ISV Thailand Volunteer Program - Teaching English

My ISV experience was largely excellent, however there were some aspects I believed could be better. For example, the work we were sent to do in the village didn't seem to have much of an impact. We were teaching English to small children who wouldn't have remembered the lessons after we'd left. We also we painting their school, but were not given the proper supplies to do so (broken paint brushes, watered down paint, etc.) We all wished we could do something better for them, such as teaching them not to litter and cleaning up the village. My program leader and I spent a lot of our free time doing just that in the hopes that we could help. It was frustrating because we all spent upwards of $5000 on the trip and had hoped to make a lasting impact, but we weren't provided with the tools to do so. Where did our money go? The Adventure Tour part of the program was excellent though!