One World Institute

I personally do not recommend this experience. I am very disappointed, this school is just another organization that is taking advantage of young people.

Everything is chaotic there, the people in charge don't know how to manage their jobs and because of that we, the volunteers have to support the consequences.

Because of the situation with Corona, I and my team could not travel or go to Africa to finish our program.

The school didn't provide us any solution until we ask for the money that we saved during the pre-course back. Just after that, the problem that I and my team were facing was important enough to be solved. Only when we started to talk about the money, from this we saw how much the school cared for their students.

They came with the idea to send us to St Vincent and Cuba, it was basically just an idea because they did not do proper research to see if is truly safe for us to travel there, they just wanted to give us a superficial solution so we wouldn't ask for money back, so we had to research by ourselves and reached the conclusion that is not safe to travel there by that time.

Of course, the school didn't want to give us any money back so we had to talk with a lawyer to resolve this problem legally.
There is a lot of manipulation and hypocrisy in that school.
Many students have the same opinion as mine about the school but they choose to stay silent because they don't want to have anything to do with this school anymore.

If you choose to join their program you should keep in mind that is not as wonderful as it is presented on their website. The study materials are old and outdated and the “teachers” have no academic training.

The only thing that made this experience good for me was the people that I met and my team, we support each other and managed to stay strong in front of the school and not let them manipulate us in the way they wanted because we chose to fight for our rights, the teachers and the headmaster had a bad opinion about us, apparently fighting for your rights is something that the school does not like so much.

At the moment you can no longer write reviews on their Facebook page because they deactivated them after one of my colleagues wrote her opinion about her experience with One World Institute, apparently, they can not accept criticism or negative feedback, which says a lot about them.

This school is a perfect example of modern days slavery. They use the students and the volunteers to get their business running, making them take care of the building and cleaning the hotel. The salaries from our work at the hotel were not even paid to our accounts, but stayed inside the school's account, so that they don't have to pay taxes for it. A total mess.
The travel and the volunteer project could not happen due to COVID-19 and the school refused to give us the money from our salaries work. Me and my team had to contact a lawyer who helped us to stand up for our rights and get our payment back.
Besides, the teachers are not real teachers (usually it is just people who did the program before), the study materials are at least 20 years old and basically you are supposed to learn it yourself (which you could do at home, you don't need to come to a program abroad for this).
In other words,

I would like to begin by saying that joining Learn to Travel program was the best decision I ever made. I knew it was going to be a big step in my life, but I never thought it will have such a huge impact on my future. Jumping on an adventure with strangers from different countries sounded so crazy, I never imagined that those strangers will become my family in the end. Volunteering in the most kind and lovely communities, with kids and people so warm made us all think how much we appreciate life. Travelling, making friends along the way, sleeping in hammocks in the middle on the Amazonian jungle surrounded by thousands mosquitoes and wild animals, freezing in the Andes, sweating in the desserts, all made us stronger and better.
I will definitely remember this one year adventure with One World Institute for the rest of my life, and I recommend it from the bottom of my heart to all the people who are seeking happiness.

After finishing high school, I had no idea what to do next, because I didn't feel ready for university. Once I found out about this awesome opportunity to travel and volunteer, I was in for it without any doubts. The team that I did my program with was indescribably super and the experiences we shared on our journey from Norway to halfway through South-America, were something I would have never believed being possible. That year full of good times with open-minded, adventurous people and amazing destinations helped me grow up and widen my perspectives of life.
After finishing the Learn to Travel program, I went back home, just to realise that what I really want to do, is another program, so I joined for the Fighting with the Poor program. Thank you.

It was one of the best decisions I have taken to join this program. I had always dreamt about traveling somewhere totally different, different culture and environment, and this program gave me all of this. I got new friends, with who I got to travel. I got out of my comfort zone, new experiences, challenges. At first it was hard to step out of my comfort zone but I learned a lot in the progress and I had good people, my team, beside me.

It was one amazing year and I would do it all over again, would recommend it to anyone, who wants to take a little time off and travel together with a team, who will become your friends durning this program.