Program Reviews

My trip to Nicaragua with Give will be remembered forever. My guides Amber and Mike were amazing leaders who knew how to safely get things done while also ensuring everyone was having a good time. The trip as a whole was an amazing way to explore the country while also giving back and supporting the people of Jiquilillo. It was so fulfilling to garden with the locals, help build a house, and teach the local children English. I highly recommend this trip to EVERYONE! It’s the perfect way to experience new adventures such as sand boarding down the youngest active volcano in Nicaragua in a sustainable way. Give Volunteers is a wonderful organization that I am beyond proud to support.

This experience was exactly what I wanted for my first time visiting a foreign country alone. I've always wanted to visit Nicaragua after learning about it, but I also wanted to leave a positive impact. The people of Jiquilillo were super kind and welcoming, and the work we did at the construction site and garden was rewarding for both us volunteers and the community. We also had downtime to enjoy the amazing views, and talk to people in the community. A great introduction into volunteer work (:

Overall a great experience im sure I’ll never forget. I’ve been on a few trips now with GIVE and the organization hasn’t failed me once. This trip is no exception to that trend. The experience was culturally and personally enlightening on top of being an absolute blast. We definitely worked hard doing volunteering in construction, education, and gardening, but with the trips NEWLY added excursions we played just as hard as we worked. For sure a trip I’m privileged to have experienced and I can’t wait for my next opportunity to go back.

I went on this trip not fully knowing what to expect, I had a lot of questions which were promptly answered by gives contact team which allowed me to enjoy this experience better. Going on this trip allowed me to find myself again, I had become comfortable in my normal routine and had somehow lost myself along the way. This trip took me out of my comfort zone in ways that I couldn't have imagined. The guides and other volunteers were there to support me with everything and motivated me to try new things.
I was able to go to a beautiful island and meet a group of amazing people that I will hold with me forever. We bonded so quickly as a group and am going to miss them all so much and I cant wait to meet with them again in the future. As this is an American company and coming from England, I was worried that I would feel alone and like the outsider however everyone welcomed me with open arms and I have made lifelong friends.
I would recommend going on any trip with give, although Hawaii has a special place in my heart. this experience came to an end after 9 days of laughs and tears and I would 1000% do it again without any hesitation.

Nothing could prepared me for what I gained from this trip. From the first day I got there I was welcomed with nothing but endless warmth and smiles from the staff, not to mention the rest of the team. This trip pushed me to take on challenges I never could have experienced without Give. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about the people I met, culture I learned, or the beauty of the earth I experienced. I will never not recommend Give to everyone and anyone interested, go on the trip!

My experience was unique because my friend Maria and I got really sick, but how the staff handled it was the reason I want to highlight it. When we were in the hospital, the guides were so helpful mentally, physically, and emotionally. Anytime I questioned what the doctors were doing, Faith would speak up and find out for me instead of invalidating my scared feelings. They turned a crappy and scary experience into something we can look back on and laugh about. In conclusion, I felt safe, well take care of, and they did everything in there power to help me, even had another staff member come just to bring me a hoodie. This was important to highlight because you never expect to have to go to the hospital, but I hope people know that in the case that you have to, you will still be safe and everything will be okay because these guides know what their doing.

My GIVE trip to Nicaragua was my first time traveling out of the country, and I am SO glad I decided to go this route.

I wanted to get out of my comfort zone, and I certainly did. It was the time of my life! I climbed two volcanoes, sandboarded down one, learned to surf, released baby sea turtles, taught English, and got to know a vibrant and loving community nestled in the northwest corner of Nicaragua.

Not only was it fun, but it was insanely educational and enlightening. It taught me about traveling responsibly and to be environmentally conscious. I learned the importance of spending my dollars on people who really need it rather than corporate tourism companies or fancy hotels. I think every human being should do something like this in their lifetime. Getting out of your comfort zone and learning about other cultures is the best way to experience this big wide world.

I am SO incredibly grateful to have experienced some life changing moments with this incredible organization and my group of volunteers. GIVE is the bomb.com and I highly recommend going on an adventure with them. <3

I have been involved with GIVE as an organization since my freshman year at college. I joined the student group of Give at JMU and immediately fell in love with the mission, values and people of Give. I felt so inspired by the upperclassmen and wanted to be just like them.

Quickly after joining Give at JMU I became extremely involved, applied for and was accepted onto the executive board the following semester and have been on exec ever since! I plan to become President after the fall semester.

I had wanted to go on a Give trip ever since I saw that there was a way to travel more responsibly. Everyone wants to go places, but it can be difficult to navigate traveling if you're unsure if you're leaving a good impact behind. Specifically with Hawai'i, a lot of people travel there but have no idea the magnitude of the history and culture within the islands. I wanted to learn about Hawai'i and give back to the people native to the land. I also longed for making new connections, as I had seen my roommate experience beautiful friendships on her own Give trip the prior summer.

Surely enough, the trip was everything I could've hoped for and more. My guides, Traven, Ella, Carly Jo, and Kelly were so incredibly inspiring, knowledgable, wise, funny, caring, all of the above. I never felt unsafe, I never felt doubt, I never felt stupid for asking questions. Meeting them as well as the rest of my volunteer group is one of the greatest gifts I could have in life.

We spent each day volunteering with a community partner and then doing recreational activities such as hiking or playing sports or shopping afterwards. We found joy in such simple things like card games or van rides to the worksites or playing with the farm dogs. The entire trip as a whole was the most transformative experience for me, even with having a lot of GIVE knowledge up my sleeve. I learned so much and I truly feel like a whole new aspect of GIVE has been opened up to me. I could write a book about it. I couldn't recommend this trip enough. My group of volunteers already want to go on another one together. GIVE is a life changing organization that I could not be more happy to be apart of.

I arrived in Managua with rather low expectations for this trip. I could have gone in with the highest expectations possible, and they still wouldn't have matched the actual experiences we had. It changed my mindset on so many things completely, I learned so much, and I made friends for life. Every single person I met there was full of love, adventure and laughter.
You know those pretty Tiktok videos you sometimes see that make you go "I wish I could experience that."? Give is that ×100.
If you're thinking about going on a Give trip, do it. There is no chance you will regret it.

In the fall of 2022, GIVE Volunteers held an information session at my University (Rutgers) outlining their different programs and locations. To be honest, the program sounded so amazing that I was a bit skeptical of its legitimacy in the first place. After doing some research and reading reviews like the one that you are right now, I decided to make my deposit and secure a spot on the Tanzania excursion for the summer. Long story short, that was one of my finer decisions!

As the trip got closer, GIVE was super helpful in answering any questions that my parents or I had regarding the logistics of the trip - whether that was over the phone or via email. When it came to submitting the required documentation, my volunteer profile page walked me through exactly what I needed to do and made the process super smooth and understandable. In fact, I even received email reminders to make sure that all of my documents and payments were submitted if their due date was coming up. Even though I did not end up booking my tickets through Student Universe (GIVE's travel booking partner), they were very helpful in providing me with quotes and GIVE made sure that I met all of the necessary requirements for my personally-booked flight.

The trip itself was absolutely amazing and something that I will never forget. Over the course of two weeks I became very close with all of my fellow volunteers, the guides, and even the local citizens of Kairo (the Village in which we stayed for most of the trip). From teaching English to our students to swimming with Dolphins, this trip was the perfect mix of work (which was always fun) and play. I enjoyed the layout of two volunteer days followed by an adventure day because it kept us fresh and allowed us to explore the amazing things that Tanzania has to offer. We were also given the opportunity to sign up for Swahili and weaving classes in our free time when we weren't hanging out on the beach or swimming in the Indian Ocean. I would also like to mention that all of our meals were fresh and delicious and we always had access to clean drinking water. We capped off the trip with an amazing water and land safari in which we got to experience the more rural parts of the country and see countless animals up close. It truly reminded me of The Lion King and served as the perfect ending to our time in Tanzania!

As a side note, the guides were all so caring and willing to help throughout the entire trip that I did not feel out of place even on another Continent. They were with us every step of the way, from picking us up at the airport on the first day to dropping us off on the last. They are the ones who truly made this trip worthwhile and memorable!

This was different from any other trip that I have ever taken as I genuinely felt that I was making a positive impact on the host community and its people. One of our guides said something which has stuck with me: spending your time to invest in somebody's education will go much further than spending your money on souvenirs (as a casual tourist would).

I am proud to say that I have walked away from this trip with new friends, lifelong memories, and the motivation to continue traveling with purpose!