Educare India

During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, I got matched with EduCARE India NGO for my virtual internship in Public Health Emergency Response program under its Disaster Management (Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Response Preparedness) initiative. I was a bit confused in the first couple of days when a lot of information was passed my way to which I was not used to. However, I was able to appreciate it all by the end of my 1st week engagement.

My cross cultural communication classes had helped me to practice active listening and writing things down to continuously reflect later for better learning and understanding. I stayed positive and did not ask any closed questions that I was sometime tempted in response to some long-winded discussions. I stayed open to new learning experiences.

While embedded in the UNDP supported district Disaster Management Response unit that organized the overall pandemic response control and coordination in the region, the Project Director was a busy man with lots of work at hand, some of which he gave me to do. He was also developing and operating a local Psychosocial Support initiative of the Red Cross.

Working with this authentic NGO in a real work scenario helped me enrich my knowledge and experience beyond my expectations.

It was also the most economical program as the whole internship matching process is undertaken with the organization rather than third-party online internship matching platforms.

All the people that I interacted with in EduCARE India NGO and its partner institutions, it made me feel very safe and comfortable during the internship time. I will surely be visiting India and the wonderful Himalayas for a real experience in the coming years.

I recently worked at South India projects and Rajasthan for week at Jodhpur. There are loads of opportunities to work and learn in varied focus areas of work from empowerment and education to environment conservation. This NGO is a perfect fit for those who wish to learn deeper about issues of sustainable development at grassroot level. The accommodation is basic and good. Do not expect a room attendant. One needs to be a hands on worker and self organised. please do not tolerate gossipy and judgemental errant volunteers). It spoils the experience of the ones who have come to work and learn. Do not bother about their negative and malicious reviews posted out of their own lack of understanding and lack of adaptation in cross-cultural settings. Keep up the good work that motivates some of the aspiring social entrepreneurs to take a step forward.
It provides basic and safe accommodation facilities to volunteer-interns who do not pay money for accommodations. Some projects may not good for those who are a cheap volunteer-holiday experience with customer service and do not understand development work.

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.

EduCARE India is an organisation where you can a learn a lot. You grow because you're given a lot of autonomy and independence and thus have to find the best way to carry out your projects yourself even though that doesn't mean you can't seek support from your mentor. You learn how to research, plan, execute, follow-up and ensure continuity of your project. If you're able to succeed here you're probably likely to succeed anywhere given the challenges inherent to development work.

It was one of the finest experience for me and my partner to work in this NGO in 2014. It was lovely to see and meet the local people again during our recent revisit to India.
It was great to see some international interns in leadership job roles doing a great job.

They have done a good job despite a group of international volunteers creating lot of problems as they didn't fit in. I hope that despite misconduct of some international interns, the NGO will continue to give leadership opportunities to young people.