What is your favorite travel memory?
One of the best things I've done was whilst traveling was in Peru. A small and very rural community a couple of hours away had just completed the building of an ecolodge, with the aim of having this lodge included in several tourist trails in the area and therefore bringing financial and social improvement into the community.
Through a friend of a friend I was invited, along with others, to help the community in their final preparations for the grand opening. Not only was it fantastic to meet and talk with local people, learn about their lives, and help them to improve their situation through responsible tourism, I participated in several traditional ceremonies, such as one to Pachamama and another to promote fertility within the community's huge herd of llamas.
Watching several hundred llamas decorated with ribbons, paint, and tassles stampeding off into the distance, followed by equally colorful and laughing local people, is not a sight you see every day!
How have you changed/grown since working for your current company?
In several ways, yes. I have become more aware of social issues and problems in the world, and the difficulties but also triumphs in changing or improving them. It has definitely made me more socially responsible.
I have also gained more insight into the massive amount of administrative and interpersonal infrastructure that goes on behind the scenes of an NGO.
What is the best story you've heard from a return student?
One of our volunteers was present at a birth at their second day of the Medical Care Facility, without prior training.
Although this is a very rare occurrence, for me it goes to show how inclusive the team on this project is, and the excitement on the volunteer's face when she returned to tell us about it showed that she had found her calling in life.
It made me extremely happy that NGO Taxi facilitated that personal discovery for her.
If you could go on any program that your company offers, which one would you choose and why?
I would have to say the Medical Care Facility. Although our volunteers give great feedback from all of our projects, listening to returning stories from this project in particular gives me the impression that the Medical Care Facility teaches our volunteers the most constructive skills for their future career, specifically medicine.
Our volunteers have the chance on this project to really get to know the realities of work in the healthcare system, gaining fundamental medical skills and training, working with a group of enthusiastic, welcoming, and supportive medical professionals.
What makes your company unique? When were you especially proud of your team?
I think it is the level of care that both us and our partners can provide to each volunteer when they are on their project. NGO Taxi works hard to find and foster strong and positive relationships with its partners, and I think this is well expressed in the support the volunteers receive when on their project.
What do you believe to be the biggest factor in being a successful company?
Personal relationships. You cannot build any type of company without due respect given to the employees or associates of a company; without people, companies would not exist.
In the case of an NGO, the volunteers are of the upmost importance - without them there would be no NGO.
That is why I am proud to be part of NGO Taxi, where a relationship is built with our volunteers before they choose their project, and is maintained throughout their time with us.