Volunteering Programs by Volunteer Programs Bali

I had a wonderful time with Volunteer programs Bali! I have never teached before and on my first day I was a bit scared! I was with a girl who stayed 6 month and she was a really good teacher and had a lot if experience. I was afraid that I could never teach like her and I thought that the children will never like me that much. When I look back to my three months of teaching I can say, that you grow with every lesson. You gain selfconfidence , you always push yourselfe to your own limit to make the children smile, you get creative and think about funny new games, you get more relaxed in front of a lot of people and you learn how to make them laugh..... Sometimes I think I leaned more in the program than I actually teached! But this is just one aspect! The second is, that you meet all this wonderful people. I became friends with the other volunteers , Kimberly, our local teacher Komang and of course with all the lovey children! They are so sweet and write nice things on the board, write letters to you, or make you little presents on your last day! My three month stay with VP Bali brought me new friends, new experience, 100 of amazing moments....... I hope I can come back one day!

I have just spent 3 months volunteering in the program for children with disabilities and it was the most amazing experience. I Have learnt so much during my time here and have really grown as a person. In September I will be going to university to become a drama therapist in special needs school, and this program has given me the opportunity to grow as a teacher and use my creativity to the best of my ability. In class I support the children in the morning with their learning and in the afternoons I am able to do art, dance, yoga, anything which I feel will benefit them and follows the idea of 'Play and Learn.'
The support that you receive from the VP Bali team is such a comfort and especially as this was my first time away from home. On the orientation day teaches you so much and allows you to get to know the other volunteers. The fact that they provide you with a sim card is amazing as it makes life so much easier whilst your here so you can phone taxis, call Kimberly and the other volunteers. Times when I have emailed Kimberly about a problem she has phoned me back straight away, making me feel so supported.
In the home stay, the family made me feel very welcome and I always felt safe. This was a huge comfort to my family, knowing that I was being looked after looked after so well. Kutut and Nyoman were very helpful when I wanted to plan weekends away and go out of their way to make sure you have an enjoyable time.
This program has been amazing and I can't wait to come back.

I have done a 20-week internship at VP Bali (in both Ubud programs) and I have had the best time. Teaching the kids was amazing, you get attached to them so fast! They are so eager to learn and energetic, so it's a 100% worth your time.
Especially when you're going for a long time (couple of months), you can see them grow so much. One of the highlights of my stay was definitely seeing two of my favorite boys going from being really shy and not understanding a word of English to being really happy and even making sentences.
The staff is absolutely great too! After being there for so long, they started to feel like family and I can't wait to go back.

I arrived in Ubud at the beginning of February 2015 to start my volunteer work with VP bali not knowing what to expect. I felt excited and nervous. As soon as i walked into my home stay i was greeted by the amazing Kimberley Vanderheyden and a bunch of smiling strangers who came from different places all over the world.
It was quite surprising how quickly i felt at home. We had all sorts of personalities among us, with some of us staying for only a few weeks, others for months. My first day of volunteering was a treat. In the twenty minute drive from our home stay to the school i got to see a different part of Ubud that i hadn't seen before. Beautiful nature and rice fields, local families outside their balinese homes/shopfronts and although these people had near to nothing, their smiling faces said otherwise. Arriving at the school was a real eye opener to how little these children had. I hadn't seen a classroom like this before with one whiteboard and a small cupboard filled with donated stationary and books, it surprised me that in these conditions there were so many eager children willing to learn and excited to meet me. I volunteered for a month and without a doubt could've stayed on longer. This experience has made me realise you need to stay open minded in your everyday life accepting everything that comes your way, the positive and the negative. Thank you VP Bali, I miss everything about this program and will treasure the memories and friends i have made forever.

My stay in Ubud with VP Bali was unbelievable. I made friends with beautiful people from all over the world and really felt like I was making a difference to the students I was teaching. Having weekends free meant I could travel throughout Bali and surrounding islands with my new friends which just made my time there even more memorable. It's so hard to explain just how much I treasure my memories and experiences with Vp Bali, the coordinators are passionate and devoted to their work and its so inspiring to see them constantly trying to give more to the students and the program. I highly recommend VP Bali if you're looking to volunteer, you will have one of the best times of your life - especially if you stay for a month or longer, that way you really get to know your students and the locals. I stayed for a month and I really wish I'd stayed longer because I was only really getting to know my students well before it was time to leave.

I really enjoyed my time here. After two weeks I am not ready to leave and would love to stay another two weeks at least. The schools and kids in the program are so dedicated and an absolute pleasure to work with. I'm sorry I only got to spend such a short time with them. The whole experience of being here has been welcoming and it is amazing how quickly you feel at home.

I had been thinking about volunteering overseas for a while and one day I had a brain snap and decided to stop talking about it and make it happen. I stumbled across the VP Bali page and applied straight away. I even managed to recruit a coworker to come along with me. I took part in Program Ubud.

Each day we would have our mornings free. Being in Ubud I got a yoga membership and would try to do at least one class per day. After lunch we would sit around in the courtyard of our accommodation and plan our lessons for the afternoon with our co-teachers. I had the two more advanced classes, which was quite challenging as they required lessons that were more thought out than lose with a lower level. We had two classes per day- 3pm and 4:30pm. The 3pm were the younger students who were boisterous, especially for a group of girls, but a lot of fun. We played a lot of games and did a lot of drawing which I was able to incorporate the days vocabulary into. My 4:30 class was older, around 15-16 years old. We spent a lot of time reading a writing. I did my best to allow them to gain practical skills with their lessons. I was fortunate enough to have the same class four days a week so I was able to create close relationships with my students. I miss them all and think about them daily.

In addition to the rewarding experience that teaching gave me, I was also lucky enough to have an amazing group of fellow volunteers in the time I was in the program. We travelled Bali together over the weekend, climbing mountains and surviving hurricanes, creating lifelong friendships.

To anyone thinking about taking part in this program I could not recommend it enough.

I had a great volunteer experience at VP Bali. It was awesome getting to know the kids in both classes, and I really enjoyed working with the other teachers as well, from all over the world. The program is smaller than other ones i've done in the past, which helped made me feel more a part of it, and get to know others very quickly. I felt like I was impacting the children. It was nice having a co-teacher to make lesson plans with, and it was cool being able to get creative and plan what we thought would work best.
Ubud is an amazing town, and where we stayed was such a great location because you could walk to everything, and enjoy your free time between class. I loved the Thursday dinner/drink nights and getting to know everyone. I like the flexibility of the program duration and timeframe. I felt like we were working locally, which is what I was hoping for. It was great getting to know the local teachers and be in a village where we could help the kids learn english.