GVI, Ethical Impact: Volunteer in Seychelles

My son's experience with GVI’s Seychelles Marine Conservation Program was deeply disappointing and concerning. I would strongly discourage anyone from considering GVI. After a full month on site, he had not completed a single survey dive — the central focus of the program. The base was severely understaffed, with no dive instructors, inadequate housing, and poor communication. GVI was aware of these issues before his arrival, and yet they allowed a fresh group of participants to arrive anyhow. GVI later admitted to “operational challenges” and “temporary staffing gaps” but refused to issue refunds, offering only credit toward future programs or an extension. However, given our experience, we had serious concerns in GVI's ability to deliver a quality program, even elsewhere, and no longer trusted the organization. We tried to be patient and give them the benefit of the doubt but after 30 days of 60 day program term, their repeated attempts to stall and continued unresponsiveness led us to pull him and hope for an eventual resolution. We submitted multiple formal refund requests and even reached out directly to the CEO. After eventually filing a formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau (U.S.), GVI finally responded, offering a refund and asking us to remove the complaint. They provided a partial refund and promised the balance per their terms, 6 months later. They did provide another partial refund at about 5 months at our request. May 3 was the 6 month mark. Despite a written confirmation on their part that the refund should hit our accounts at the most, a few days after the 3rd, still no refund. The mysterious and anonymous "GVI Feedback Team" responded once this week saying their issuing a ticket with finance to see what the issue is. This company's tendency to shield the names of any responsible individual behind a generic email and their horrific communication with students and families, has led to incredible mistrust and angst. As can be seen in many other reviews, this is a pattern, not an exception. I'll be reopening the BBB complaint ASAP after attempting to resolve everyday this week and will pursue every avenue to make sure GVI's reputation is well known so other may avoid our mistake. ~ Rob Vaughn

I took part in the GVI Seychelles island Conservation with Snorkelling Program, and the experience was nothing like what was advertised. The website painted an entirely false picture — from the activities and facilities to the food and partner organisations. When I arrived, I found a rat-infested and unhygienic kitchen, unsafe living conditions, and food that was completely unsuitable despite me clearly declaring that I have Coeliac disease. The meals were nothing like the fresh, local dishes shown online; they were basic, often inedible, and unsafe for me to eat. Staff at the site even admitted that the website contains false information about what’s actually available and that many of the advertised activities and resources simply don’t exist. The whole experience felt like a complete waste of money, and I had to leave two weeks early because it was impossible to stay under those conditions. GVI’s website still shows misleading photos, partner logos, and claims that are not true. I’ve requested a full refund, and hope they stop misleading others about the GVI Seychelles Conservation Program.

I volunteered for a month in April 2023 in Mahé on the marine conservation programme and for me the staff and volunteers on base really made the month extremely special. I got my diving qualifications and experienced some absolutely amazing marine life. The staff on base are so lovely but the equipment they have isn’t sustainable for amount of daily dives we did. The compressor breaks on a regular basis and there isn’t enough staff/ field assistants to run smoothly - especially if any of them become ill however whilst I was on base the staff did do everything they could to find replacement tanks.

I spent 2 weeks on Curieuse, Seychelles with GVI in August 2022, and it was the experience of a lifetime! I was looking for something worthwhile to do during my long summer holiday as a teacher, and my GVI program was perfect. It was very well organised (e.g. organising travel from the airport to the boat pick-up), the staff on-base were fantastic and I learned so much in only 2 weeks. As a science teacher I am passionate about citizen science and being able to be part of a project like this with such a long-lasting impact was amazing. I met some amazing people that I have kept in touch with, and had experiences that I would never have had otherwise. Thank you GVI for creating life-long memories and allowing me to be a part of this amazing project.

I chose to do a GVI program because I had just finished a MSc in Marine Conservation and wanted to get more in field experience. I did the Curieuse, Seychelles Program for 10 weeks (Oct-Dec) and it was amazing! It took me about a week to adjust to living in such different conditions than I was used to but by the end I didn't want to go back to living in my house again and wished I could stay for longer. The accommodation was the old leper colony female dormitories and the only people on the island were us and the rangers who stayed on the other side of the island. And of course there were tourists that came for day trips. The staff there were amazing and really helped you feel welcome on the island along with the two dogs that lived on base. I feel that I have definitely learned and experienced so many things that will help me in my future career. Some of these were working in hot and tiring conditions as a part of a team, being around people 24/7, and adapting to limited equipment in sometimes stressful moments. But this trip was so amazing that I would love to go back again to see the sharks, turtles and tortoises that we surveyed everyday, and exploring the other islands in the Seychelles again. I have also made some lifelong friends from this trip and am waiting to save up and go on another GVI program around the world

My time in the Seychelles was the best of my life so far. It was my first time travelling alone and so far away from my home. At first I was worried about getting there and what activities I would be doing and conditions I would be living in. I met my group in the airport and we were immediately picked up by the driver and taken to where we needed to be which was very helpful. My first look on base was exactly what I expected it to be, very basic. I was however surprised by how nice the bathrooms were and found the lack of hot water did not bother me. The staff were very friendly and I felt very welcome. What I did find to be a struggle in the coming weeks was the food situation. We mostly ate rice, pasta and vegetables and by the end I was sick of the plain-ish food (especially red peppers). We were treated to some chips and burgers occasionally - those were my favourite nights and on 2 evenings we ordered pizza in from the nearest town which was very enjoyable. I wish I had brought more snacks with me since I was always hungry after the dives.

My time scuba diving was extremely enjoyable and productive. We dove 2 times a day for five days a week. For the first week we completed our advanced open water course. After that we moved on to the marine research part, doing point-outs for our specific area of learning to practice our observation skills. I personally did fish 1 which was reef fish. We were taught by a series of PowerPoints and scouring through books to identify which types of fish we had seen during our previous dive- this was very efficient and a fun way to learn. By the end of the course I had learnt around 50 fish plus other incidentals and was able to identify them during our surveys in the last week. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the marine animals and me and my friends came up with fun ways to revise and test each other. Some of my favourite sightings were nudibranchs, turtles, eels and rays. I also did other surveys such as seagrass surveys, coral surveys and nudibranch surveys. The coral one was interesting as we had a numbered colour palette and picking out random bits of coral, compared its colour to the palette for the closest match.

During the weekdays we had free time in the evenings and the volunteers often organised fun activities such as movie nights, table tennis tournaments, football on the beach and coconut hunts (which was my favourite although I did get a lot of mosquito bites wandering around the jungle). We also did a few cards games which got very competitive.
On weekends we left base to explore the island and others surrounding it. Most weekends we stayed in mahe and a group of us just booked hotel rooms. In our free time we liked to relax at the beach, wander around the local area, eat out in restaurants etc. My favourite activity was the three bothers hike trail. It took us over an hour to get to the very top and it was not an easy journey either, the majority of it was spent on hands and knees scaling up boulders and over huge tree roots but it was worth it as the view was incredible at the top. We could see so much of the island and could watch as aeroplanes landed in the airport: it blew my mind being so high that even the aeroplanes were lower than us. If I remember rightly we were 2220ft from sea level, it was just such an amazing experience. On another weekend we went via boat to another island where we cycled the whole island, visited various beaches and enjoyed a couple nights in the reggae bar. On another occasion a couple of us even organised a night dive which was so much fun, we saw the likes of lobsters and huge white sea snakes. If I turned off my torch and waved my hand around I could see the glow of the bioluminescence which was surreal. I would have liked to do more night dives and hope to do so I’m the future.

Overall my time in the Seychelles was just incredible and I have made life long friends all across the globe. I feel much more confident in travelling now and my ability to overcome any worries. It has inspired me to carry on and study marine biology in the future and I would definitely like to do another course similar to this with GVI again. A wonderful experience.

I am really enjoying my time in the Seychelles, Curieuse Island with GVI. I’ve had the opportunity to do lots of exciting things. I have seen turtles nesting, baby turtles making there way to the sea for the first time, stroked a lot of giant tortoises and held a baby lemon shark, all while collecting data in a beautiful location. The base is right on the beach, so every morning the first thing you see is the ocean and the last thing you hear at night are the waves on the beach. We also share base Obama, the giant tortoises, who really loves bananas.

From the moment I arrived the group and staff was very welcoming and helped with all our questions! The work is great and you get to do a lot of different things. The walks to the beaches are amazing especially the view points. So far the best thing on curieus island is the sharking this is where you catch lemon sharks! The bbq nights are amazing and you definitely learn how to cool here! You also get a lot of opportunities to do extra stuff at the weekends like going to praslin for the day. !!!