Find another volunteer program.

I was very excited to find the Cornerstone Foundation because they appeared to have a lot of projects that interested me and the program fee was manageable. Three months was a long commitment, but I thought it would be an interesting experience.

When I arrived, no one was expecting my arrival. The room was not ready, there was no key available for the room, and I had only a brief tour of the housing with one of the other volunteers. I was not the only volunteer with this problem, and it is very awkward to arrive in a place after a long flight to a program that doesn’t know you are coming. This would be even more frustrating if you arrive outside of the very short business hours (10:00-2:00 Monday through Friday).

I arrived on a Monday and was not given orientation until Thursday. Orientation was a very brief introduction with the volunteer coordinator reading off a piece of paper. I met briefly with the director whose orientation was about 5 minutes long regarding payment. There was no discussion of possible volunteer opportunities.

The website makes it sound like there are many different programs and activities running, but the only program they have is the Feeding and Nutrition program. This program is very small (two women making rice for 60 children and handing it out at lunch), and although the cook will do her best to find you things to do, there really isn’t room for or a need for volunteers in this program.

To volunteer with Cornerstone, you either need to be highly motivated and find your own opportunities or you have to be fine with sitting around the volunteer house not doing anything. Do not expect Cornerstone to help you find projects…you will need to investigate the need and make the contacts in the community yourself (even though you would expect Cornerstone should be able to do this for you). They stress the need for self direction and guidance in their literature, however, I feel that they should at least be able to connect you with either a project or with key contacts in the community first. Volunteers should not be the ones needing to get into the community, identify the need, develop projects, and carry out projects. Cornerstone is a Belize-based company and should at least know what the needs of their community are. If you need volunteer hours and don’t actually want to do anything, this is a great way to do it as no one would know or care if you were just sitting around watching tv or out exploring the town.

Belizean culture is also challenging as presentations are consistently cancelled and no one shows up for your meetings. This doesn’t make you want to put any effort into things as none of your work will be used. These rules don’t apply to you…if you want to quit or don’t show up for something it is unacceptable and reflects poorly on Cornerstone. Beware that your program fee is nonrefundable.

The volunteer coordinator spends her days playing computer games, on facebook, or texting, which doesn’t provide much inspiration or motivation for the volunteers to do a lot of work. Cornerstone is also not appreciative of or interested in the work you might be doing. You have little to no contact with the director unless you initiate. It is really hard to be enthusiastic about making a difference when the employees are not even interested. They are not welcoming nor do they appear grateful that you have spent your time off and your money to come help.

I would never recommend this organization. I do not feel they are effective in their community nor are they supportive to their volunteers. It feels as if they just want your program fee, which is disheartening to those of us who spent our time and money to volunteer. Find another volunteer program.