoluntEars

A rooftop pool with view!

Somehow there was still time to fit in a morning at a rooftop pool at a 5-star hotel which overlooked the whole of Kochi. The result: lots of Instagram photos and a bit of sunburn!

A beautiful rooftop pool at a 5-star hotel in Kochi, India. A perfect place to chill before flying home – VoluntEars

Our Communicator

Thanks to interpreter David Hutchinson for being Communicator and helping with communication between BSL and Indian Sign language for 2 weeks!

David Hutchinson, the VoluntEars Communicator for 2 weeks in India in February 2025

What an amazing 2 weeks in India!

Thanks to everyone who joined our trip. We loved having you with us in India and look forward to seeing you on another VoluntEars trip in the future.

Reviews from our group

What did our customers say? Check out the reviews from our group: https://voluntears.info/reviews/india-reviews/

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Photos of VoluntEars India trip – February 2025

Read about our next India trip here.