Program Reviews

I actually volunteered twice for the Elephant program, once in 2014, and again in Feb 2015. It is a super fun program that not only gives you a once in a lifetime experience up close and personal with Elephants, but also gives you a window into the life of the people who own and care for these animals and their families.
You can expect to wake up early (4 or 5am.) And take a 20min tuk tuk ride to the Elephant Village. There is some dirty work involved, such as picking up the poop (they give you gloves) and emptying the poop in a field. But the experience is great, the elephants are friendly and love treats such as bananas, apples, oranges...after all your hard work, you'll enjoy a nice cup of chai and a chat with the mahouts. Maybe even an elephant ride or two!
***Be advised going into this program that this is not an Elephant rescue program, or a Elephant Reserve. These elephants WORK. They are used to give tours up to Amber Fort and other places around Jaipur. Sometimes they are used for weddings. Some of these elephants were rescued from circuses or other abusive settings and brought to the elephant village. They still are used for tours however. In this program I can tell you first hand that these elephants are properly cared for. They are provided with veterinarian care regularly (one had an ear infection and was visited by a vet and treated daily with topical ointment as well as antibiotics while I was there.) They are fed properly (probably excessively! They get lots of treats!) and all are provided shelter and bedding to sleep on. They are chained when inside their shelter, and they are chained while you are cleaning up around them. This is for the protection of the people working near them. Although elephants are friendly and peaceful, they are still a huge animal with a lot of power and capable of severe damage, even if it is unintentional. As far as other reports of use of a bull hook go, I have seen a bull hook in one location. I have never seen it used on any of the elephants. None of the elephants I was around ever had wounds indicating bull hook use, or any other kind of abuse. Some of the elephants, that came from previous circumstances, have old scars around their ears and top of their head. These are obviously very old, and have been healed many years. Never have I seen any elephant with any fresh wound anywhere.
Volunteers help in two ways in this program: 1) The fee you pay to do this program goes to help the families who own the elephants, as well as provide food and care for the elephants themselves. These families are poor. The elephant tours are their sole source of income for many of them. Some of them can hardly afford to feed themselves, let alone an elephant. This program ensures that the elephant is properly fed, cared for, sheltered, and has access to medical attention.
2) Helping the family clean and take care of the elephant in the morning gives the family extra time to take care of children, spend time together, eat breakfast together etc. before they go out to make their money for the day.
I enjoyed this program so much I came back a year later and did it again. I think it does a lot of good for these people, as well as the elephants. But if you're looking for an experience working at an elephant sanctuary or reserve for rescued elephants, this is not it.

I spent one week working with children at this center through VWI in February of 2015. This program is my favorite program so far at VWI ( I have also done 2 weeks working with Elephants and 1 week working in the women's program.)
While I was there, there were about 7 boys at the center of ages ranging from 6 to 14.
The boys come from being rescued from child labor in factories throughout India. While I was there one little boy had just come from Bangalore. Sometimes these children are kidnapped and forced to work long hours for food. Other children were given up by their families due to extreme poverty and inability to feed and care for them.
It's an extremely sad situation, but when you see the transformation of the boys first hand from when they arrive, to after being at the center for a few days it is so worth it. The boys stay at this center until either the organization can find their families, or if it was their family that abandoned them, they find a permanent facility or foster home for them. So boys are always coming and going.
I feel like I have had the most impact in this program than any other volunteering I've done in any other country.
As a volunteer, you are picked up in the morning and head off to the center. Govind is usually the interpreter, and he's amazing with the boys! We usually started by playing some classroom games with the boys, like duck duck goose or the hokey pokey. Afterwards we'd go over English (this is a bit tricky as you are dealing with a wide range of ages and abilities.) Mostly you go over the alphabet, we would also have them name animals or objects that started with that letter in English. We'd also go over English names for colors, and have the boys find things in the room that were blue or green etc. We'd spend some time on math as well by just writing out problems on the board and helping them solve them.
After a few basic lessons, you can do some crafts or coloring with the boys.
It's a good idea to either purchase some things for crafts at the market or bring them with you from home.
I brought some washable paint, fabric markers, and workbooks/coloring books from the dollar store back home, as well as a soccer ball, some jump ropes and crayons.
This is a charity organization, so while supplies are provided for you, they are usually fairly used and beat up. The children loved the soccer ball, as their old ball had a leak and was pretty much a flat ball they would kick around. Anything you can bring is very helpful and greatly appreciated.
We also bought some things from a local market in Jaipur, some wooden stamps, dish soap to make bubbles, and plain t shirts for the boys to decorate.
One day we had them use the fabric markers and write their names on the plain shirts and then decorate them with stamps and drawings. It was huge hit. I don't think many of the boys had much if anything that was theirs alone.
Another day we made bubbles out of dish soap and play in the yard with them. We also did jump rope, colored, played soccer, and had a silly string fight.
After the boys play in the yard, they are served lunch. The man that makes lunch may pull you and have you help him prepare the food. This is pretty easy and kind of fun to do. Then you bring the boys into the bed room area pass out rice, dal, and chapati for them and supervise them while they eat. If there is time while you are waiting for your ride back to show up, the boys usually appreciate if you draw something on the board for them to copy and color.
This is a great program. The boys are amazing, and it's a wonderful feeling to be able to help a child who has just come out of a horrible situation have fun, grow, and learn. Please consider this program, even a week is so worth it!

In March 2014 I spend two weeks volunteering with India, one week I spent working in the popular Elephant program, while the second week I spent working in the women's program.
This program is a bit different than how I imagined it. The women and girls come for the program after school or work. There are older women, and young teenage girls typically.
In this program, the women learn pretty much any skill work that they can use to generate an income for themselves. In some cases the women have been thrown out of their husband's family. With no where to go, as most of their own families will not take them back due to shame, these women need to learn a skill set to support themselves. Other women and girls come to learn a skill in order to help provide for their families.
The women learn how to sew clothes, by hand and with a sewing machine. They learn how to make patterns for clothes as well. Hair braiding, eyebrow threading, makeup, henna, and manicures are also taught.
As someone from a western culture, at first this seemed somewhat sexist to me. Volunteering in a women's empowerment program to teach them how to sew and do makeup? Kind of ironic. However, India is not a culture that is accustom to women working. Women get married to a man their family arranges for them. They move into their in law's house with their husband. They live under their husband's mother and father, and do all the cleaning and cooking for the household.
In a part of India where tourism thrives, there are many western women who want to buy a traditional Saree, get henna designs done on their hands, have their hair braided in a traditional Indian style, or have their eyebrows done and nails manicured. Learning these skills is a sure way for these women to generate income for themselves and support themselves, and even opens up a doorway for them to start their own business. What better way to empower a women than to give her a way to make her own money and own her own business without a man?
As a volunteer in this program, you primarily teach the women and girls English. This is essential, as most of their ability to make an income depends on communicating with tourists.
It is a bit challenging, as you have women and girls of all ages, some of whom are completely illiterate in their own language, and others (the teenage girls in particular, as they learn English in school) who are almost fluent in English.
If you have someone else working with you, splitting the women into groups based on skill level can be helpful.
Even if you are alone, the women all basically need to learn to speak English rather than reading or writing it. Talking with them, helping them with pronunciation, proper sentence structure, using "I" vs "me", plural forms, and just getting them used to talking in English with a native English speaker (many of the women and girls are shy) is very helpful.
Utilize the younger more fluent girls to help the ones that know less or no English. These girls get bored easily and will start to chatter amongst themselves.
Other things that would be helpful to teach them would be basic math and business skills such as how to determine how much money you need for the week, and how many sarees or henna you're going to need to sell in order to make that money (how to determine a profit.)
After you are finished, the girls usually have the "beauty" portion of their class. This time is fun for them (and you), especially the teenage girls. They may ask you to be their dummy while they do your hair, makeup, nails and practice henna.
I enjoyed this part of the day, and also is a good time to talk to the girls in English about their life, and your life back at home.
You do have a translator with you when you volunteer here, transportation, accommodation, meals, local weekend tours, and air port pick up/drop off are all included.
Overall a fun program that really opens up your eyes to being a woman or girl in a non western culture.

I traveled alone to India and worked 2 weeks with the elephants in the month of February. It was a life changing experience for sure and I feel blessed to have been able to work so closely with these magnificent animals. Totoram, the tuk tuk driver is a wonderful man who I felt safe with and well cared for. All the employees of VWI made me feel looked after as they checked in with me regularly to see how I was doing. The program is very affordable. The guest house was good. Living there was an authentic Indian experience that I will never forget. Although I am not a morning person, getting up at 0430 hours and being the first person the elephants saw in the morning made my day. I took bananas as a treat so they could start their day off happy. It was pretty cool to see the city come alive during the morning tuk tuk rides. Having the afternoons off to sight see or shop or hang out was perfect. I highly recommend this program to everyone. The work was not hard and the memories will be in my heart forever. Good Job VWI!

I was there 1 week in January 2015. Working days started at 5:00am. We cleaned the enclosures and fed the elephants before they went to work. Then we had a nice Masala Tea at the fire. Around 8:30am we were back and the rest of the day was free.
Accommodation with host family was basic but ok. Also food was good.
I hope I can manage to go there again. Would recommend this Project to everyone.

We got up every morning at 4.30 and got picked up by the most amazing tuk tuk driver - Totoram. Then we drove for about half an hour to where the six lady elephants were waiting for us to wake them up :) We were back at the guest house around 8.00 every morning, and then we had the rest of the day off (except for two days a week when we went back to work in the afternoon to feed the elephants).

The work was not hard at all, and there was chai time (tea time) almost every 15 minutes :P The animals are huge, and in the beginning I was a little scared, but after the second day I trusted them completely. I also got the chance to "play" a little bit with them by asking the guys who worked with the elephants to teach me how to climb one. That was probably the highlight of the week, along with washing them and riding them.

The family we lived with was also fantastic (they even invited us to a wedding while we were there), but the food could have been better. Sometimes we only got chapati for breakfast, or we didn't get breakfast or lunch at all.

I had an great time working with the elephants. Even within the one week they were there we got to know them and their personalities. The mahouts who care for the elephants are all extremely nice and feed you up with chai. Sukret kept in contact with us from the moment we booked the experience right until the very end (we now even have him and Govind on facebook). Our tuk tuk driver was the loveliest man in the world. My friend Megan spilt coffee on herself as we were sightseeing and he pulled over and rinsed her down! The host family were extremely accommodating and made us feel at home. Although while we were there, the daughter-in-law was basically in labour and one of the daughters was getting engaged, so it was a bit hectic.
I can assure you that this project and all the people are legitimate. We have a very near miss. Our driver for around Rajisthan tooko us to who we thought was Sukret, but the guy claimed to be Sukret's cousin. After attempting to take our money several times, we rang Sukret just to double check, and he said he had no idea who that man was and didn't have a cousin that worked at the elephant village. It was a close call!

As a seventeen-year-old Moroccan girl who had never set foot on India before and who had no idea what kind of journey she would embark in, I should say I will never regret my choice of volunteering with VWI. It was by far one of the most powerful and meaningful experiences of my life! My arrival pick up service was good. I came to Jaipur before the expected time because my flight from Delhi left earlier, but I only had to wait for 10 mins before getting picked up. The host family is a real joy to be with. I had a wonderful time with them, and I couldn't have asked for a better place to stay. While the accommodation was fairly comfortable, the food was IRREPROACHABLE! Indian mommy probably serves the best chais and chapatis in town! Transportation service is very efficient and the project staff members are so nice and sympathetic. I decided to volunteer with VWI because I wanted to volunteer with abused kids in India during my school’s winter break, so I did a google search for volunteer programs in India and VWI was honestly the best I could find, not only in terms of costs, but also and most importantly in terms of flexibility and variety of project offers . I would like to give 10 out of 10 to the Organization. I have had such a great time with VWI. The host family, the accommodation, the food, the transportation and my work at the center...everything was so perfect! I could hardly complain about anything. Also, I would like to add that the tons of hope and happiness that was transmitted to me every working day through the kids' genuine smiles are probably the memories I will cherish the most out of my volunteer experience. I am so thankful for everything. Thank you VWI!

My week with VWI in Jaipur was a wonderful experience. Teaching the children was hard work, but their enthusiasm and willingness to learn made it all worthwhile. My last day, when we all danced together, was very emotional and something I will treasure forever.
India is a fascinating country: the traffic in Jaipur is unbelievable and the complete contrast in culture to England is staggering. I was certainly out of my "comfort zone" but never at any time did I feel in any way threatened --- the people were extremely friendly and curious!
VWI is a very good and authentic organisation who looked after me very well throughout my stay.I also met several people from TAABAR who do so much good work in the community.
As I say in the headline: " The experience of a lifetime"

Being on the program in India was absolutely amazing. It was a truly cathartic experience, and working with the other volunteers was so much fun! The children at the orphanage were so wonderful.
It was an amazing experience. I stayed with a host family and ate vegetarian food. We reach to the center every morning, and taught until about 9:30 a.m to 3 p.m. The organization is wonderful and everything’s organized by worth. The Project coordinator at the site was wonderful. In the beginning i did not know what to do but he explain me everything and build my confidence. I will definitely recommend the program and VWI!