Program Reviews

Thank you! The highlight of my trip was definitely the children. They were the happiest most friendly kids, they made my trip so special! A favourite moment was when we poured water into the dirt and built sandcastles to pretend we were in Australia! They loved it – I was so sad to say goodbye to them.

The team were lovely and so accommodating. There was a great variance of food – I particularly loved the mangoes so delicious!! The hammocks were awesome for an afternoon relax and I very much enjoyed riding the bikes to school every day. Overall I was very happy with the my stay and can’t think of any improvements – amazing experience I didn’t want to leave!!

Highlights:

– Learning about the project and seeing first hand the good work it’s doing for its local community
– Getting to know some of the truely devoted teachers, volunteers and of course the inspirational and dedecated Director, Dherendra
– Singing, dancing with the special kids and experiencing the pure and innocent joy and hopefullness of all the children at the school.
– Getting to meet and know Monique. Love her spirit and can do, seemingly casual approach. I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of hard work in the background that
Monique shelters the volunteers from.
– Getting to know more culturally about the Bihar.
– Cooking with Emala (our cook). Always keep in “good” with the cook 😉

Many warm wishes Maria 🙂 x

The month I spent in dog shelter Abaj Tacalik in Antigua, Guatemala was amazing! I got to really bond with the people and the dogs at my placement and loved going there everyday. We helped out with walking the dogs, cleaning and just giving them love. Next to that, with fundraised money, I was also able to contribute by helping rebuild parts of the shelter and providing them with food and medicine.

In the morning I had private Spanish classes which I really enjoyed and which really helped me in learning the language even faster and being able to talk to my host family and the people at my placement. My teacher Alma was great and made the classes fun and interactive.

The city Antigua is lovely to live in and the host family I stayed with so kind. I easily felt a home at my host family and loved walking around the streets of Antigua in the morning and working out ideas in one of the many coffee shops. During the weekends we had enough time to travel and stroll around the city.

The staff, especially Katia, have given me good support. Katia is super kind and stayed in touch and provided the resources needed at the placement. Whenever I needed something, the staff were always willing to help. Also, when I needed to see a doctor in the evening they immediately let him come and gave support.

I would advise all future volunteers to be open-minded and believe in your own abilities to make a (small) change! Look at the resources you have available and try to make the most out of it! I had an amazing experience and I would highly recommend anyone to sign up for a volunteer placement like this.

I volunteered in Costa Rica for 5 months and it was the best choice I have ever made! I worked alongside nurses and doctors in a retirement home and learned so much! As a nursing student, I felt the medical project really helped me become eager to learn more about healthcare in poverty countries. The staff was beyond helpful and so compassionate, they always made sure I felt at home and never had any questions! Even my host family felt like real family by the end of my trip. My housing was beautiful as well, and I still keep in contact with the family! I highly recommend volunteering, even if you can only make time for a week, take the chance and do it anyways. It truly is life changing!

Highlights of the trip:

– I met amazing other volunteers who became my friends
– Teaching the kids English and make them happy with very little things

Comments on the team, food and accommodation:

– The coordinators were very kind and helpful
– The food was very good. The people who cooked the food put a lot of effort into it
– The accommodation was always very clean

Any improvements to help us be better:

– The only thing I was not happy about were the beds. The matrasses were very thin and uncomfortable other then that everything was fine

Nepal is a country based on deeply-rooted faith, tradition and welcoming attitude towards guests. Coming from a Christian society, I have been exposed to a variety of Hindu and Buddhist places of worship during my cultural week. The first week provided me with opportunities to grow, learn and immerse myself to be able to understand their way of life.

The week started off with a pooja (Morning Prayer ritual) and our coordinators gifted us with a Nepali Name. I was given the Name Menuka, which means “Princess”.

Although I have seen plenty of places of worship, the walkthrough Kirtipur was the activities that stood out the most. Despite it being so close to Thamel, it is very different from the city. I was able to interact with the locals, both young and old, allowing me to experience a different side of Kathmandu. It is refreshing to see locals being so open and friendly to foreigners.

To further immerse my fellow participants and myself into the Nepalese way of life, the coordinator arranged cooking classes, Nepalese language class and Yoga. I personally feel that the cultural week is essential as I might not be as an empathetic participant if I had not gone through the program.

For the second week, I have been teaching at a kindergarten for underprivileged children. I feel grateful to have been part of an organization that is able to provide free education for these children, allowing to enter into public school. It has been an interesting journey to be able to communicate and deliver lessons to these children as they have very basic English skills. Initially, found it a bit of difficulty to connect with them due to the language barrier. However, I quickly learnt to communicate and understand after a few days of interaction with them.

The process of getting to know them is definitely a two-way street and the children openness towards me made it easier for me to develop a deeper connection with them.

Saying goodbye to the children is going to be difficult because they left an everlasting impression on me with such a short period of time. The experience is definitely worth it and it is a something I would most definitely recommend to anyone who is considering volunteering in Nepal.

The highlight of Sri Lanka was definitely the team; the drivers, coordinators, managers, chef, cleaners – everyone was so helpful and lovely. Everything felt very well organised and I felt very comfortable to talk about anything with them. The people of Sri Lanka in general were all so beautiful and friendly.

The food was really good both at the accommodation and at the projects! I love spice, rice and curry so I was always happy. There was plenty of vegetables and plenty of food so always had enough to eat. The accommodation was clean, a nice temperature, hot and cold showers, lockers for valuables, good location.

One of the highlights of this trip was that I got to immerse myself in a cultural-rich environment, Tacloban City. During the time, I have been given opportunities to interact and connect with the local families and children, which in turn, brought me immeasurable amount of love and joy. I was assigned to a community-feeing project at Cangumbang; and this experience was incredible from the beginning till the end — from planning, forecasting ingredients, buying extra things out of my own expense, cooking to serving there weren’t moments I didn’t enjoy. I really looked forward to each day visiting the community there and feeding the sponsored children of up to 35. After feeding, I have enjoyed the playing and chilling times with the children because they are all welcoming, amiable and simple! In addition, this trip has made me cherish all that I have, such as access to clean drinkable water and advanced public health facilities such as paced pedestrian roads.

The team was welcoming and warm-hearted. I could definitely tell that my vision with the organisation, is alike. Because that the Philippines is predominantly a Christian (Roman Catholic) country, I felt much more spiritually connected to the land and the people. The food provided by my homestay was simple yet delicious! I had no issue with the local food there at all because the filipino cuisine is very much like my home dishes, which I have found soul-comforting. Except that I had experience epsiodes of diarrhoea at the same time with my accompanying brother when we had our first contact with the restaurant foods in an adjacent mall.
My homestay nanay was nice and friendly and has always treated me like a family. I just needed to report an incident of break-in into my homestay house. My homestay was alert of this thereafter and has changed the lock of the back door and the team was aware of this issue. So I believe this security issue would be improved in a later term.

With the nutrition project, I think the future volunteers could accomplish more aside from feeding the community children. Outreach activities related to optimal nutrition could be planned out and developed, so that more and more young children and families will have a fair chance to learn from qualified health professionals and tackle the issue of malnutrition city-wide. Outside of placement times (mine was between 1pm to 5pm), I think we could have some site visits so we can understand what other sites are currently doing but again understand that the staff were busy with their own workloads.

We had a great time volunteering at the Nutrition Support program in Ho Chi Minh City!

It was such a fulfilling experience to come help out every day and work alongside the other volunteers from all over the world and the local staff to serve really good food to the people of this community.

Kenny was wonderful about escorting us everywhere and explaining our tasks and translating everything from Vietnamese to English.

We got up early in the morning to head to the kitchen and help the staff that’s already been cooking for hours to prepare healthy, filling, and delicious meals for people who otherwise would have a hard time getting something to eat. It’s clear that the members of this community appreciate and benefit from this program and the people who run it, some of whom are volunteers themselves and have been helping out every day for years.

Giving of our time and energy to work together and get to know everyone at the kitchen felt refreshing and satisfying, as well as gave us a unique opportunity to be exposed to real local culture. Everyone was super welcoming and made us feel at home, even through the language barrier that existed on both sides.

We also got to taste the locally sourced dishes that were made in the kitchen, and everything was delicious! Some of the meals were certainly not foods that we would have found on our own and that was extra special. We love experiencing local food and culture wherever we travel, so this was an absolute treat.

We highly recommend Nutrition Support program to anyone visiting Vietnam and staying in Ho Chi Minh City. It’s truly a fantastic experience that you will never forget.

What did you accomplish in your program this week?
Assisting staff with day to day tasks, eg walking, feeding, cleaning. Helping with promo material and admin.

How was your program coordinator?
Amazing, happy to answer every question well.

What did you enjoy most from your experience?
Experiencing different types of dogs shelters and going out in ambulance.

What didn’t you enjoy from your experience?
Nothing – loved it.

How was your food and accommodation?
Really good. I will miss the food a lot!

Comments on overall experience
Nice to see feedback being taken on so quickly 🙂

Thanks, Rosie