Program Reviews

Hi everyone!
I would like to share all my adventures I experienced in Arusha, but this would take me to long.
I was lucky to meet great woman groups, they were very interested in the trainings we have. Our project leader Elisabeth is doing a great job! As volunteer I felt instantly welcome at the office of projects abroad in Arusha. They showed me everything around the city, which made me feel very safe. The organisation was well-arranged and my hostfamily was great (they are a second family for me) I met a very nice project partner with whom I’m still in touch with... She’s going back this year, I couldn’t go back this year, but will try to make it next year for sure. To all who are still hesitating to go to Arusha: I would like to advice STOP HESITATING AND LET YOURSELF GO 🇹🇿

I had such an amazing time! I worked in Shanghai for 6 weeks and the level of support from projects abroad before, during and after my trip was fantastic. And they had a great volunteer community out there so we meet up every week to do different local activities!
The projects abroad team helped with my visa application and any other pre beforehand. When I arrived they met me at the airport. Food and accommodation and travel were all covered too so all I had to take was spending money.
I worked in an interior design company and whilst there we taught each other bits of English and Chinese respectively, they took me out for food occasionally and took me to tourist attractions. I also got to travel to another location with them to meet potential clients and learn how the Chinese work culture works.

It was brilliant! Can’t wait to do another one!

My son and my niece (both 16yo) went to Fiji with Projects abroad and were in love about everything and I can tell how important was the program for their development. I had the opportunity to meet them during the program and saw how enthusiastic they were about learning and working there.
For them, the high lights were of course singing with the sharks. All the process that ended in the diving were great: the classes, the instructors and the equipments. In second place they say it was visiting the village and living as a “local” for a day.
As a mother I felt they were in a safe and positive environment and at the same time being able to explore the local Culture and nature. They didn’t want to leave! Now are planning on going to Belize next

Tanzania is full of culture and excitement. The teaching project with projects abroad was truly an amazing and heart warming experience. You can always leave Africa, but Africa will never leave you. Forever engrained in my heart!

School commences with prepping the classrooms, washing the children’s hands and assembly. The assembly was a personal favourite moment of mine. Listening to the kids sing their school song, national anthem and another song that makes you want to become a kid again. The children are all standing in their class lines, designated by baby class, middle class and upper class. Which is assigned to them depending on their level of progression within the school.

Numbers, ABC’s, Animals, Colours and Shapes are the go-to’s for the first session. Walking the children through a variety of fun and engaging activities. There are a few class clowns that keep everyone entertained, but we avoid any playtime to occur in the classroom. Having the kids practice what we teach them, is essential to the success of the class. Repetition, repetition, repetition…

I was able to volunteer for both the Medical and Public Health projects, 3.5 weeks each and got to immerse myself into healthcare in Cambodia in various sectors. I worked at an orphanage, local schools, and local villages to provide basic primary care to Phnom Penh locals. The orphanage I volunteered at homed over 100 mentally and/or physically disabled children, which posed as a challenge and was extremely satisfying to see progress resulting from my care for a few of the children I worked closely with. On the other hand, I also had the opportunity to care for those who either do not have health insurance and cannot afford healthcare otherwise and/or access to a local clinic or hospital for regular checkups. Overall, it was a great experience!

My experience with projects abroad was one of the most amazing things I have ever done. I loved the staff so much, I felt like I could talk to them about anything and they were there for me. The food was delicious, and everything was clean and beautiful. The work we did was fun and rewarding. Planting mangroves, shark dives, dropping Bruvs, survey dives, beach clean ups, building a foot path for a local school, tagging sharks, and teaching at a local school were some of the wonderful things we did. The other volunteers were kind and I found a few life long friends among them. My weekends were one of the highlights of the trip for me because I found a family on another island I visited. I adore everyone there and will be visiting them again. I wrote my college essay about my experience. I loved every second and wish I could go back there every day.

Earlier this year I went to San Pedro, Belize, to do a healthcare project on the island. This involved medical outreach, where we focused on mosquito borne diseases and educating the community on the dangers and ways to prevent them. It was also national testing day when I was there, so we helped in getting a large amount of the island tested for HIV in Central Park. We also did mobile clinics 3 times a week - we provided free blood sugar and pressure checks to the community in order to help them get treated if there was anything of concern. It was an absolutely amazing experience, meeting new people, learning new skills, and living and working in a completely different culture to home. It taught me so much about myself and others, and I would absolutely go back and do it all over again. The staff were friendly and caring and helped me with any needs and questions I had, without hesitation. If you’re questioning whether to do it or not...do it!

This was an extremely rewarding experience that really broadened my horizons. Really eye opening and meaningful work carried out, my only criticism would be maybe we could have done a little more work and it felt a little disrespect staying in such good accommodation but I don recognize this was really safe but maybe an option of with a host family could be more grounding and give a more representative interpretation of Cambodian culture. It was so easy and the whole projects abroad community was so helpful with and problems.

Absolutely fantastic project! I was able to achieve my PADI open water certification whilst making a difference to the local reefs. I was also able to see a number of blue spotted rays, lion fish, puffer fish and barracuda. On top of that I was able to educate local communities on the impact and issues of micro plastics and contribute towards the transplantation of mangroves in efforts to combat coastal erosion and carbon dioxide emissions. The premises were comfortable with a pool and WiFi available and I was sharing an en suite room with 3 other girls of a similar age to myself. The on site staff were also friendly and approachable and often arranged social activities for the residents to participate in. I’d highly recommend the marine conservation project to anyone with an interest in sustainability!

During my two weeks in that project, I was asked to teach some english lessons to a class of 3 to 6 years old children. The class was separated into two groups : the oldest and youngest, for which lessons were more comprehensible. I was also asked to take care a play with them at certain time of the day. A few time, I cooked them some meals a washed their teeth. It was a breathtaking experience to contribute to make those children happy. They were most of the time smiling and enjoying our activities. During that time, me and other members of the project brought them many toys and more tooth brushes. For our last day, we had a great party with cakes. It was heartbreaking to leave them at the end, but the souvenirs are still incredible to that day. I would truly appreciate to complete another similar project. I have also great souvenirs of Cambodia, in which I was able to travel. I went for example in Siem Reap during the week-end. I would recommend this experience to anyone.