Love Volunteers Reviews

I volunteered as part of the Community Development project in Tanzania April 2016 for 4 weeks and the experience has been amazing.

Once you get past the culture shock, there is so much beauty in the country that it's hard to be anything but happy during the whole duration of your stay. I fell in love.

I was staying at the hostel owned by the NGO the whole 4 weeks I was there. There is running water, security, electricity, 3 meals a day and Wi-Fi, although inconsistent and you'd be better off getting a SIM card with a data bundle if you'll be there for a while. The staff are all extremely friendly and fairly helpful in giving tips and advise to aid you.

We did a couple of projects in my time there which included building a pond, planting vegetables and painting the playground of a local self sustaining orphanage, planting trees at a couple of primary schools and around the streets where the hostel is located. Each completed day was met with smiles of gratitude and appreciation by the locals which definitely made it more rewarding. The only thing was the scheduling. Tanzanians are quite relaxed with the concept of time so you might get frustrating sitting around and just waiting to get started.

There are plenty of ways to get around town on fairly cheap public transport too if transport is a worry to you. The local buses only costs you TSH400 (USD$0.20) per ride and if it's too cramped, there are taxis, tuk tuks or motorcyle taxis to choose from.

I definitely suggest budgeting a couple of trips during your stay in Tanzania as well. Safaris are a must do in Africa and in Tanzania, I highly recommend Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti National Park. Unrivalled experience. If you're keen on climbing mountains, Mt Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, is there too. The hostel staff can help you book these trips for cheaper so wait till you arrive to decide.

I've met great people along the way and have received so much support and help from both the NGO and Love Volunteers themselves. It is my first volunteering experience and I wouldn't have wanted it to have happen any other way.

Overall I had an amazing experience and don't have any bad things to say.

I had a terrible experience volunteering in Tanzania through Love Volunteers. I stayed there for a month with two of my friends. We are teenagers who wanted to do some good service work abroad. However, throughout the month, we were continuously lied to by the head of the NGO we worked with. He lied to us about how big the impact each project would be (turns out we spent 4 days installing a water system for a school only to find out that the purpose was to eliminate a 30 second walk for the students), and lied to us about the costs of the projects. We brought money to pay for the projects, and he give us ridiculous prices for all the supplies. Even his own employees were shocked when they saw how expensive he claimed the supplies cost, and they said there was no way those were the correct prices. Still, he took our money and probably most of it went into his own pocket. Several times throughout the stay he showed extremely aggressive behavior towards me and my friends, and yelled at me several times just because I would ask him questions about the projects or prices of supplies. When I reported all of this to Love Volunteers they promised to take action, but in the end they still decided to keep their partnership with this NGO. Do not volunteer here if you are looking for meaningful service work, or if you don't want to be taken advantage of.

I felt the "NGO" that Love Volunteers works with in Tanzania is a total scam. The director was extremely rude, aggressive, and made our stay at the hostel quite uncomfortable.

The "work" that they do in the community is not at all meaningful or impactful. The director himself said that the schools and orphanages don't care about the projects. Volunteers are often told to do gardening work at a school or orphanage, where as soon as they leave the work falls into disrepair and the NGO does no following up and will simply wait until another volunteer shows up and then send them off to do the same project over again.

The director of the NGO spends his time running the hostel and arranging safaris for guests, and takes on volunteers so he has money coming into the hostel. He sends them off to schools or orphanages and isn't concerned with the work they're doing. I absolutely would not recommend this program or any others with Love Volunteers. After I, along with the other volunteers went to them to explain everything that had happened, they said they were "investigating" things, but ultimately they continue to send this organization volunteers.

Hello fellow travellers, future travellers and everybody else. I am Sangy, Im from England and I'm 28. So here I am in Cambodia, Siem Reap teaching at Kidtea, a NGO school. So what brings me out here? When I was younger I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to be or do. But one thing I was sure about I wanted to help people. In what manner I did not know but from anything that would better someone's life even if it was by the littlest margin would be worth my time. Often as we get older you get swallowed by daily life and busy working away in much different sectors than you thought you would. But that desire to get out there and help people was still there so I finally took the plunge and booked myself on a project. This was a few years ago and still to this day I still hold such fond memories. To locals who take you in as their own family, to the children who are introvert at first who then go on to give you the biggest and warmest hugs, the loudest and happiest greetings, create such infamous drawings and humorously mimic my English accent.

As cliche as it sounds it has changed me. The world is such a vibrant and unique place with hundreds of different cultures and way of living, so to be a part of one and immerse yourself in a different way than solely visiting or passing through a place, is beyond eye opening.

This is my third voluntary project I have done abroad with Love Volunteers which itself speaks volumes and I just love it more and more each time.

But forget the 'Sangy Story'. If you have or are pondering about doing it, just go out there take the leap and make your own incredible story and journey.

Volunteering in Peru was a great experience. It allowed me to not only fully immerse myself and explore the city of Cusco but also give back to that community.
I felt better taking part than simply being a tourist and my efforts were both appreciated and thanked.
Getting to know 8 children with disabilities over one month made it very difficult to leave upon the end of my time in Peru but I am still quite glad to have done this program.

When I had the opportunity to go to a local football(soccer) game in town I took it. I offered to pay at the entrance to the field, but was told to 'just go in'. The game had started and I made my way through the standing crowd to about mid-field. I was the only foreigner. Most of the crowd were home town fans and they were enthusiastic and LOUD. The rival team had two men drumming full tilt.
It wasn't long before our team scored! A jubilant young man in the crowd turned, walked over to me, and shook my hand in congratulations. I knew I was in a very special town indeed.

I spent three weeks volunteering in a school in Rabat. I had an absolutely amazing experience. I was in a classroom with 10 or so 12 year old girl and in three weeks I have able to see their English improve so much. I would highly recommend this program to everyone. Ali and Jihane were so helpful for the duration of my stay in Rabat from everything to tours of the area to just hanging out together. All in all it was a great experience and I will be telling my friends about it.

It was overall a good experience.Everything came together and was an excellent learning experience. It was challenging, but I wasn't looking for anythinv easy.

I recommend for someone who is brave and looking for a challenge. I learned a lot about myself and the county.

This trip wasn't about partying, but it was about learning.And I had a lot of flexibility with my plans. The coordinators were encouraging and made sure I enjoyed my experience.

I volunteered in Nepal through Love Volunteers back in March of 2014. It was an overall great experience. Kelly was very helpful and always got back to my emails and questions very quickly. I was picked up on time at the airport by Keshab and shown around a bit before we went back to the volunteer house. I had my own room with a cute balcony, which was very peaceful as it was situated in the hills. It had a bathroom with a western toilet, a shower, and a sink. The beds are low to the ground with a pad for a mattress, but there were so many thick woolly blankets, I just used a few of them for extra padding. The power goes off for 6 or more hours at a time in Nepal, there is a daily schedule so you know when it will go off. The house was equipped with solar lights in every room which would last a hour or two. Food is served for every meal. The cook and his family live on site and really make some great food. Expect rice, veggies, chapati, and sometimes noodles. No meat is served. Chicken and mutton can be found at any of the restaurants. But it is not readily available everywhere. This didn't bother me, I got a healthy diet (for once) of veggies, felt better than I usually do at home, and lost some weight! I had signed up for the environment program, which wasn't clearly described at the time on the web site. I found out when I got there that they primarily wanted me to teach children at the school about the environment, which I expected to do some of, but also more hands on clean up kinds of projects. Teaching at the school turned out to be amazing. I enjoyed it very much and loved spending time with the children. I spoke to Keshab about the more hands on part of the program, and he arranged for me to stay one week at an eco farm in Pokhara (Mountain View Eco Farm--google it!) Keshab and Manoj arranged my transport via bus on Swiss Travels. I stayed the weekend in downtown Pokhara, which was really a great experience. Many shops and restaurants, I even did a bit of a trek up to the Annapurna viewpoint. After the weekend Manoj met me by car and took me up to the eco farm personally and introduced me to the family. The farm is at the top of a large hill, or small mountain, and is a mud style house. It was beautiful and you can see the Annapurna range in the mornings. I got settled in my room, which was basic, with dirt floor and little bed with pad mattress. I had a beautiful view from my window every morning! Bathroom is a squat toilet outside, and shower is outdoor too, with an option for hot water (you have to boil it.) It was a rough experience, but nothing I couldn't handle. The family was great, and the wife would make great food that we picked fresh from the field each day. In the morning you help her pick the food for the day, and then you might help build a structure, like a green house, or plow a bit of a field, or plant. Sometimes they do seminars on eco farming for other local farmers to attend and learn. Down the mountain a bit is a coffee plantation and honey farm. It's a real treat to walk there in the morning and have fresh ground coffee and honey in front of the mountains. After that I went back to Kathmandu and stayed the remainder of my trip in the volunteer house. Keshab helped me arrange transport to Nagarkot to the Everest view point. They are really so accommodating and helpful, they went out of their way time and again to help me and make sure I was having a happy and fun time. At the school and volunteer house there were Chinese students also volunteering. We went out quite a bit by bus to Thamil, a nearby market. At the eco farm there were 3 other Americans volunteering. I had a great time where ever I went and would recommend this trip to anyone! If you can handle tent camping you shouldn't have too much of a problem with the living conditions :) it's worth it trust me!

Initially, given this years terrorist events in Kenya, I was hesitant to go to Mombasa to volunteer. I had considered changing the location to volunteer.

I'm very happy that the Love Volunteers staff convinced me to make it to Kenya. This experience has been life changing. The kids have amazing energy and are fun to be around. For as little as they have, their zest for life they carry is truly inspirational. Mombasa is located on the beach, sitting right on the Indian ocean. The weather is perfect year around. The kids and I went to the beach almost daily.

A night, I was able to venture off and join in on some of the beach and club parties that are common place.

A great mixture of volunteering and having a little fun for myself. Highly recommend this opportunity. The kids are so appreciate of the time I could spend with them. They need more volunteers to come. I have plan to go back and visit in July of next year.