Program Reviews

Spending time in Caye Caulker, getting PADI certified and scuba diving has been an amazing experience. Spending time on the gorgeous reef as well as being able to identify the fish and other wildlife species has been a huge plus. The staff here has made it all worthwhile, they are very supportive and make you feel right at home. All in all this has been a fantastic experience.

I have spent the past month on Frontiers construction programme and it has been excellent without exception. The only particular difficulty is getting here, which includes a nonsense amount of connections. espite that, it is however an excellent choice of programme to volunteer on, well organised and with helpful staff.

I arrived in Hell-Ville at the start of May to teach English to the local school children at L'ecole des freres. On the first day, I was introduced to the town of Hell-Ville and the local shops and markets that I would become familiar with over the month that I'm here. In the evening, I attended my first adult education class which is held at the youth club. This group is very enthusiastic and keen to communicate in English. The next day, I was introduced to the primary school where we teach 30 minute lessons to different classes and cover various topics such as food and weather. the kids are extremely eager to participate in lessons and always happy to see us.

During the month that i was there, I completed a BTEC TEFL course which enabled me to gain a qualification through teaching the various levels of students. In order to achieve this, I had to complete logbooks and plan for each individual lesson. As well teaching at the primary school and the youth club, we also traveled down to the university on Wednesday's to teach English to a group of students who are studying Marine Biology. This a slightly different environment with different levels of English speakers and so is interesting to communicate with them.

This is the general theme and slogan on Caye Caulker, so you can never expect to be rushed into anything. On camp, there is lots of work to be done and training is intensive. It's rewarding however at the end of a day to be able to identify more species and learn new skills. We get enough free time as well for independent review and research, which at times is also helpful to improve the project.

Diving qualifications are really fun and the local staff are well organized and accommodating. The Fisheries Deartment staff who we work with are lovely, and the project will be helping them out greatly for data acquisition.

The accommodation is basic, as you would expect for any camp. Just make sure you bring long trousers and bug spray! During time off there are hammocks to hang outside, and a daily swim I would highly recommend.

I arrived in Madagascar on the 28th of April after the Easter holidays and I've been doing the sports coaching project at our partnership school called "l'ecole des freres". The main sport I've been teaching them is basketball which the kids really enjoy playing. The only challenging thing is that you get classes of 60 to 120 students but they are all very well behaved, patient, and enthusiastic to learn. One of the funniest moments of teaching them is making them do lunges, running backwards and hopping because they copy every thing you do. As it is so hot, the sports lessons all finish before 9.30 am with the little ones. In the afternoon I do sports for the secondary school staring at 4:30pm and so in the break between I've been helping out with the construction and teaching projects. The first Sunday I was in Madagascar there was the school party where we tried to sell hot dogs, crepes, fruit and water I don't think they understood that all the money we got would go to our other projects to improve the school but it was fun anyway and we also taught 2 classes to sing '5 green bottle' and it was hysterical. So all together it has been an awesome 3 weeks and I would definitely stay for much longer. If you're hesitating about doing this project don't. Just come and you'll have an awesome time.

I spent three weeks on Beqa participating in the Marine conservation project. During my time I learnt the names of many different fish and was able to do five or six fish surveys which will be used by USP. I enjoyed living in the basic conditions with the other volunteers. I learnt many new skills and made some friends for life.

I completed my teaching project at Dudley Intermediate School in a Class 7. Each day I would enter the classroom to the students singing their dedications. It was one of the best ways to start the morning. The day would then be filled with different lessons including maths, English, science and Fijian. I was fortunate enough to be thrown straight into teaching of all of these subjects. I enjoyed each part of the schooling day, the teachers were so welcoming, nice and friendly each day I entered the school. The teachers I worked with were fantastic and would allow me to teach whenever I liked and would also understand if I things difficult and would always answer any questions I had. The students were unbelievably friendly and I was able to form a great rapport with all the students very early on. They are always interested in your life and home country and will also love to share their own stories of life in Fiji. My highlight of the project would be staying with my Fijian family. The family was so welcoming and friendly, made me feel safe and comfortable at all times. I will miss my Fiji family and have enjoyed every day of my project.

I had loads of responsibility put on me right from the word go, which was great as i was well occupied and felt important within the school. The sport in and outside school time was good and the kids loved both. The swimming cycle we got to teach was an added bonus. Also was required to adapt to classroom teaching other subjects to as your dropped into other classes with no teachers regular. Overall a great and fun experience that im sure will help me in the future.

I'd never dived before so I had to train up to PADI Open Water which involved going out and learning how to dive and also a bit of reading/written work with a test at the end. I passed after 5 days of training and was told that we were lucky enough to go on Marine satellite camp the following week which is an amazing opportunity that not everybody gets, it meant that we lived on a boat for 4 days and did at least 2 dives a day. It was a once in a lifetime experience! I saw so much on all my dives, swimming through schools of hundreds of fish, sea turtles, star fish, coral reefs, eels and from the boat we even saw two whales in the distance!
Madagascar was probably the best thing I’ve done, I learnt so much and gained so many skills. I met amazing people, gained so much confidence and found my love for volunteering and conservation projects. 6 weeks definitely wasn’t enough, ever since I’ve come home all I’ve wanted to do is go back!!

I had such an amazing 2 weeks away and I'm really glad I chose to participate in the Induction week.
Week 1 was great as it allowed us to really experience Thai culture. The temples we visited were out of this world and the food was also amazing, I think I've put on about a stone but totally worth it! The induction week allowed us to get to know our team really well. At the weekend we had free time so we could choose between visiting Bangkok or going to a waterfall trek - I chose the Waterfalls in Erawan National Park - the scenery was stunning. We swam in a few lagoons - complete luxury!
Week 2 was also great, although the journey to the elephants was super long (about 14 hours) but that is not a complaint as it was worth it! Our daily routine was basically: wake up, go to jungle and cut down banana trees for the elephants, go to the elephants, feed the elephant, lunch, ride the elephants. Then each day activities after that varied. Unfortunately I was unable to swim with the elephants as the water levels were too high after some serious rain but we did some rafting and visited another beautiful waterfall.
I spent my final weekend in Bangkok which is an absolutely mental place (in a very good way)!
The staff on both weeks were so lovely and extremely helpful! I had so much fun that I managed to break a rib :) jungle fun!