Hello,
I would like to share the experience I had with IFRE in India. I have recently come back from a one month summer volunteering project where I worked in a slum school in Faridabad. Overall, I had an incredible and very positive experience in the country. However I also experienced a couple critical points with IFRE:
1) According to what I had to pay for this four week volunteer program, I realized during my work experience that certainly not a lot (if any) of the money reaches the school. There are no proper tables, no exercise books and few reading books in the school. For this reason I am wondering how the 1,899$ that I paid for this trip has been used by IFRE.
2) I noticed that IFRE does not require any background checks of the volunteers. Anybody, whether with good or bad intentions can work with the children in the school. This could be a potential danger for the students.
3) Volunteers do not need any teaching experience to work in the school. Additionally, no lesson plans or instructions on what to teach the pupils were given to me when I arrived in India.
4) I had difficulties with the payment of the trip; I was overcharged on one occasion and asked to repay the entire program fees on another occasion. Also, I had to email IFRE for an invoice.
5) Unlike mentioned on the website, where it states that "IFRE's staff also visits each volunteer every 1-2 weeks", the other volunteers and I got no such visits within my 3 week stay in the school.
6) IFRE (or Global Crossroads who IFRE works with) did not follow the program mentioned on the IFRE website accurately. For example I did not get to visit the city of Ranthambore at all. Unfortunately no alternative excursion was proposed to me.
7) On one occasion, my parents contacted the country coordinator in India and he gave them incorrect information about my location in the country.
8) During the time I was sightseeing, I was asked by the local IFRE/Global Crossroads contact to give extravagantly high tips to the drivers and guides.
Therefore I do not recommend traveling with IFRE Volunteers.
Response from IFRE Volunteers Abroad
IFRE sincerely apologizes for all and any inconveniences you experience. We are really do apologize and wish we would have been contacted while you were in the field. In which case, we could have been proactive regarding your issue.
1) IFRE offers the most affordable program in the world. You can easily verify our claim by checking our price with our competitions. No other company offers lower fees.
We are also a very transparent organization.
In our payment model, with the exception of our registration fee (which we need to survive in business), all other fees go directly to the in-country coordinator. They then distribute this money for volunteers accommodations, food, project donation, and other support. In your case, there was a week of travel too, so substantial amount was also used toward this
Also, as I was talking about earlier, there is always a project donation and there may be two reasons for the lack of supplies
+ Project donations may not be sufficient. We wish we could give more to project, but when we run world’s most low cost program, we need more volunteers in order to donate more.
+ Another possibility may be due to the corruption in local organizations. They may not be using donation for the children's benefit. Given your statement, we'll investigate further to make sure this is not the case.
2) Please review our application. In our application we ask if volunteer are in good health mentally and physically? If they have you ever been convicted of a felony? As well as we also ask to explain any medical conditions or legal problems. As well as, in many positions, our affiliates require resumes in order to be approved for placement.
If we get any application with any legal or other issue, we immediately run back ground check to make sure children will not be harmed. This is extremely important to us.
3) ++ Unfortunately, local schools just ask for native English speaker not an experienced teacher. Many volunteers plan in advance for their stay, knowing that they'll be teaching the children.
Had you informed us of your hindrance, we would have helped immediately. We are there to help you and make your experience great.
4) We apologize for the error in our invoicing system, but we don't have a record of an overcharge. If you have paid more than what is listed on our website, please let us know. We will refund immediately
5) How often our in-country staff checks in with our volunteers is often dependent upon the volunteer themselves. We also provide every volunteer the direct contact information, phone and email of our staff so that you can contact them as well. Good communication in-country is a staple of our company.
6) Unfortunately, sometime we need to make changes in a volunteer's itinerary because of changes in the needs of the community. We are only now finding out that you didn't receive an alternative excursion.
We apologize and will investigate this issue.
Therefore I do not recommend traveling with IFRE Volunteers.
I am sorry you did not like our program more. We'll investigate, in detail, and move forward in a positive manner for future volunteers. Thank you for your feedback.