Program Reviews

The living conditions for my YCI project were excellent all things considered and the local community was a wonderful place. YCI supplied us (volunteers) with a wealth of resources and facilitators, but also give us a huge amount of free-reign, as well as responsibility. At first this was very overwhelming; I would highly recommend having an in-depth talk with an alumni before going for optimal preparation and ease into the project. This would mitigate my one complaint with YCI which is its pre-project preparation. But after the first few weeks, the remainder go by much too fast, and leaving the community behind will be a tear-jerker!

I found the overall experience to be very positive. At first I was worried about being able to make a difference in just three weeks, but the attendance at our English workshops was very high and I was able to appreciate the impact we had. I did not always love the volunteer activities, like helping at the recycling center, but anything can be fun when you are surrounded by wonderful people. I got to experience things I never would have at home, like walking cows (yes really!) and seeing a calf being born. I also made several close friends because of this experience that I would not have met otherwise.

During my 5 week stay in Guyana, I worked with the Health Center in St.Cuthbert’s to implement drainage maintenance in part of the village. The population of the entire village of St.Cuthbert’s is 1500 people, and about 200 people live in subsidized housing called the “Scheme”. There are forty 500-square foot houses in the Scheme, each equipped with an out-house because there is no running water. The Scheme is on lower land and when it rains heavily, there is a lot of flooding, which causes land erosion. Mosquitoes that carry Malaria fester and thrive in dark standing water and poor sewage drainage adds to the soupy swamp which in turn can contaminate the entire area in the Scheme. Children are seen playing amongst these puddles and families tend to their gardens that feed their families. As you can probably see, this is a very significant health concern.

Standing water around houses can cause land erosion and health issues. I was delegated to take initiative and approach the people of the village with this issue. After visiting the Scheme and going from house to house, I realized that the only option to fix this problem was to dig and maintain deeper drains around every lot and create a main drain that leads out to the river down past the village. I met with a few people that knew the geography of the land, and we drew a map of the Scheme to figure out where the best place would be to dig a main drain . Since the houses were originally built, a drain was included with the construction, but over time erosion caused the drains to become almost non-existent. I also noticed that the drains were filled with garbage, such as empty bottles, papers, etc, which obstructs the water flow.

We had to act!

I facilitated a workshop explaining the cycle of good drainage, clean soil for gardens, and proper nutrition, which ultimately leads to good health. Only a few people came to the first meeting but the following week I encouraged more people to come out and start digging.

I created posters for my drainage project information session.
Soon after, I visited the Scheme every few days and found that more and more drains were being dug. I kept following up with the people to encourage them and reminded them why it is important to maintain their drains.

The beginnings of the drains dug around each lot in the scheme.
The biggest challenge of this project was keeping people motivated! A Drainage Committee was created in order to provide encouragement and ensure commitment to the project.

Before my departure, I was pleased to findout that 70% of the Scheme residents had dug their drains! I feel confident that the people will continue to work on their drains and I hope that it will be a sustainable project.

This experience has shown me that with commitment and a positive attitude, a community can work together to make a positive change!

-Kasia Wolowski, Youth Ambassador, Guyana 2011

I recently volunteered in Guyana for three months and had an amazing experience overall! My group was placed in an Amerindian village called St. Cuthbert's Mission. The landscape of the village was beautiful and the people were friendly and welcoming. I can't wait to go back and visit the friends I made, as well as to explore more of the country!

During my time in St. Cuthbert's, I taught the Grade 3 class at the primary school three days a week along with another volunteer from my group. Occasionally, I would fill in for other teachers at the primary school as well. I also helped teach remedial Math and English classes to the Grade 7/8 students two days a week. Apart from teaching, I also helped plan and run workshops for both the primary and secondary school students on a variety of topics including dental hygiene, nutrition, study skills, test-taking, and water conservation.

There were tons of other things to experience in the village as well, and we tried to keep a busy schedule to ensure we could make the most of our time there! We went camping, fishing, hiking, and swimming with some of the locals. I had my first ride in a dug-out canoe, and shampooed my hair in a black water creek! Some of the villagers invited us over for dinner sometimes as well. It was really interesting to experience life in another culture and another part of the world, and also very rewarding. While learning about Guyanese culture and building relationships with some of the locals, I learned a lot about myself in the process.

However, as expected, there were a few challenges to overcome during our project as well. As this was my first experience volunteering internationally, I felt a bit overwhelmed at first and didn't quite know how to get involved in the community, or what kinds of projects I could participate in. We were given little direction or encouragement from the field staff in Guyana upon arriving in St. Cuthbert's. I would have appreciated a bit more support and guidance overall throughout the project, but especially while trying to settle in and adjust to our new home during those first few weeks. However, having little direction also had its benefits. It forced me to try to integrate into the community on my own, and to become more proactive. We were expected to get involved and to find useful ways of contributing to the community. We had to take initiative and seek out projects we could create or participate in. It was definitely challenging, and even frustrating at times, because I didn't know what to do, or felt overwhelmed by the task of trying to find something meaningful to do. In the end, however, all these challenges made for a very valuable learning experience! I had a wonderful time in Guyana and would definitely consider volunteering with Youth Challenge International again in the future!

YCI makes it important that volunteers work in a group during their project, whether they assign you to another partner or a group of people. This allows volunteers to feel safe and to know that they are with others during their project. The costs that volunteers fundraise are also a positive aspect of YCI, because the money goes towards the organization that you work with, your stipends while in country, and only a small amount to YCI's costs. Other organizations that I had searched up before going with YCI did not donate their money to the in-country organization we would be working with.

YCI provided us with detailed guidelines of what we were going to be doing in Tanzania - while in country, we were still given freedom to take on the project however we liked, allowing us to feel as if the project was ours.

Daily experiences - walk or take the public transportation to the office, which was situated right in the middle of the city. After a few hours of planning at the office, we would take the public transportation to the organization we were working with (transportation costs were covered by YCI's stipends). At the centre we were volunteering at, we taught health, environment, and civics classes. We also took part in a community project, helping the youth take part in a community initiative. We also worked on a Youth Day event at the end of our project for the students and community. We got weekends off and had enough time to travel the country and have lots of fun.

Going to Ghana with YCI was a great way to break into the field of international development. I was able to apply my knowledge while gaining experience abroad facilitating workshops and training local residents to continue YCI initiatives upon my teams' departure. YCI's head office was extremely helpful in every step of my preparation and return - they have tons of resources regarding fundraising and everything you need pre-departure - the talk with an alumni who had just returned from Ghana a month prior was extremely helpful in my preparations. YCI also was in frequent contact with us while we were in Ghana and were open to receiving feedback. Since returning I have stayed involved with the organization by volunteering at local events and giving talks to future volunteers.

The in-country staff were great advisors to us and were fun to hang out with! Working with peers close to us in age was also a great way to gain insight into the community. Our training of residents within the community also helped to ensure the sustainability of our project.

The music, delicious food, and beautiful scenery are memorable but it is the Ghanaian people who will make the greatest impression on you - they are extremely friendly & welcoming to foreigners.

When I went to Ghana back in 2008, it was a really positive experience for me. Our team was well rounded, the local community was generous and the projects we were working on were really interesting. The only issue I had, at that time, things may have changed now, is I didn't feel we made a lasting impact. I feel we touched the hearts of a lot of the young Ghanian boys and girls through our workshops and through passing on knowledge on issues they were not so sure of but I didn't know what the follow up looked like: Were there volunteers going right after us to follow up on our progress?

I absolutely loved going and have recommended the program to many. I feel, at the end of the day, that I got more from the experience as an individual than the impact I made overseas. After this experience I have dedicated my life to working in the not for profit sector, becoming more specialized in impact assessment and measurement.

The training before the trip was really good. We however were a little unclear about the project until we got to Ghana. Looking back, it would of been nice to know a bit more so those that wanted to could have prepared and researched somewhat. Our program leader, I felt, was good. She gave us space but was there when we needed her. Our team was full of bright mid twenties women and I think that helped in making our trip as successful as it was.

This was one of the best experiences of my life. The community was very welcoming and was located in a very scenic area thus it was always a treat to wake up and look out the window to enjoy the view. My favourite workshop that we did was a sports day twice a week with the elementary school kids. It was a fun way to get to know the children in the community and also teach them new sports such as California kick ball. I also enjoyed the English classes that we hosted because by teaching the students English my Spanish also got better. The main difficulty I encountered was the fact that I knew no Spanish whatsoever when I came to Costa Rica, therefore a lot of body language was used initially. However, I slowly picked up on it and after about a week or two it was no longer an issue.

I first went to Ghana as volunteer with YCI in 2008 and I returned for a second placement in 2009. Literally three months later I was on a plane heading back to Accra.

Through volunteering I learned so much about myself, Ghana and most importantly, the process of development. I Loved working directly with youth and feeling the solidarity (and common ground) between young people in other countries.

YCI provided all the key components of volunteering abroad (I always felt safe, supported and that the project was useful/beneficial), it was the youth to youth work that made it such a life changing experience for me. Immediately after my first volunteer project, I returned home and applied for a post graduate program in International Development and applied for my second YCI project.

I have recommended YCI to many friends and classmates. Ghana is a fabulous country to visit, with some of the nicest, warmest people I have ever come in contact with.

Last summer I spent 6 weeks living in Arusha Tanzania and it was one of the best experiences I have ever had. YCI set up a fantastic volunteer program allowing me to teach Arushan youth the importance of volunteerism. I worked at a community centre where I taught lessons in health, civics and environmental sustainability. Making personal connections with the students at this centre has changed my life forever. I was welcomed into their communities and was shown the true meaning of hospitality. YCI gave me an excellent opportunity to see the world around me, and do things I could never do before.