🤝 How to Help in Georgia: Animals, People, Nature and Projects for Foreigners

Georgia has plenty of people and organisations that need help: from shelters housing hundreds of stray dogs to aid points where families in difficulty get food and clothes. Volunteers are locals, relocants, students and travellers who came for a month and want to spend it usefully. Below we cover what Georgian law says about volunteering, where people help animals, people and nature, how the “help for housing” model works and how to check an organisation before giving it your time or money.

⚖️ Volunteering in Georgia and the Law

Georgia has a 2015 Law on Volunteer Activity. It defines volunteering as socially useful work that a person does voluntarily and without pay in an organised setting.

Under the law, volunteers can be hosted by non-profit and international organisations, state bodies, local governments, educational institutions and hospitals. An ordinary private business, such as a guesthouse, is not on that list.

For foreigners. Since 1 March 2026, foreigners who work in Georgia as employees or as self-employed need a work permit. We found no separate rule for volunteers in the new regulations. Unpaid help for a shelter or charity is not an employment relationship. But if you are offered a full working day at a commercial place in exchange for housing and food, that arrangement is closer to work, and its legality is worth checking beforehand.

🐾 Dog and Cat Shelters

Georgia has many stray animals and shelters are almost always full. You can help with your hands, with money and with time, and sometimes even with a plane ticket.

Catalogue cards: Tamaz Elizbarashvili dog shelter, DOG, Dog Organization Georgia, municipal animal shelter in Tbilisi and charity animal shelter in Batumi.

Cats. Tbilisi has no big separate cat shelter: cats are rescued by small volunteer groups and kept in foster homes. One such group, the Cat Lovers Club, treats, socialises and rehomes street cats and looks for helpers.

If you want not only to help but to take an animal home, read the answer on buying or adopting a pet in Georgia: animals from shelters or volunteers are given away for free, but it is worth showing the animal to a vet right away.

🧓 Helping People: the Elderly, Children and Those in Need

Charities, church groups and international organisations work with people. They need hands at aid distributions, drivers, interpreters, and people to chat with the elderly or study with children.

Organisation cards: Volunteers Tbilisi, Georgian Red Cross Society, Caritas Georgia and the Monk Andrew foundation.

The full list of charities is in the catalogues of charitable organisations in Tbilisi (277 organisations) and charitable organisations in Batumi.

The elderly and children. Nursing homes and children’s institutions admit volunteers only by arrangement with the administration: documents are often needed to spend time with residents, and sometimes a health certificate too. Turning up “just with gifts” without calling first is not a good idea. Tbilisi’s institutions are collected in the catalogue of nursing homes and shelters.

🌲 Nature and Eco Projects

🍇 Volunteering for Housing: Guesthouses, Hostels, the Grape Harvest

Many travellers find “help in exchange for housing and food” arrangements in Georgia through international exchange platforms. Usually it is a few hours a day at a hostel reception, in a guesthouse garden or picking grapes in the rtveli season.

This can be a great experience, but remember: a guesthouse or hostel is a commercial business, and Georgian volunteering law does not list such places among host organisations. Check the terms before you agree.

🎓 International Programmes

For young people there are long-term programmes with housing and insurance support. The best known is the European Solidarity Corps, which funds volunteer projects in Georgia for young people from participating countries. Projects usually last from a few weeks to a year and cover education, youth work, ecology and social support. Look for openings on the programme’s portal and through Georgian youth organisations.

💝 How to Help If You Have No Time

• Buy what is asked for. Food, medicine and flea and tick treatments for shelters; groceries and hygiene kits for aid points. Check the wish lists that organisations post on social media.
• Foster an animal. Even a couple of weeks at home gives a dog or cat a chance to find owners.
• Donate money directly to the organisation, by transfer to its official account.
• Share a post. A repost of an animal looking for a home often helps more than it seems.
• Help with your skills. Photography, translation, design, social media management or legal advice are needed by charities too.

🔍 How to Check an Organisation

Before you transfer money or go on a long project, make sure the organisation is real:

• it has an official name, an address and permanent contacts, not just a personal account;
• it shows what it spends donations on and publishes reports or photos;
• donations go to the organisation’s account, not to the personal card of a stranger;
• there are reviews of it, including in our catalogue;
• on site they are ready to meet you and show you around.

Have you volunteered in Georgia, or do you know a shelter that needs help? Tell us in the comments where you helped and what they need there: we will add verified places to the article.

Current as of October 2026. Programme dates, shelter conditions and requirements for foreigners are given as of this date and may change. Before visiting, contact the organisation and ask what it needs right now.