Program Reviews

I spent 2 months as a medical volunteer in Arusha. Work at St. Elizabeth hospital was very challenging, but it gave me personally so much experience and a new way to look at the world we live in.
They gave me a lot of work and I got free hands to work with the patients as I was trained in school back in Finland.
I also got local students of my own that I got to teach, this was very educational for me.
I worked in medical ward for one week which gave me a lot of knowledge about the local sicknesses such as malaria, HIV and AIDS. After this I got to work in maternity ward with pregnant women, which I enjoyed a lot. I also spent some time at pediatric ward, but I decided to go back to maternity ward for my last weeks. Here I got my own clinic room where I got to work with European standards.

I did this experience last summer (2019) and, I think, it was the best choice I could make: to leave alone, go to another continent and help others. It wasn't easy to adapt to African culture, to their rhythms, to their ways of relating, to their food. It was hard to have no bathroom (but a mass grave), no shower (but a bucket), to live in precarious hygienic conditions; but it was a fantastic experience! I confess that I had moments of psychological failure (not because I wanted to go home, but for what my eyes saw and my ears listened). Little episodes marked my experience in Ghana.
I saw happy children for a simple hug or for a little candy.
I saw children licking a candy card to the last millimeter (and sometime eat it) ... because who knows when they can have another one again.
I saw children who, despite having only one biscuit for themselves or a small ration of food, always shared what they had with other children who had nothing.
I saw children having fun with nothing: a broken-down little car or 2 chewed crayons for hunger, but these little babies were happy because they were full of energy and creativity.
I knew an invincible host, who is fighting her breast cancer from countless years, but who, despite everything, is full of life and wants to do everything possible to ensure a future for her little 12-year-old daughter.
I met a teacher who is fighting from 26 years to welcome children up to 5 years into her school to stimulate them to learn English (so they can have the bases to go to school and study and build a better future for themselves and their own land). She, with the help of some other inexperienced teacher and some Projectsabroad volunteers, currently welcomes over 80 children: she is often tired, but she is always extremely positive and ready to do everything for her community! She hopes that those children won't be future homeless and / or drug addicts.

This is wasn’t the first time I travelled alone, but I have to say that is has been totally different from what I had done before. The first days I got there, it was on a weekend, so almost everyone had left to go visiting the country; for this reason, the first couple days were quite hard psychologically, I thought I was completely alone. But then, everyone came back from their trips and also the people who were on my same exact project arrived. From then, I started having so much fun, knowing everyone’s different backgrounds and becoming friends with some of my partners in the project.
I think the High School Special program is built in a good way: the mornings are dedicated to tasks in the national park (which by the way is absolutely amazing, with every different kind of lemurs, birds and plants), for example doing animal and plant censuses, helping in the tree nursery and fixing the paths in the forest, while the afternoons are about helping the community through building useful things: we built benches for the football field, a fence for a water pump, and also doing many trash pickup sessions also with the locals. Also, in this project, the weekends are already planned and included in the price, so it’s a nice touch (we tried once to go with the others from the normal project, but they said we couldn’t because we had to stick to the program). I made unforgettable memories in Andasibe, and its the reason why I decided to leave again with Projects Abroad the year after, that time in the Galápagos Islands.

I went to Nepal to do my intern for my French University, my subject was "Study of Common Leopard (Panthera Pardus) in ACAP". It was the best expérience of my Life as well Humanly as professionnaly ! There was the best coordinator ever in this place, it's more than my superior he was my friend and he helped me so much to write my scientific article !

The View was incroyable and the jungle too, the people was so nice !
The food on site was a little spicy for a French girl like me 🥵😂 but really good, the cook chef on site was really good and we had a good time helping him.

Thanks Projects Abroad, thanks all of the coordinator, thanks Raj Family for every thing !

ps : Becareful the walk are very very hard in this place, it's better if you have a training before you go there.

I volunteered through Projects abroad's nutrition program in Cusco. The contact with Project abroad's team in Cusco was fantastic and supportive, and the experience itself completely eye opening and thoroughly enjoyable! I spend most days in a Wawawasi, getting and idea of the typical foods and recipes used, as well as some of the challenges face by the group leaders there. We spent some time in the local markets too to become familiar with the produce available and prices. Towards the end of the placement I delivered a couple of presentations on the importance and strategies to increase the micronutrient content of the meals as part of the work to reduce childhood anaemia, and having analysed the menu at the Wawawasi provided some suggestions on portion sizes etc

I did the childcare high school project in Peru in the summer earlier this year..I met an amazing group of people similar to my age from all over the world who I still keep in touch with! I absolutely loved teaching and playing with the kids in the nursery and staying with a host family. It was an amazing and unique experience and I 100% recommend everyone to go on a trip like this.
I went on this trip to Peru (a spanish speaking country) never having learnt any spanish! But by the end I could communicate very basically with the locals..with thanks to a spanish lesson we did! We also got the opportunity to do a Salsa dancing lesson on the third day!! which was a great icebreaker!
Overall it was an incredible trip with lots of memories made!

I was almost 17 and I signed up for the 2 week education in Argentina for Highschoolers. It was my first time ever being out of the country so it was an amazing experience in the way that I was living in a whole new culture. Out of the 14 high school volunteers, I was the only one signed up for the education program- the other two programs were human rights and medical. My first week I went to the school I was assigned to, however there were only 1-3 kids depending on the day (and one was a 1 yr old that slept the whole time). Most days I would do nothing in terms of interacting with the kids. While I understand that this can be unpredictable, I feel that a little more organization was needed on the Projects Abroad side. It required many phone calls with higher up people in the program to try and switch projects- it was not very easy. I finally switched into the human rights program, though, and so I felt a little more immersed in the culture there. However, one of the main downsides of the whole program was the amount of time we got to spend in the community. We had to have 24 hr surveillance at all times, which could have worked fine, except that there was not enough staff to take us out often. This meant we were cooped up in a small courtyard for most of the trip. On the weekends, though, we went to a farm and had a cookout with locals and did a scavenger hunt in the city, but those were the few times we actually got to see Córdoba. The food was descent and the housing felt very secure and friendly (with 4 other girls in the program). My flight was actually cancelled the night before I left, along with a few other people. Since I had let Projects Abroad book my flights, I expected assistance from them in getting me on a new flight. I received none, and my parents had to call in the middle of the night to work something out. I ended up staying for an extra 2 days and they ended up being the best days of the trip. Only one other person could not get an earlier flight, and since we were technically not part of the program anymore, we were allowed to stay at the same residence but come and go as we wanted. We were able to figure out how to take the bus to the city and walk around the markets and eat at different restaurants. I wish that we had more freedom to do these things during the two weeks with the program, as this was the time that I felt fully immersed in the culture, was able to talk to locals in Spanish, and take initiative- all things I signed up wanting to be able to do. I don’t think I would recommend this specific program to others simply because I didn’t get to see and experience as much of Argentina as I felt the program had promised when I signed up. Also I think that they falsely advertised the education program, as I had the impression hay I would be teaching lessons to the kids. However, if you have not been outside the country much and want to get out of the bubble of your own city and culture, I would definitely recommend doing a program similar to this, as it really opened my eyes to all the new things I have yet to experience in the world.

I took part in this project through Girl Guiding international trip. It took me out of my confort zone and into a rainforrest filled with bugs and insects but i didnt mind. Mainly because I had the most amazing experience on that I will never forget. On my trip I conqured so many fears and was put in situatiuons which I would never have imagined in my wildest dreams but I wouldnt have changed it for the world best 3 weeks of my life Ive spent. The projescts abroad staff were so accomodating, I personally didnt have any experience with speaking spanish, let alone Costa Rican spanish! So i felt very very out of my depth in that regard. But the staff knew a lot of english and were alble to teach me a few words and phrases. My favourite of all id 'Pura Vida' or pure life, a manta that Costa Rican Ticos live by.

I took part in this project through Girl Guiding international trip. It took me out of my confort zone and into a rainforrest filled with bugs and insects but i didnt mind. Mainly because I had the most amazing experience on that I will never forget. On my trip I conqured so many fears and was put in situatiuons which I would never have imagined in my wildest dreams but I wouldnt have changed it for the world best 3 weeks of my life Ive spent. The projescts abroad staff were so accomodating, I personally didnt have any experience with speaking spanish, let alone Costa Rican spanish! So i felt very very out of my depth in that regard. But the staff knew a lot of english and were alble to teach me a few words and phrases. My favourite of all id 'Pura Vida' or pure life, a manta that Costa Rican Ticos live by.

I have wanted to do my Medical Internship with Projects Abroad for years, but I didn't realize how much I needed it for my growth and how it made me into a smarter and better person. I went to Peru alone and met some amazing travelers, doctors, and locals. I felt so lucky to go, and get credit for my University in New York. I was able to practice my language, live with a different family, and interact and learn from volunteers and local Doctors. The Doctors I observed from wanted me to learn as much as possible about their speciality, which I appreciated. Along with learning from Doctors, I was able to adapt to living in a completely different culture and situation than I ever has before. I ended up not only learning, but having a lot of fun on weekend excursions and meeting new people!