Program Reviews

When I decided to take a Gap Year with AV, I did not expect it to have such a large impact on me. It is truly an unforgettable experience. AV gives you freedom and independence which are two important skills that you will discover and use to enrich your experience. It makes everything you do so much more rewarding because you are not depending on anyone but yourself to make a difference. The Ugandans you meet will change you. They will show you love and wisdom. Your fellow AVs will become friends that you always stay in touch with and other travellers you meet along the way will show you adventure. There isn't a day that I go without thinking about my time in Uganda last spring. The things you discover about yourself in Uganda will stay with you forever and it is the ideal location for these discoveries to take place.

My AV experience was absolutely life changing for me. Through my volunteer group, I met people that remain my best friends (and one of them my future husband!) even today (eight years on). The Kenyan people were hugely welcoming and really opened my eyes to a different way of living and looking at life.

The school I was at (Lessos Elementary) was basic but not the most basic, which enabled us to have at least some teaching equipment (i.e. a few textbooks for the kids to share etc). The kids were AMAZING!! I was thrown in the deep-end a bit, with teaching English, Maths, French, P.E. and some drama/dance/artsy subjects but the kids help you through and they're just so eager to learn anything you have to share with them.

I lived with two other British girls and we all got on amazingly! We lived in this very cute little bungalow, which had no running water or electricity but it was very much our "home"! It made the whole experience more fun and realistic to how the locals live..! We taught together and then at the weekends we'd meet up with the other 20 or so volunteers and travelled around West Kenya together. One of the best weekends we had was getting a coach to Uganda, where we all bunked out in dorms and went bungee jumping and white-water rafting.

The free time at the end of the programme enabled us to see the coast and Nairobi - both of which are vastly different to the Rift Valley. We even managed to go on two safaris and visit the idyllic Zanzibar in Tanzania.

I can honestly say that those six months were the best six months I've lived to date - every day was fun, different and challenging and the people (both the Kenyans and the volunteers) really made it for me!

My time in Malawi was one of the happiest periods in my life. The project was well supported, all AV staff were helpful and available to sort any problems. We were well matched in terms of who we were paired with and the experience was one I will always cherish. I learned so much, my eyes were opened to so many new things.
I would thoroughly recommend AV. Although cheaper projects are available they don't have the same back up and experience that AV does. At the age of 18 I had the support I needed to go out in to the world and spread my wings, yet knowing help was on hand if I were to need it. Thanks for such wonderful memories!

This coming January 2015 will be 10 years since I went on AV to Kericho in Kenya and it feels like it was only a couple of years ago - mainly because I think of my experiences there and my friends so often! Friends that I will have for life and see as often as I can - often a year or more will have gone by between seeing each other but we fall back into friendship like we were never apart because we share a unique experience and bond together, and know each other inside out. One thing we share was that all our friends and family for years after we returned complained that we never stopped banging on about Kenya and how amazing it was!

When I was 17 I wasn't having a good time at school, I even considered moving to a new school for my last year of A Levels. Then my mum suggested that maybe I would like to take a gap year before Uni and do something adventurous on my own and I immediately thought, yeah that sounds like a good idea I totally want to do that! Once I was accepted onto the Kenya 2005 programme I had something to build towards and that got me through my school year. The AV team are so friendly and send you lots of info about fundraising ideas and get you fully prepared for your trip.

The orientation days were really helpful, not just in getting orientated in terms of the country, teaching and general info, but it's also the most important bonding time with the other AVs and is great fun before you pair off and go to your schools. I met my 5 best friends during that period as well, but got on with just about everyone - there was a real mixed bag of people. I lived on the Kericho tea plantation teaching at Marinyn Primary - the placement was fantastic, the teachers and kids lovely and just so absolutely delighted to have you there! The more you put into your placement the more you will get out of it. It's all about getting to know your kids, get involved in and start up after school activities and bringing them fun things that they just don't have the resources/facilities for in imaginative ways. And they'll love you for it! But even better, you'll love doing it and you WILL cry the day that you have to leave your school. With the money which you donate to your school by either buying or doing something, Laura and I painted pictures in all of the classrooms which the kids just loved and I really hope they're still there!

The whole thing is an adventure from start to end, working out how to get into the town, where and how to shop and going travelling about the country on weekends and in the free travel period. You'll want to make the most of every opportunity. I can't pretend that there aren't scary times and some hard times but that's why you signed up right, to have an adventure and to test yourself! And my experiences (of all types) in Kenya literally set me up for life, and my best friends would all say the same of themselves. The most amazing experience I will NEVER forget because it shaped who I am today. I went to Kenya an un-confident teenager and I came back full of confidence, experiences and the knowledge that I can always do something if I put my mind to it. When you're 18 none of us think about our CVs, our future careers and what we'll have to say for ourselves when we graduate and have those first 'real' job interviews. But man was I glad that when that time came I have an experience like AV to put on my CV and to talk about - and people are always so impressed. It shows them that you're a get up and go person, that you like and can overcome a challenge and that you didn't just spend a year out travelling so you could lie on a beach.

I actually feel quite emotional writing this nearly 10 years on - I wouldn't be who I am today without AV! I'm a confident, strong and successful person who knows her own mind and looks for adventure and challenge as often as I can. In the years after Kenya I used to promote AV at my old school by giving talks and also represented them at a UCAS fair (a university exhibition fair) which was fantastic - I got to rave about my fantastic experience for 2 whole days to people who were interested! In the ten years since I've always said that EVERYONE should take a gap year before uni and do something similar to AV - you'll be a totally different and more ready individual to go to uni afterwards. I always wish some of the people I've known could have had my experience that could have helped them in their lives! And I ALWAYS suggest that teenagers of people I know look at AV and consider a year out doing something worthwhile - as you can tell by the length of my review it was the best and most significant thing I've ever done in my life. I think it goes to show as well that one of the girls from my group loved AV so much that she joined the company and worked for them for a long while, while the dad of one of my best best friends from Kenya is now a company representative in the north of England. If you're lucky enough to become an AV, it will touch your life forever, and I'm so glad to have been a part of it.

I struggle through out my school life and once my A levels were over I didn't want to think of University and I wanted to see the world a little bit and have a break from exams and all. I came across AV through my cousin who had also gone through on of the gap year program's. I had the BEST time, meet some amazing people and have made friends for life. It's so rewarding seeing happiness with the children you work with and seeing a different culture to the one your used too. AV are so organised and keep you up to date through the your time aways, they also have so amazing helpers that will look out for you over your time away. I recommend AV to anyone, and they offer many opportunists. Go for it, and take a chance!

A fantastic program, I had a lot of fun and met some great people. From the city life of Quitto to the tranquil, surreal heights of the cloud forest, this program has a lot to offer. Those who are interested in conservation this is perfect, working in the cloud forest taught me a lot about life in the remote endangered parts of the worlds forests and with Galapagos on Ecuador's doorstep, this trip makes for an amazing adventure!

This is a superb programme which gives young people a very valuable insight into a fascinating continent. My time in Kenya has stayed with me and allowed me to look at the world in a more rounded manner than just from a Western European perspective.

I can't recommend AV enough - they were great from start to finish, providing pre-departure support which exceeded expectation (and assured my parents of my safety) and in-country support. The AV rep in Tanzania was Lynette, and she was excellent - always at the end of the phone if you needed help or advice, and we met up with her several times during the trip. Saying that, we were given plenty of independence in our respective schools and could travel during the placement and afterwards in free travel as we pleased.

School: I stayed on the school premises with three other girls. Whilst the accommodation was very basic, including a lack of electricity and sporadic running water, it meant that we really bonded as a team in those early days and we soon adapted to our way of life. We had great fun trying to make a cake without an oven! We taught in pairs, and again this was a challenge to start with, but we soon got the hang of it and had great fun teaching the kids English, and occasionally art and singing. It was a bit manic with 100 kids but such an experience! We also took sports classes every Tuesday and Thursday which was great fun. The other teachers were brilliant and really helped us out, especially Dainess and Godwin who became our really good friends as they were also our neighbours. We now have a long standing relationship with the school and the area as we sponsor a little girl through school. We never would have had that opportunity had it not been for AV.

Free travel: We had a two week half term which was amazing. In it we climbed Kilimanjaro which was an incredible experience, even if like me you hate trekking! We then went and recovered on the paradisiacal Zanzibar where you can learn to dive, laze on a white sand beach with a really cheap cocktail or go to a beach party at night. After the placement was over, we all went travelling together as we'd really bonded as a group. We started in Uganda where we went white water rafting and bungee jumping, before heading to Kenya up the coast and then on a safari in the Masai Mara. AV is really unique in the sense that you all start together and end together so you really get to know each other and to this day we are all really good friends and meet up at least once a month. It's also unique in that it combines a long volunteering placement so you can actually make a sustainable difference rather than a short visit and the opportunity to travel afterwards, with the support of the company. I really don't think there's a better organisation out there offering what AV does.

I was in India with AV for four months in 2008.

Though some time has lapsed since then, some things still stand out. In particular, I met two of my best friends there, who were in the same group as me (we shared a room).

The food is some of the best you will ever taste. We cooked all the time and I still make curries at home using lessons I learnt there ('the key to North Indian cooking is jheera-dhanya').

Teaching is hard, but it is fun playing with the kids in the playground and your work is appreciated by the teachers.

The landscape around Darjeeling is beautiful, and a slightly easier climate than on the plains. The tea plantations stretch for miles and are unlike anything I have ever seen before or since. The trek we did in Sikkim was unforgettable - lush and green at the bottom, getting sparser as we rose. When we climbed to Kangchenjunga base camp at the peak of our route, the sunlight broke through the clouds, to reveal peak after peak. It was one of the hardest, but best experiences of my life.

The AV support network is impressive - I'm sure as much so for parents as gap year students - and in particular Tendup Lama and Richard Venning had invaluable local knowledge. My friends and I attend the AV Carol Service on Farm Street every year, which always makes for a great evening and attracts quite a crowd.

In all, you may have moments in India when you think - your feet are tired, your room is damp, you want some cornflakes. But acclimatising to local life; the smells and sounds; the language and clothes - even the very strange loos - these are the experiences you will never forget.

Teaching in Kenya was totally amazing I found it to be a highly joyful experience. I think the only thing that was difficult was that I knew that AV is a for-profit organisation. Although profit is not a bad thing, I felt like If I had just gone to Kenya by myself and volunteered at a school and given the school say 500 pounds I could have done an enormous amount of good. However, it is very unlikely that I would have as an 21 year old gone to Kenya without support. As a young person this is an excellent trip, support is always available. However, what would probably be a more beneficial piece of advice for anyone who wants to be a teacher. Train to be a teacher, do that. This will more than likely be of far better use to the world. However, if you are looking for an adventure and you've got loads of cash. Why not splash it on this.