India Volunteer Programs from $18/day | Most Affordable & Trusted

This is a great project with staff that helped me every bit of the way before going to India. It is a great price for what you receive and the school seemed to appreciate my help. Had a great time here and thank IVHQ for this opportunity.

I didn't know what to expect before arriving in Delhi before starting the teaching programme with IVHQ at 1st it was overwhelming but as you start to realise that these children don't know how poor they are and are way happier than any children on the west. The staff were amazing from the moment I arrived. A designated driver met us at the airport and made us feel more than welcome and as we drove to our placement they answered any questions I had along the way. The host families I met were absolutely amazing and went out of there way to accommodate us and make us feel at home, I got to visit 2 host families in the 4 weeks of volunteering and they were both more than accommodating and great cooks, but if you come to Delhi I would recommend trying to visit Mohit and Chandni's home ask to be placed there as they are amazing cooks and they are so great to sit with and talk about anything. It's nice to be able to chat with hosts with great English as some of the hosts don't have much English but still they are all so welcoming and do their best to make you feel comfortable. I would recommend this programme for anyone that wants a real Indian perspective on life, very challenging but even more rewarding. Namaste!!!!!

I was in the slum teaching project for 4 weeks and found it an unforgettable experience! Working in the school was very rewarding and you get so close to all the amazing children there who are such characters. India is very different to Western countries but in a good way- its manic but also so spiritual with a lot of history and the people are very friendly. If you embrace it, you will see and do so much and have some incredible experiences. IVHQ in India have a brilliant group of staff who are really helpful and who you can have fun with. You stay with a host family and mine were great fun to live with, really helpful with any issues I had and just genuinely lovely people. I would recommend the orientation week as you get to do some additional sightseeing and get taught a bit of Hindi which is really useful as there is a bit of a language barrier in the school. With IVHQ you also get free time in the afternoons and on weekends you get the chance to do some extra travelling so make sure you take the opportunity to do so. If you are looking at volunteering I would definitely recommend IVHQ because they helped make my time here one to remember!

I volunteered in Delhi, India for 3 weeks through IVHQ and had an incredible experience! I volunteered on the slum teaching project and it was truly an eye opening experience. The school I worked in was nice and clean the staff was friendly, welcoming and passionate about educating students and the slum children. I spent every afternoon with the slum kids and seeing them and watching and helping them learn and just spending time playing with them was truly an eye opening experience. My volunteer accommodations were nice and clean and we ate really well (Indian food is great!) The in country staff was so friendly and willing to help should you have any issues at all. I developed a skin rash due to an allergy to a medicine I was taking and the in country staff checked on me several times and offered several times to take me to a doctor, which made me feel like they really cared and comforted while being so far away from home. I had constant contact with all staff including the staff member that helped me prepare for the trip before I left. She sent me an email part way through my volunteering to check in and make sure that I was happy with my placement and accommodations and to see if I needed anything at all.
This was my first time going abroad completely alone and I felt safe the whole time and met so many amazing people along my journey. I met a great group of people, who after only a few days felt like family, it was sad saying goodbye. It is important to keep in mind flexibility and being open minded to a new culture, lifestyle, manners and food. If you do you will have an amazing and life changing experience! I am going through IVHQ again and leave in just under 2 months to volunteer abroad again with them!

I was based in Northern India and taught young Buddhist monks English. I never imagined that I would learn so much from these wonderful boys. While at times it was very challenging and I had students at all different levels of English; I could not have imagined a better placement. I was truly accepted as part of the community and taken in as family. I have forever been changed by this experience and will always hold it close to my heart.

I spent three weeks with friends volunteering with IVHQ in India. We spent our time teaching english classes in a slum school, with two morning classes of young children and an afternoon class of older girls. Overall, it was an amazing experience and offered a truly unique insight into Indian culture

IVHQ links up with grass-roots projects in India and the staff involved in our project were very supportive. From the beginning, we felt safe and at home with our Indian host family, and the staff were in regular contact with us and dealt with any issues we had straight away.

One of my favourite aspects of the program was living with an Indian family. Being totally immersed into family life and getting to know the students in our classes proved to be the best introduction to Indian culture. We learnt so much more in those three weeks about India than in the other three weeks we spent backpacking around Rajasthan.

The school experience was very enlightening, and although we would have appreciated some more information about what learning materials to bring with us, we really enjoyed it. The volunteer experience will only improve as the school program and curriculum better develops. For most of the children, we were involved in the only 'formal' education they would receive in their life, and that was quite confronting at times.

If nothing else, my time in India reminded me of the important things in life. As actions speak louder than words, the best review I can give IVHQ would be to say that we enjoyed our time in India so much that we are looking at going back to India and helping the school further!

Overall I had an amazing experience in India, but there were times where I felt ripped off by the people in charge of my project. If you are interested in volunteering in Faridabad I would strongly advise you to steer clear of a man named Dr. Bandou. The money that you give him does not go where it is supposed to go and I am not the first volunteer to experience this. The money that you give him goes to him and not to help the families or community like it is said to go. Every person that knows him knows that he is a very sneaky man. India is amazing but this program would be much more profitable without this man. I am very young and I was told I was going to a girls hostel for three weeks. Without telling me, he placed me and another volunteer in a host family and took us to a school the next day where all of the teachers did not know why we were there. They kept asking us why we had come and how long we would be staying. I cleared everything up and we taken to the right placement only after I spoke up. At the end of my project, I asked him if he could provide for me to take me to the airport. My flight was in the middle of the night so it would not have been safe for me to travel alone on the metro. He refused and said that I could either pay more or that I could find my own way. I am 18 and maybe Im wrong but I dont think that girls my age should be traveling at night alone. The organization should provide transportation to and from the airport. I was picked up from the airport so I see no problem in being dropped off at the airport. Just a friendly warning to stay away from the wrong people. India was amazing and I would go back in a heartbeat, but I will only go back if my volunteering has nothing to do with Dr. Bandou.

This volunteering project provided volunteers with an undeniably good insight into Indian culture. I think living with a local family anywhere in the world is always a beneficial experience for both family and volunteer. This was the case for me living with a middle class Indian family in the industrial city Faridabad, near Delhi. But apart from the rewarding exchange of knowledge with a local family, the other main component of choosing to volunteer is the volunteer work. In this area I think organisations like IVHQ have to do more in depth research into the benefits of projects they are offering for the local community. In my case, I was working at a private hospital not far from my family's home. This hospital did not have much going on for volunteers to get involved in. There were less than 10 patients, and the hospital was running well with plenty of competent staff who did not need our help. With this volunteer company, volunteers do not need any qualifications to be allowed to watch surgery. So I was able to watch many operations and enhance my own knowledge of medicine. But when there wasn't any surgery, I found I was really lacking in anything to do to help, and passed the time talking to the technicians and drinking plentiful cups chai. We were able to request to IVHQ co-ordinators to be placed in other hospitals to get some variety in our work, but it would have been nice for them to have had other options already researched for us. And it was almost impossible for us to work in the public hospitals because of the huge amounts of paperwork for the organisation to complete. Bureaucracy in India... Ultimately, although I was able to watch various operations, the reality is until volunteers have a medical or nursing degree they are kind of more of a hindrance to local workers than a help. Organisations need also to be better adept in placing unskilled volunteers in hospitals that are more in need of help, even our basic help. In India I do not imagine this is that unachievable. I compare this program to one I completed with another company in Cusco, Peru. There I felt really valued as a volunteer and could really be of some help whether it be washing instruments, folding bandages or helping in basic medical work. But after saying all this, I remember that IVHQ is extremely cheap compared to other organisations, and perhaps that is why it is not as organised as others. I would recommend it for the price, but I think the medical community ultimately did not benefit from this project.