Educare India is far from the sustainable development NGO they advertise or claim to be. They are an elaborately disguised business intertwined with many of the socio-cultural issues associated with India. Educare predominantly profit from inexperienced international students who are performing an internship as a requirement of their university degree. As a volunteer in my 30’s with substantial NGO experience I arrived to participate in the professional volunteer program in the south, only to soon realise this program didn’t exist. The extreme disorganisation of Educare was revealed as they hid behind a guise of a model that provides opportunities to ‘self-sufficient independent’ volunteers. I was expected to start a project alone and from scratch without support, any other volunteers, resources or community connections, work which was unlikely to be ever be continued. This was the exact opposite of what I was told to expect from the position. Later the director stated that they weren’t interested in me producing results for sustainable development and that my presence in the town was sufficient. My accommodation was isolated, mould ridden, filthy and I was made to live uncomfortably with a male ‘logistics’ staff member whose controlling and sexist behaviour ultimately resulted in my departure from the project by the end of a month. This staff member also revealed that Educare were being sued by a past volunteer for being fraudulent and that the case had been in court for two years. Yet Educare continue to recruit and take the set up fees from unsuspecting volunteers. The companies' inefficiency to provide the registration paperwork required by immigration for my employment visa to be registered within 14 days of entry also resulted in extreme stress. Save yourself from a costly and unpleasant experience and find a legitimate NGO who has the capacity to provide adequate opportunity and support volunteers.
