Program Reviews

Staying with Mama Alice and her daughter Ana was a very fun and safe way to volunteer and explore the Kilimanjaro region. We were able to do lots of extraordinary things such as attend a local wedding, explore hidden restaurants and organize massages at the house! It was great to have built in translators and guides who soon became close friends. Definitely organize a safari on arrival (one of my absolute highlights) and a trip out to Zanzibar if you can make it. In terms of the volunteering, KCMC is a very busy hospital and I enjoyed observing several departments. I gained insight into a very different medical system to my own, and to very different diseases and injuries. I would highly recommend volunteering in Tanzania to anyone visiting the country, as I believe it's a truly unique way of understanding a culture and meeting fascinating locals.

This is an after-school program for needy children, aged 4-15. They come into the centre in the afternoon for help completing their homework, for additional tutoring in English and to have fun. Working with the kids was a great experience. But, the volunteer needs to be prepared for a very unstructured environment that requires that you put some thought into each day's activities. As I was focused on teaching English, I needed to think about the various abilities of the children and how to make the lessons interesting for them. Within any age group there are kids who are more advanced and more motivated than others to learn English. Even so, all in all I loved the experience of working with these children.

My time volunteering in Bali was split between volunteering at a sea turtle conservation center and teaching English in a small village in east Bali. Volunteering and living in Bali is completely different from going on holiday in Bali. The Bali you see on social media filled with white sand beaches, vegan food, smiling white people, and luxury resorts is actually not the Bali that locals live in obviously. There's so much depth to the culture here and until you fully embrace it, you will not learn to appreciate all this amazing island has to offer. I love working with animals and working with the sea turtles at the conservation center was out of this world. We even got to see a mother turtle laying her eggs in the middle of the night several times and it was so incredible to see "nature" in action. Teaching in Karangasem changed everything I thought I knew about Bali. The students were lovely and loved having a foreigner in their classroom. I enjoyed it very much. I have taught English many times and in many different countries but I have to say teaching here in Bali was an experience of a lifetime - the teachers were incredible welcoming and gracious towards me and constantly invited me to see the village with them. My direct host made the experience happen smoothly and was there whenever I had any question - big or small. Would recommend this program to a well seasoned traveler and someone really able to get out of their comfort zone.

I spent two weeks volunteering in the elephant village. It was extremely rewarding a lots of fun. Be prepared for physical labor and to be fully immersed in the Thai village life and culture. The local staff was great, the food we ate everyday was amazing and I just loved living so close to the elephants. Few comments: although I volunteered for 2 weeks, you were only allowed to stay in the elephant village Monday to Thursday and stayed in a volunteer house for the weekends (some people traveled on the weekends but I would have preferred to stay with the elephants), the overall crowd of the others there was very very young (teenagers to young 20s) and although I enjoyed the company of the other more mature volunteers I was not expecting such a young group. Overall, a really life changing experience - I will cherish those two weeks with the elephants for the rest of my life. Such a beautiful memory. Thailand is just lovely - I didn't meet a single person I did not like in Thailand.

I chose to work on a community development program 1x1 with the main program manager in the volunteer office. My project was to assist in a school building project in a small and poor village in Cambodia. My responsibilities were to re-write and improve the funding proposal (12 pages+), write the newsletter (5 pages+) to the current supporters who have already donated to the project, edit a marketing video that was previously recorded, and start the GoFundMe page for the project. I was only volunteering here 2 weeks and I definitely feel like I had a huge impact. During my time in Phnom Penh, I also visited the village where the school would be built. Although I left Cambodia after those 2 weeks, I have been in weekly contact with the program manager to help finish the project and we are nearly done!

Generally, it was an amazing experience for our high school students. They had unforgettable experience doing volunteering in Yunguilla and teaching the primary school students Chinese words.
My students are asking for more hands-on work in the forest which can give them more sense of achievement.
In addition, if a specific daily schedule can be provided before the program getting started, it would be very helpful and also if the volunteers can know how the money being used to help develop this area, it would be great so that we know what should we do for the next time.

I am a 17 year-old Guatemalan teenager, who had a unique and extraordinary experience in Costa Rica. The kiddos were amazing, and very eager to learn. The host family was very attentive and friendly.
After finishing my classes, I had to opportunity to visit some museums and shopping malls. During the weekend I booked some tours through Tropical Tours (awarded by TripAdvisor), and have a wonderful time with the wildlife of Costa Rica.
I plan to retour to Costa Rica in a near future. Highly recommended.

I did the teaching volunteer in Ayutthaya, Thailand in December 2019. The teaching experience has been rewarding for me as I have gained my confidence in leadership skills and made an impact on the students' educational experience. My experience with accommodation and the tour was great. My teaching programme was about 2 weeks and this is efficient for me to learn about how to;
1. Lead and manage the kids aged from kindergarten to middle school (from grade 1 to 6) through effective communication strategies, while keeping the lesson engaging and
2. The importance of teaching & speech preparation before the lesson to maximise students' learning

I would recommend staying for more than 2 weeks to gain much more valuable experiences.

Highly recommend this program to the nursing or medical student. There are lots of opportunities to observe doctors and nurses and ask them questions. We found this program to be less useful for certified professions. If you are a certified professional, make sure you check out the exact details of how you will be volunteering first.

The host, Mama Alice, is fantastic! She will help you to get anything done. It is very useful to have her help in times of miscommunication. She definitely makes you feel safe and a part of her family! We stayed with other volunteers and the occasional tourist.

As a solo traveler for the first time, I wasn’t sure what to expect moving to a new country for a couple months, but now I understand how much fun and growth you can take away from an experience like this. This program helps people learn how to become leaders and teacher which provides a lot of support and help to communities. I learned how to not only be an English teacher but also how to communicate with people and to build relationships built on similarities and differences. Although things got confusing and tiring sometimes, the connection with the children is something I’ll never forget,