Program Reviews

Make yourselfes no illusions, the money you pay ProjectsAbroad is not really going to the cause. In the center in Saint Louis (Sénégal) the budget per week is 100'000 CFA. That is about 100 USD. I ALONE PAYED WAY MORE THEN THAT PER WEEK. The head of the local team drives an expensive Audi, that is something almost no one can afford there.
There is no structure in the teaching program. No books and no perminent teachers. There is not much for the kids that come there and are motivated to learn to profit from.

My trip to Nepal was amazing. This was my first time overseas where I didn't know anyone prior to departure. I had great assistance from before the trip, so I knew what to expect. However, even though I had been well informed about Nepal and what I would be doing on the trip, nothing could prepare me for how amazing Nepal would be. My local guides made me feel at home as they would always be there to help me when I needed them. They were always very approachable. While in Nepal I was also kept very well informed by my supervisors. I also met some amazing friends who I have caught up with and am I still talking to them a month after my trip finished. Staying with people for two weeks that are not members of my family is something I have never done before. This allowed us to get to know each other very well.

My project that I participated in was the building of new classrooms for a school. The building project was an amazing experience. We were welcomed into the school right from the beginning. We mostly laid bricks and made/mixed concrete by hand. Although we had to do physical work, our engineers and supervisors always made sure the job was suitable for our age and skill level. Our supervisors always made sure we were hydrated and not too tired. As a group, we always tried to do as much as possible each day. We arrived towards the end of the construction of the school so we were able to see the fully constructed rooms. We also got to understand how much work went into the project before we arrived.

Other than working on the building site, we were able to experience Nepal. We got to eat traditional food at restaurants, visit temples and walk around the streets. Over the weekend, we were able to visit Pokhara. The 7 hours to Pokhara was definitely worth it. In Pokhara, we had amazing views of mountains. We even got to wake up early to experience the sunrise where the sun appeared from a sea of clouds. The sun managed to light up the mountains.
Overall, I really enjoyed this trip and would recommend it to any student my age!

I really enjoyed the trip, the people were fantastic and helpful and I felt as through I experienced a lot. The school children were brilliant and we received all the help that we needed during the trip. Staff were perfect, couldn’t have been better particularly Sujan and Sunil. Would recommend this trip to many of my friends as they loved listening to the stories when we returned home to England. Only problem was the time it took to get there and the tough travel, but I personally didn’t mind at all.

I had no idea when I signed up to join Projects Abroad quite how profound an impact my time in Ghana would have on me. I started out a young, probably naive, amateur football coach. I wanted to experience something different, have some fun, and learn how football was coached in a different country. I got this and much more. I can honestly say that I met some incredible people from all around the world, made memories to last a lifetime, and developed new skills that you just can't get without going outside your comfort zone. The football was amazing, the people were fantastic, and Projects Abroad couldn't have been more helpful. The Projects Abroad staff went out of their way to make me feel safe and help me settle in. They were there every step of the way. I'd recommend it to anyone with a sense of adventure - you won't regret it!

My trip to Nepal was fantastic. It gave me the opportunity to fly alone (well with my now amazing friend Marnie), meet friends from all over the world (Hong Kong, California and Leeds to name a few!) and provide the privilege of being able to feel you made a small difference to a country. There were many highlights of my trip including seeing the birth of a beautiful baby boy, teaching school children how to brush their teeth and visiting a care home for children with a range of disabilities and learning needs. On top of this placements within hospitals provided an incredible insight into what it was like to work in a hospital in a developing country (and as a long term goal of mine was extremely useful). Like most trips however, what made it was the wonderful people I met who 6 months on I am still in touch with and we talk regularly on video calls. Chris our group leader was amazing taking us to the bakery across from our hotel almost every night. All the projects abroad staff were lovely and we even managed to have a favourite Nepalese song by the end of the trip courtesy to our drivers! Trips like these are ones that change you as a person and change your view of the world, I would thoroughly recommend undertaking a trip the projects abroad.

San Cristobal is the island with the capita of the Galapagos and is the third biggest. It is not as commercial as Santa Cruz but it has beaches, hiking and places to drink and eat after work. You will stay 5kms out of town in a hostel with plain shared rooms and good food. Taxis into town are easy to get and there are many options for weekend activities on this island or on others. You will have a cross section of experiences covering sea lions, iguanas, petrels and giant tortoises. There is weeding, attacking blackberry and lantana with machetes and gathering otoy for the tortoises. We also painted a mural at a school.It’s a well supported project, and better than others whose volunteers I spoke to. You’ll feel safe and there are people of other nationalities and ages to share free time with.

This is my first time to set foot on the land of Cambodia, I was a little nervous at the beginning, did not know whether I could adapt to the local climate and poor conditions, and I did not know whether I could live and work happily with other volunteers.But when I got there and met Rich (who was my coordinator), I knew I could make a good living here.

I live in the hotel together with volunteers in many countries, to be there the next day is Saturday, we don't have to work.On that day ， Projects Abroad staff introduced the working content, matters needing attention for us, and arrange the cultural learning courses, let us in can understand the local customs and before the start of work.

Over the next few days, we began our child care work. We sailed to an island where we taught English to about 30 children ages 5 to 8 and played with them until their parents picked them up after work.This process is simple, but also very tired, because the children are very young, the class can be distracted, so we need to constantly use some ways to attract their attention.These children are very warm, every day when we arrive and leave will greet us loudly and warmly.They can only speak simple English, but they still keep chasing us to play and talk. They know that we can't understand, so they will use a lot of body language to express their ideas.This is very different from Chinese children. Cambodian children are warm and open, which makes us feel welcome and important to them.

This volunteer trip was very interesting both at work and on weekends. I made a lot of friends there and learned a lot about the economic and social situation in Cambodia from talking with them, which was like a new world for me.It can be said that this is a completely different way of experience from tourism, which allows me to have a deeper, more comprehensive and more real understanding of a country and a culture.

I'd been dreaming about a trip in Africa for a so long time and I achieved it with Projects Abroad! At the begining, I was a little shocked by Africa poor villages,but I felt very safe to have a PA staff with me all the time and when I saw the wild animals in the conservation, it's so amazing to me!! I was very happy to get to know people from different countries and they were all interested in environmental protection. What I remember most is the giraffe's graceful walk. The project of PA is of great practical significance to the local area. Our daily work requires a lot of manual labor, which makes me feel that I am helping the local people and animals.We are also helping to build schools for the poor primary schools in the area. The children are very lovely, but many of them don't have shoes. PA has made regular contributions to their daily necessities, and it is nice of PA to make such contributions for a long time. We also made a voluntary donation because I brought many gifts from China. If we go there next time, we will bring more Chinese gifts to them. One candy I've found everyone loves: white rabbit creamy candy！ If you don't know this, haha, get one from you Chinese friends~

This is my 5th project with Projects Abroad and definitely my favourite. Senegal is the most welcoming country and everything about the project was enjoyable - from meeting the children at the centre we were volunteering to picking up litter off the beach and driving over the dunes of the desert. We all enjoyed it so much we all want to return. We made great memories, friends and the volunteering was really worthwhile and enjoyable. Senegal has amazing food, scenery, people and culture - there is a lot to see and do. We were lucky to stay in an amazing and comfortable guest house with friendly owners who provided everything we needed. The staff at Projects Abroad were brilliant; they couldn't do enough for us and made sure we had everything we needed and helped us with any questions we had. They showed us all the highlights in Saint-Louis and took us on an amazing weekend trip to the Lompoul Desert. Can't wait to go back.

My experience was so much fun. Not only did it let me discover a new culture but also help the community I was staying in. We volunteered in a school, we were painting the walls bright colours and adding murals to them to make their learning environment a mite enjoyable place to learn in. It was great fun meeting all the kids as they were so interested in us and loved to teach us new games that we brought back to England. But the trip wasn’t all work and no play. We were able to explore the culture on an evening and spent lots of time looking around stalls. We had a couple days off from our volunteering program and were able to truly experience the country, we watched the sun rise over the mountains. Overall it was just an experience of a lifetime.