Program Reviews

Booking my volunteering trip with Kaya Volunteer was such a great experience! The staff was very helpful and friendly, and they were able to address all of my questions and concerns through the booking process. They also provide you with plenty of information before you depart, which is extremely helpful to provide a better understanding of the location you are going and what your days may typically look like. I participated on the teaching and community project in Livingstone, Zambia.

We would teach every weekday in the mornings, then have a break for lunch, and then volunteer for a few hours in the afternoon at various places such as after school reading clubs or the old people's home. We had the weekends off to participate on any adventures or excursions that we wanted to!

Volunteering abroad was an amazing life changing experience that opens up your eyes to other parts of the world. Don't be discouraged if you don't have any teaching experience. I didn't either and I was able to catch on quickly with some help from the on-site staff and other volunteers. I volunteered for just 2 weeks and was able to meet tons of lifelong friends from all over the world. The people in Livingstone were so friendly and welcoming, and it is a joy to work with the kids and see how eager they are to learn.

A great experience in a small school for children. An incredible homestay in a rural placement. A fantastic welcoming from the rural family and a great friendship was developed.

A negative experience with the 'on the ground' team in Nepal. For the price paid one would most certainly have expected clear organisation of transport to rural placement. It would be very easy to organise this on Tourist type buses which enable you to have your own seat, as opposed to travelling in a bus designated for 8 people with 30 actually travelling on it.

A well travelled individual I am very understanding of the transportation methods and what is deemed as normal in Nepal however an organisation which caters for paying customers I would expect that their safety is paramount in the organisations mind, even before the volunteering itself. How productive can one be if one does not make it to the placement because of poor quality of care for individuals.

This was further highlighted when on more than one occasion there was a significant amount of confusion over individuals being picked up from the airport. If your volunteering includes airport pick up, don't count on them being there. We had a number to call as part of a volunteer pack, but again what use is this when you have just arrived in country, great if you have a mobile, but then what use is the organisations number if no one answers! Luckily I was travelling with someone but there were individuals who arrived during the middle of the night and struggled to find the volunteer house.

While working in the education establishments was rewarding I also experienced that other individuals who were promised micro-financing spent one afternoon of a 4 week programme doing excel within a community. I personally feel a few things need to be made a little clearer to individuals so their expectations are not so high. Sustainable travel maybe?! Safe volunteering, questionable.

We felt there was a lack of coordination between kaya and their Nepal based volunteer provider. Teaching placement in Kathmandu was excellent. Hospital placement had no programme or thought put into the volunteer's role. Homestay for the rural placement was excellent, a definite highlight but again more thought needs to be put into the volunteer placement.. There were up to 10 volunteers at a time arriving with no coordination. Kaya did not ask for any official feedback and their reply to our feedback did not acknowledge room for any improvement on their part. Come on we all look to make changes

Background: I am a 23 year old medical student who payed $1500 to do a 3 week elective with the Good Shephard clinic in San Ignacio, Belize. Included was accommodation at a home stay, all meals, 6 language lessons and transfer from Belize city to San Ignacio. Everything written below is based solely on my personal experience in May.

1. They do not deliver what they advertise: I arrived on the date Kaya told me I needed to start on; 3rd of March. I was told by their coordinator that the clinic was closed for the week and I would go in on Friday. I was paying $500 for this week and I cancelled a week of my time in paediatric cardiology in America to make this date but they hadn’t organized my first week. I was staying in a hotel, not with a family, and was eating all my meals alone in a restaurant. The language lessons didn’t exist and when I asked about them I was told I could pay extra.

2. They didn’t give me the correct information: They told me the clinic was closed because of the Government election. The clinic was open, running reconstructive surgeries and I had been expected on the day I was originally supposed to start. Other volunteers from different volunteer organizations had all started that day yet Kaya had failed to call the clinic to check their information. The clinic had no idea who Kaya was when I asked them.

3. They refused to reimburse me the money for transport: $30USD is allocated for each transfer. I had to pay for my own transfer and they refused to reimburse me, telling me they spent that aspect on placing me in a hotel instead of a home stay which I didn’t ask for or want.

4. They discourage transparency: My coordinator got in trouble for telling me how much the transfer allowance is. The hotel is under a contract not to disclose how much accommodation costs I found out on the last week when I asked for a reimbursement so I could leave the project.

5. The last week of placement the clinic was closed and they refused to reimburse me part of the $500 I’d paid. I ended up going to the World Paediatric Project in Belize city, after the clinic suggested it, and having to pay for my own food, accommodation and transport after I had already payed Kaya. Kaya’s response was it wasn’t their fault the clinic was closed.

6. They are unsupportive and unprofessional if you have an issue with their service: A woman from Kaya called up my co-ordinator when I asked for a partial refund for the two weeks they hadn’t been able to provide to ask ‘whose side are you on?’. I felt like I was in a battle against Kaya rather than discussing a business transaction.

7. They refuse to take responsibility for their inability to provide what they advertise: During the first week they blamed the government, the co-ordinator and the clinic for the clinic being closed. They then blamed everyone all over again for the misinformation.

8. They’re unprofessional: I dealt with the director, attempting to get a refund for the two weeks of elective I didn’t receive. It took been over 2 months and she periodically ignored my emails or gave me long spiels about why what has happened isn’t her fault, avoiding addressing a refund.

9. They made me feel isolated, resentful and have prolonged everything to the extent where it really ruined my trip. I thought if I told them what had happened they would quickly and efficiently tell me their refund policy and deal with it. Instead it has been a constant back and forth battle via email. I had little support in Belize and ended up leaving because the clinic was closed and I wanted to get away from the situation.

10. After everything Kaya refunded me $103 GBP(10% of the total) after not being able to provide 60% of the elective, not even close to a fair refund.

Basically, this elective was hell. The week that I went to clinic was amazing but all the stress, trauma and disappointment over this wasn’t worth it. Don’t waste your holidays or money on this elective. There are plenty of other organizations out there who can organize your elective properly and based on my experience I would suggest you stay away from this one. It’s been two months, I’ve yet to receive even an answer to a refund and the whole situation was just stressful and unnecessary.

I went to Koh Tao for the land-and marine conservation program. The sign-up process was easy and the different forms you fill in shows that there is a good organization behind this company. You also have easy access by both e-mail and telephone if you would have any questions. In good time prior to departure I received a welcome pack. This contained loads of useful information, everything from country information, travel details, project details, things to think about and suggestions of what to pack. There was also important telephone numbers for both the Bangkok coordinator and the project manager at Koh Tao. My experience with Kaya is very good. Before choosing my project they answered all my questions very thorough and also gave that additional service and were willing to help out with everything. After arriving at the project Kaya checked so that I was satisfied with everything and there was also a follow-up when I got home. They have also been in contact with me since I got back home and been helping me to find a new project. I would recommend Kaya to anybody wanting to volunteer

Last May and June i spent 6 weeks in Zanzibar with 2 of my best friends everyday was like living a dream. We would wake up and watch the sunrise, the fisherman walking out to their boats and the seaweed farmers walking back to shore with kgs of seaweed. It was the most sureal experience i have ever had but it was incredible. I didn't want to leave. Our normal day would start at 7am we were provided breakfast by the wonderful and friendly chefs, then road our bikes to JTTI (Jambiani Tourism Training Institute) where we had been allocated groups to teach them english they ranged from no english at all to students that were studying the Martin Luther King Jr speech. At about 10:30 we would cycle to our allocated nursery their were 3 in total. I taught class 3 at Sirajetil and Ibrahim nursery the children were such a delight everyday and always full of beans. We would then return home at about 12pm for lunch and have a 2 hour break to prepare for our lessons the next day or going for a swim in the crystal clear waters. In the afternoon we would have some sort of manual labour we planted trees in the primary school, did a beach clean up and provided bins for the local community. In the evening we would have "Rainbow" which was the kids club or an adult evening class and the volunteers would alternate each day what they did. To finish off the day we could walk down the beach to the local bar were some of our students worked to have a drink (non-alocholic of course). The entire experience is something i will never ever forget the people you meet and things you see are make me want to go back in a heartbeat. We not only volunteered though we had the weekends off so were able to explore the island. We went to the very north of Zanzibar to Nungwi for a full moon party, visited Stone Town numerous amounts of time, got to snorkel off Prison Island which was indescribable it was so beautiful. There are so many highlights its hard to pick one but we were lucky enought to see 'Bikidude' who was so famous amongst the locals she is a very old woman who can play the drums and sing - she was a god to the locals. One of our students invited us to his village we left at 9am and got back at 6pm it was a day i will never forget the village he came from was beautiful. All the activites we were lucky enough to experience made the trip the wonderful and to see the smiles on all the villagers faces was amazing. I never once felt unsafe and the co-ordinators were wonderful. I would recommend this trip to anyone we had volunteers who were 18 up to 55 in our group. I would drop at a hat to go their again.

I was placed in a local private hospital for my volunteering project. I felt that this particular hospital was very well run, and operated in a similar fashion to those in England. Though this did mean, that as a third year medical student, I wasn't experiencing anything particularly new. The staff were helpful and allowed me to speak to patients where possible, perform minor examination and attend theater. I would advise learning to speak as much Spanish as possible to really make the most of the experience.

With regards to the social aspect, i felt that this could have been improved. I was told i was the first person to sign up for this particular course and that others would join during my first week. This didn't happen. I found this disappointing. Although i did attend Spanish classes in the evening where there were more people of my own age which was nice.

I personally love animals and love working with and learning about them (especially new species I have no knowledge of). I was also interested in working on a project involving the environment and conservation. As this was my first time volunteering, but also my first time on a big trip abroad by myself, I (along with my family) had several worries before I travelled. Kaya was very helpful and addressed all of my questions/worries. One of the Kaya coordinators told me that volunteering is probably the best way to travel solo, as you have the ability to meet new people and others in your situation.

As part of the program, you will help prepare the food for the animals, clean cages and provide the animals with fresh food and water daily. Other duties included constructing new structures or fixing existing structures for the inside of the animal cages or helping to fix things (cages, steps, etc.) around the Centre. Every other week, the volunteers and staff would also go to teach a lesson about various environmental issues to the children at the local school.

There were many highlights I would say. Just being able to see and learn about new species in the world (especially the Amazon Rainforest) was great. Specifically spending extra time with the species that were not going to be re-released into the wild (the songo songo and the coati) was very special and meaningful. I loved taking a tour of the new project site and the family’s plantations by trekking into the Amazon. They let us try different fruits they had there and it was just interesting to experience how they live and work every day. Getting to explore the nearby cities on weekends was also a fantastic cultural experience. In addition, before I had left, I had read that soccer is a big sport in Ecuador so I decided to bring a soccer ball as a gift to the children at the local school. They absolutely loved it and were so happy! It was very touching to see how much this one simple gift meant to the children.

I would recommend that anyone considering this project actually has a genuine love or appreciation for animals. The work isn’t necessarily the most glamorous, so if you don’t truly care about the animals you may not take as much pride in your work which is only going to affect their living conditions and well-being. The main purpose of the Centre is to look after the animals and, as a volunteer, you are there to help them with this objective. You shouldn’t expect to be catered to or to be living in style. I would also fully recommend anyone participating in this project or volunteering in Ecuador to do is to learn Spanish. You don’t have to be fluent by any means, but the people really appreciate if you try and can communicate on some level. I only went to Ecuador with basic Spanish skills and found it a bit difficult. Lastly, I would recommend anyone participating in this program to be flexible. I found there were minor aspects of the program that I knew about before my trip, that were not entirely accurate once I got there. I have learned that although you may have expectations for a trip, it likely won’t turn out exactly the way you think it will. You may think this means your experience won’t be as great, but in reality it just means your experience will be different. This is one of the most important things I’ve learned from my experience- to learn to be flexible and to understand that you can take new (and unexpected) things away from a trip.

Upon arriving in Bangkok, I disovered my luggage had been lost. The Kaya representative helped me deal with the airlines to find out where it was and that it would take a week to get back to me. He then took me around the city to buy some clothes and such to last me a week in rural Thailand. He made what would have been a terrible time bearable. The elephant welfare project, where I was actually volunteering, was the best place ever and I am sad that I am not still there. Everday, I got to be with elephants, walking with them, swimming with them, or just appreciating them and their personalities. The volunteers would clean their shelters, cut food for them, plant food, maintain the fields, and bathe them in the river. It was the most amazing time ever.

I worked at the school Consipe in Cochabamba everyday 8:30 while 12:00 (you can work the afternoons if you wish but I was teaching English). The school was fantastic and the Director is lovely, I had the most amazing time. Our host family were so welcoming and supportive. Kaya were good at organising everything, however, we could have recieved more support from our volunteer co-ordinator based in Bolivia.