Active Internationals, India

India 360 is a whole sum program that covered almost everything that I wanted to do in India. volunteering, sightseeing, adventure, travel, trekking, seeing mighty Himalayas, relaxing at the beach and drinking Indian beer (Kingfisher) :p.

We travelled to some 10 different cities and equal number of states each with their own culture and traditions. Witnessing tigers in the wild and camel safari in the desert were highlights of my time in India.

India came as a shock when I first arrived in New Delhi. The city is over populated and at once, I felt like lost. My program with Active Internationals began on March 03, 2015 in Jaipur with a day long orientation before I start my program. That is when I felt safe and confident about India with other volunteers & support staff.

21 days at women empowerment project has been an eye opener for me on the condition of women in India. I can be only glad that I went & offered all I could. I am going back again in August with my boy friend to continue the project work & hope I see some change this time.

My organisation was very supportive & you can imagine it from the fact that I had never complaint about anything. My project executive 'Radha' was an beautiful girl. She was young but knew the right way of working at a project.

I am happy to leave a review for Active Internationals, who were my volunteer programme organizer in India.

Last month me and my sister Liz visited India for a a four week volunteering programme with Active. We are so happy to have booked our programme through them. We opted for teaching and construction activities for the span of 20 days of working.

Liz is more of an outdoor person and plays several games. I was more inclined towards teaching.
We taught basic math, English and Geography to the kids and taught them a lot of crafts, songs and poems. Towards they end of the program we also kept a small play, which we were practicing with the kids all along the teaching.

But the fun part was making the badminton court. The schools playground was not big enough to have any other organised outdoor sport. However, it was an apt place to make a court.

Our coordinator at Active - Vaibhav, came up with the idea of leveling the ground and making markings using bricks. We then went to an steel smith and ordered two poles with pulleys welded above. As we dug the holes for planting the poles we made our concrete mixture and installed the poles perfectly straight. All the kids and the teachers were so excited. They also helped us throughout the project.

All credits to the teamwork.

For the last week we brought four racquets and shuttle cocks and started teaching the kids. Some kids picked the game really fast. It was such an overwhelming experience for us and we were elated.

We will come back and do something more.

Hi,

I am Malyshka originally from Serbia, but living in USA for the last 8 years.
I have been actively involved in volunteering at many places.
My recent volunteer experience was in Ghana, but I was comparing it with my experience last year with Active Internationals in Rural Rajasthan.

From the day one it became a benchmark in my mind.
I was part of the girl education project at the holy town of Pushkar, which was an amazing experience in itself. Unlike other volunteers who stayed there for 4 weeks, I was in Pushkar for 9 weeks. Well, I originally booked for 6 weeks but extended it to 9 weeks just because the way I was engrossed int it and the type of support I was getting.

There was no moment where I got bored and no place where I could see any shortage of effort from the team. This was much fulfilling than anything else, since people promise a lot but never deliver.

I hope other organizations also raise their standards.

Closing with a lot of love and best wishes.

The feeling of helping a community was something I always wanted to experience & after reviewing Active Internationals with my who have travelled to India on their programs, I decided to finally go for it.

I felt like an extra ordinary person who is helping the community understanding hygiene, teaching women, playing with kids & finally travelled for 20 days to Himalayas, Nepal & South India with other volunteers on a super exciting cultural exchange program by them.

Loved everything about it. You are doing it by heart Active Internationals & you will see me very soon as your regular volunteers.

Love from England.
VB