Travellers Worldwide - Volunteer in Zambia

First of all, I'd like to say I love the organization I am working with- Son's of Thunder. The host have been incredible to me. However, my qualms have been with Travellers Worldwide. I payed a hefty amount to this business. The program includes: lodging, transport to and from my site, administrative expenses, and program costs.

I honestly felt cheated by this organization. I was under the impression that the money I spent on this program would at least go to the organization I am volunteering for. I do not even have meals included with my program.

They wrote me a long email to explain the full charge for the program fees/administration/safety. This is a piece from the email:
"1) the cost of Financial Failure Insurance. This insurance policy acts to provide you with protection cover in case Travellers ever went into administration. Just this one policy alone runs into the tens of thousands of pounds per year. 2) Another cost included within the price you paid for your programme is for Travellers Travel & Tour Operators Combined Liability Insurance. In covering the organisation it is also working for your (the 'customer's') benefit as it gives you added assurance when you 'buy' from us."

I understand they need to pay liability insurance, but we are required to get our own travel insurance anyways.

Furthermore, I feel like after I have expressed my issues to them they seem to be less responsive or helpful to me. I asked them for a refund for days I will not be staying at my accommodation at the hostel due to personal travel (well in advance), and they told me that they could not do that for "safety reasons." They also responded that my program should include food, travel, administration and program costs (my program does NOT provide meals whatsoever, so I do not know why they said that).

My advice for travelers wanting to do a medical internship in Zambia: contact Son's of Thunder directly and ask them about lodging prices, contact a reputable hostel in Livingstone if you want to travel to and from Son's of Thunder and ask them about lodging prices (Fawlty Towers is only $8-9/night. Look up a reputable taxi driver and make your own arrangements with him/her.

I will say the in country staff has been absolutely amazing (Lameck Mponda), he has my best interest at heart.

However, if I were to do it all over again I'd prefer to save my money and do all this on my own rather than go with this organization.

I went to Zambia when I was 18, just 9 months after completing A-levels. It was the best experience I have ever had and such an eye opener at the beginning of my independance. From the moment I arrived at the airport I was very well looked after. Watching the last bag go around the conveyor belt and realising mine wasnt going to arrive I was worried, but when I found the person who was going to look after everything he assured me it would come on the next flight and took me to my hostel. Later he brought me my bag, and from that moment onwards he was an absolute star. Always made us feel welcome and safe and bought us water daily to our hostel. There were 6 of us volunteers at various schools and we each had our own driver. The school I taught at which was called Queen Victoria looked after me very well and I thouroughly enjoyed every single day. The chrildren were so eager to learn and listen to what I had to say. I wasnt pushed into the deep end, I started off assisting the teacher. The people I met along the way were amazing. One weekend we did a safari trip to Botswana where we had a couple of cruises and a river cruise with amazing food in between, we stayed in luxury tents miles from a main road, where a man made water hole was so we could watch all the wildlife. In the evening a huge elegant elephant came from the bushes and it was the most amazing thing to be a part of, we were also lucky to see the amazing sky and gaze at the milky way.

As we were so close to the Victoria Falls, our schools wrote letters for us to say we were residents and volunteering, so we got the local rate which meant we went there more times than i could count! On the evening of the full moon we were extremely lucky to see, not only rainbow caused from the moonlight over the falls but also a shooting star going over - things you'd think you'd only see in films!

Every day we would finish school at around 1ish (unless we stayed to do sport with them) then we'd come back to the hostel to have pancakes and then visit the orphanage. The kids here were amazing, so happy and excited to see us. We played football with them, drew many funny pictures and played numerous games - of which the loved the party game with balloons where your in a line, one behind the other, and you have teams and have to get the balloon over the head then under the legs of the next person and so on. They we such delightful children and it was always a pleasure to see their happy faces.

I wouldn't change my experience for the world.

1. The experience I gained was a knowledge that, thankfully, I have the ability and flexibility to cope with unforeseen problems. I had been put in a position of sink or swim. I am not a trained teacher or teacher's assistant, but with no induction or assistance I was expected to teach a group, minimum size of 37 young people, maximum on day 2 - 60 young people, from the outset.
2. The best thing about my placement was that the young people I taught were eager to learn and enjoyed my interactive way of working, despite some obvious problems that some of the young people were exhibiting, eg lack of continuity in teachers, illness, poverty, lack of fundamental educational tools (books, pencils, pens, rulers etc).
3. After meeting the programme coordinator at the airport and taken to the school on the first day I had no contact from him at all. I would have expected him to make contact at least once a week just to check how things were going but also to say goodbye.
4. I would recommend this placement for someone who can give it a longer period of time.