Program Reviews

Age: 24

Nationality: Australian

Position: Eco Dev

Time with SKIP: 14 months

My experience with SKIP is very difficult to put into words, let alone put into a few words! It is an experience that in all honesty, needs to be lived in order to be understood. It is an experience on which no price can be put, an experience in which you will meet incredible people from all walks of life, an experience which will force you to question your own beliefs, to reassess your own priorities, to challenge your own boundaries and limitations, to inspire you to try new things and take on new paths of life, to teach and most importantly, to be taught. Well, I can’t guarantee that you will experience any or all of these things, but they are just some of the things that made my experience at SKIP so worthwhile. So when people sometimes think I am crazy to work for next to nothing, the reality is that in my opinion the rewards are gigantic, they’re just a little bit harder to put a number on.

I had worked for a number of other NGO’s in the past and was well aware of the number of non-profits which, due to lack of ability or simply because they wanted to take advantage of people who were willing to contribute resources to a worthy cause, were terribly mismanaged, inefficient and lacked transparency. So it reinstated faith in NGO’s for me to discover SKIP and learn that there are NGO’s who are legitimately committed to helping out people in need. SKIP’s holistic methodology is really well thought out and implemented and I was able to see first-hand the real impact the project is having on the families. I honestly believe in the project, so much so that I went back for a second time! I can only give my personal opinion, try and describe my personal experience and say that if I had to do it all again, there is very little, if anything, that I would change.