Location
Multiple Locations +14
  • Mexico
  • Costa Rica
  • Dominican Republic
  • Guatemala
  • Honduras
  • Nicaragua
  • El Salvador
  • Colombia
  • Argentina
  • Ecuador
  • Brazil
  • Peru
  • Bolivia
  • Chile

Program Details

Timeframe
Year Round

Pricing

Price Details
Price varies according to our Partners.
Jan 24, 2022
Jul 16, 2018
7 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

Omprakash facilitates beneficial & educational relationships between social grassroots organizations and interns who wish to volunteer in Latin America. As a volunteer, Omprakash will assist you in connecting directly with our network of 200+ vetted Partner organizations working in 50+ countries on a wide range of projects.

Our award-winning online training and mentorship program, Widening Circles EdGE (Education through Global Engagement), is designed to increase learning, critical reflection, and overall impact before, during, and after volunteers' international experiences. While you don't need to participate in the Widening Circles EdGE program to find a volunteer position through our network, we highly recommend volunteers participate to gain mentorship, training, support, and more throughout their volunteering or Gap Year journey.

Program Reviews

4.67 Rating
based on 3 reviews
  • 5 rating 66.67%
  • 4 rating 33.33%
  • 3 rating 0%
  • 2 rating 0%
  • 1 rating 0%
  • Growth 4.7
  • Support 4
  • Fun 4.35
  • Housing 4
  • Safety 4
Showing 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Ben
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Lost on how to volunteer? Use this company!

I volunteered in Peru helping a local economy with agriculture business development. I absolutely loved the experience. It changed my life! I was very lost on how to volunteer in a country like Peru and was lucky to stumble across this company. They were very helpful and created a wonderful experience. Sometimes the living conditions would be rough and logistics were challenging, but that is to be expected in a 3rd world country. The trip was ended with a journey to Machu Picchu. Looking for a way to give back with an adventure? This is the one!

125 people found this review helpful.
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Jesse
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Omprakash is volunteering the right way

Omprakash takes a different approach to volunteering abroad. Rather than place you with an organization, Omprakash facilitates a direct exchange between local organizations and volunteers. This allows a real personal relationship between organization and volunteer and assures that you are not "assigned" to volunteer with an organization without a clear purpose and expressed interest from the organization. This strategy allows you to be much more effective in your role when you arrive.

Throughout my time working with Adisa in Santiago Atitlán Guatemala, I was well supported by Omprakash staff and its community. Between skype calls, global dialogues, reflections, and the capstone project (cumulative learning project), I was always engaged with Omprakash and constantly challenged to critically evaluate my experience.

As for its partner organizations, Omprakash has a comprehensive evaluation process that assures that only qualified, legitimate, and trustworthy join its network. The reliability of its local partners makes the volunteer experience an effective, safe, and gratifying experience.

What would you improve about this program?
The main improvement I can suggest is some improvement to the customization of crowdfunding campaigns. I find that the general layout can be a little bit restrictive for organizations to build their own brand and personalize their page.
107 people found this review helpful.
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Ian
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

EdGE Internship in Oaxaca, Mexico

As an Omprakash EdGE intern, I spent six months in Oaxaca, Mexico after completing a six week training course. The Spanish skills, level of personal confidence, and appreciation for Oaxacan culture and its differences with my own American culture I have gained over this time with Omprakash have revolutionized my perspective on a huge variety of things and left me with deep gratitude for the experience. The pre-departure preparatory course is fascinating and engaging while still being at a self-determined pace. The mentor system is super helpful for dealing with problems that come up (especially culture shock) and making a valuable friend. The capstone project to complete while doing the volunteer work is a great challenge and a great reason to have to talk to people you normally might not. For me, the most important part of what Omprakash gives to the intern is the freedom to choose from a wide variety volunteer positions. For that reason, details about living arrangements and the time spent at the host organization are not too helpful. However, Omprakash vets all of the partner organizations to make sure they fit the goal of the EdGE program and in my instance, it was very clearly a good option for me. Furthermore, with regular calls to my Omprakash mentor I never felt like I was ever too far from support. In my opinion, Omprakash should be a household name, it's a fantastic institution.

What would you improve about this program?
EdGE interns could interact eith each other more often and interns could have more opportunities to talk to more mentors.
127 people found this review helpful.

Questions & Answers