Volunteer Abroad - Volunteer in India

India came as a shock when I first arrived in New Delhi. The city is over populated and at once, I felt like lost. My program with Active Internationals began on March 03, 2015 in Jaipur with a day long orientation before I start my program. That is when I felt safe and confident about India with other volunteers & support staff.

21 days at women empowerment project has been an eye opener for me on the condition of women in India. I can be only glad that I went & offered all I could. I am going back again in August with my boy friend to continue the project work & hope I see some change this time.

My organisation was very supportive & you can imagine it from the fact that I had never complaint about anything. My project executive 'Radha' was an beautiful girl. She was young but knew the right way of working at a project.

I am happy to leave a review for Active Internationals, who were my volunteer programme organizer in India.

Last month me and my sister Liz visited India for a a four week volunteering programme with Active. We are so happy to have booked our programme through them. We opted for teaching and construction activities for the span of 20 days of working.

Liz is more of an outdoor person and plays several games. I was more inclined towards teaching.
We taught basic math, English and Geography to the kids and taught them a lot of crafts, songs and poems. Towards they end of the program we also kept a small play, which we were practicing with the kids all along the teaching.

But the fun part was making the badminton court. The schools playground was not big enough to have any other organised outdoor sport. However, it was an apt place to make a court.

Our coordinator at Active - Vaibhav, came up with the idea of leveling the ground and making markings using bricks. We then went to an steel smith and ordered two poles with pulleys welded above. As we dug the holes for planting the poles we made our concrete mixture and installed the poles perfectly straight. All the kids and the teachers were so excited. They also helped us throughout the project.

All credits to the teamwork.

For the last week we brought four racquets and shuttle cocks and started teaching the kids. Some kids picked the game really fast. It was such an overwhelming experience for us and we were elated.

We will come back and do something more.

Hi,

I am Malyshka originally from Serbia, but living in USA for the last 8 years.
I have been actively involved in volunteering at many places.
My recent volunteer experience was in Ghana, but I was comparing it with my experience last year with Active Internationals in Rural Rajasthan.

From the day one it became a benchmark in my mind.
I was part of the girl education project at the holy town of Pushkar, which was an amazing experience in itself. Unlike other volunteers who stayed there for 4 weeks, I was in Pushkar for 9 weeks. Well, I originally booked for 6 weeks but extended it to 9 weeks just because the way I was engrossed int it and the type of support I was getting.

There was no moment where I got bored and no place where I could see any shortage of effort from the team. This was much fulfilling than anything else, since people promise a lot but never deliver.

I hope other organizations also raise their standards.

Closing with a lot of love and best wishes.

The feeling of helping a community was something I always wanted to experience & after reviewing Active Internationals with my who have travelled to India on their programs, I decided to finally go for it.

I felt like an extra ordinary person who is helping the community understanding hygiene, teaching women, playing with kids & finally travelled for 20 days to Himalayas, Nepal & South India with other volunteers on a super exciting cultural exchange program by them.

Loved everything about it. You are doing it by heart Active Internationals & you will see me very soon as your regular volunteers.

Love from England.
VB

My journey to India was one of the most amazing things I have done in life. Booked my Volunteer Programs to help the local women with education & later I travelled to like 7 States of India including 9 cities in a program called 'INDIA 360'.

I am happy with everything about Active Internationals on how they managed my program & supported me when I needed it (Felt ill in Dharamshala, caught cold)

If you are planning to visit India & looking for an organization which maintain transparency without any hidden costs, go with Active Internationals!!!!

Merci beaucoup!

This is my 3rd review of the day on my visit to India this February and I am going to make it long as it has to be special!

24 effective days in India where I chose to volunteer at Elephant Village with Active Internationals (They are working there even before it existed). After a week of volunteer work, I realized that the volunteers from different organization were keen to see what was I doing out there & after discussion, we got to know that they were told that they would volunteer at the village but no one provided them any information on what to be done, whom to meet, what to talk and things like that and eventually they became a part of my group. That is when I realized how important it is to come to India through a credible organization and Active Internationals made me proud enough that I have now left my job and planning to move to India for a Job (Again through Active Internationals)

It is important that the intention of the host organization is to facilitate you and not just earn money out of you.

Was a tough call to visit India over other places that I wanted to visit. But ultimately, I end up getting myself transformed. People, Places, Food, Culture, History, Projects, Animals, everything had a positive impact on me & I think, today, I am a much better person that I was.

Kudos to your efforts "Active Internationals". Your support was more than once could ask for.

Love & light

Think of anything & Active Internationals make it happen for you across India. A professional bunch of young people who understand what it takes to make someone comfortable away from home. I never felt that I was not in Finland (My home country).

Taking care of Elephants
Teaching the wives of Elephant keepers
Helping them cook their meals
Lot of workshops & Presentations
Unique Walking tours by Vedic Walks (AMAZING)
Lot of new friends from different parts of the world

I completely felt like an 'Active International' who is on a tour to meet every kind of person on this earth & I truly met them.

I Volunteered in Jaipur, Pushkar & Himalayas & travelled to 8 different states & 12 cities of India

Thank you for all your efforts & making my Gap-year worth while. See you soon XoX