Projects Abroad Volunteer Programs in Belize

My name is Julia and I will be a senior at Hamline University in Minnesota. I am a public health major and have a great interest in gloabal public health. This was such a great experience! I loved my host family and the support staff in Belize. My host mom loved to hear about our experiences and share her's with us. The support staff was always helpful and there when I needed them. One night I became very ill and one of the supervisors was right by my side at 12 in the morning. I also felt a little homesick at the beginning of my time in Belize and the staff was always there to listen and help me through that. I loved the work that we did as well. I learned so many new skills in my short 4 weeks. The outreach work was very necessary in the communities and it made you feel like you were making a difference. I learn so much about these issues and this type of work in my classes at school so it was nice to be able to experience it first hand. I also made sure to develop relationships with the people in the community and that made it even more rewarding.

My name is Kristine and I am from the state of Colorado in the United States. I decided to make a career change into nursing after about 6 years of working in administration. I decided nursing was my calling and was really looking for a way to jump-start my career. That’s where Projects Abroad came in! I was looking for a combination of volunteer, international, and healthcare experience. I knew I needed to check off those boxes on the resume and for nursing schools, and Projects Abroad was able to offer that for me. After researching the program, I signed up and found myself on a plane flying to Belize a few short weeks later!
From the beginning, I was really impressed with Projects Abroad. My pre-trip advisor was phenomenal and very helpful. I was also impressed because one of the Projects Abroad staff in Belize was there waiting for me upon arrival in San Pedro (even though I landed a couple hours early). She took me to lunch and we went over all the policies and then she gave me a tour of the island. I was taken to my host family’s house and had a chance to get settled. The next day I was greeted at the office by my volunteer coordinator who had an immensely full schedule of tasks and activities for me to accomplish in the next month. Needless to say, this was exactly what I was looking for and was very excited about all of the projects I would be working on.
As mentioned above, the month that I was in Belize was jam packed with public health related activities. I helped with the mobile clinic 3 days per week in various neighborhoods around San Pedro and I helped organize an HIV clinic (and even went on the Reef Radio TV Morning Show to advertise the event), and did intake forms all day for the event. I also helped prepare and start a mosquito borne illness campaign because rainy season was just about to start as I was leaving (and mosquitos were about to be a big problem on the island)! Furthermore, I helped at a dental clinic and checked for lice on children. Finally, I was able to observe in a medical clinic on San Pedro for about 12 hours while down there which was a very interesting experience for me to see the differences between healthcare in the US and healthcare in Belize. Overall, these assignments were perfect for me and I was extremely happy I got to experience all of these different things. I even got trained on how to check for blood sugar levels while down in Belize, which I hadn’t gotten trained in for my nursing assistant program in the states. I thought that was really cool and beneficial for my career!
I absolutely loved my volunteer supervisor. She was professional, friendly, and flexible. I really loved the activities she assigned to me—they were so fitting for me. And I really liked how approachable she was with anything you wanted to discuss. Having her around definitely made a huge impact on my overall experience in Belize. The other staff were very friendly and answered anything I asked them. They also planned a lot of fun activities for all the volunteers. I really appreciated those.
To touch on my homestay, I stayed in the neighborhood of San Mateo. I stayed with an extremely nice family that made the most delicious food. Staying with a host family was such a fabulous part of the whole experience. I was able to attend church with my host family a couple of times, which was very interesting. I also lived with two Danish girls the whole time I was there. So, I was exposed to two different cultures simultaneously while down in Belize. One of my favorite parts about the host stay and experience was that every day, I chose to ride my Projects Abroad bike to and from work right along the beach. It was a beautiful ride and a perfect way to start and end the day. The host family lived right near the beach so I would just love to do that daily. It was also very interesting because I got to meet so many different family members staying with this host family. I met the mom, grandmother, son, son’s girlfriend and mom’s fiancé. I got to know each one over the course of a month and really learned a lot. I found it to be a great growing experience for me.
Belize is a very interesting and beautiful country that has a lot to offer. There were a few bumps in the road for me along the way, but overall, my experience in Belize and with Projects Abroad was superb. I highly recommend Projects Abroad (especially Belize) to anyone looking to make a career change, do something different, help out a community, and learn new skills. It was an experience of a lifetime and I will forever more keep this experience on my resume.

My 17 year old daughter just arrived home following a two week High School Specials Public Health Placement in San Pedro, Belize. This was supposed to be an amazing learning opportunity that would help her make decisions regarding her future including her desire to pursue Nursing as a career and to gain skills towards further travels abroad. The provided itinerary seemed very "full" and exciting with a balance of volunteer work time during the day and evening social/recreational activities. This seemed perfect as my daughter is a very active young woman who thrives on being "busy". The composition of the placement was NOT what the itinerary reflected.
Our daughter was one of seven girls participating in this placement. They traveled each day to the Projects Abroad office, which is where they spent more than 50% of their daytime hours each day. Sometimes, it was the whole day. The amount of time they needed to be in this location was a fraction of this - so much time was spent talking to each other or being on their phones/laptops to pass the time. The staff would not adjust the schedule and certainly did not work to find them other things to do. Any time spent in the field ACTIVELY volunteering (as my daughter had assumed she would be doing), was thoroughly enjoyed and rewarding. Following much time spent in a small office most days, the girls then went back to their very small apartment where all seven of them stayed. Some nights they had activities but when they did not, the girls had to stay from 5:00 pm onwards in this location as they were not allowed to leave unsupervised and there were no staff members to take them out. After we complained as parents, this slowly started to change but our daughter perceived that the request for exercise or outings in the community were an "inconvenience" rather than an expectation.
Most importantly, our daughter and her close friend who attended with her were ready to come home after a few days. They were bored, frustrated and very sad to be so sedentary in such a beautiful country with so many opportunities to volunteer, help and make a difference. To have sent them this far to primarily sit in office space or an apartment seems unacceptable - especially given how expensive the placement was and what we perceived the activity level was going to be. Following much discussion, we convinced our daughters to stay and finish the placement. They are glad that they did as there were rewarding moments but many of their lasting memories are not positive ones.
I am choosing to post this information as all of these complaints were raised with our placement supervisor throughout the two weeks. She was at times responsive but mostly defensive. Change was forced on the staff but we did not think that so much effort should be needed on our part to have acceptable conditions or experience. We would NEVER recommend this company to anyone moving forward and are very disappointed by the outcomes. We are hoping to protect others from the same experience and can only hope that by making the information public, it will result in some change moving forward.

I would recommend this volunteer opportunity in Belize to first-timers and students. This program is great for young adults who want to travel and give back. The staff was great and very helpful if we had any problems. The food was great there as well. We did work there at a local preschool, which was a lot of fun. We also had free time. During this time we could explore San Pedro or rest. It was the perfect balance!