Response to Danny's negative comments

In response to some of the negative comments posted by Danny above. I’m not sure exactly why he has suddenly decided to write his review 9 years later?

My name’s Tom and I worked with Kido as a volunteer for almost 2 years from 2010-2011. If you have any questions regarding the project or the work Kido do, feel free to send me a question through this website.

Ok let’s get started:
1- “Little actual support from the hosts”

My response:This is not the experience I had or any of the many volunteers I worked with had over the 2 year period I worked with them. I can remember on one occasion when I got sick, the hosts gave me 2 weeks off, took me to the doctors, regularly checked on me and even offered to pay for a flight off the island if I got worse. Similarly, the hosts would always offer to drive me to the beach or pick me up if I was feeling tired.

2- “Placed in potential dangerous situations”

My response: Maybe he has never worked for any other conservation projects in the Caribbean or around the world. If he had, he might know that no project is 100% safe. Other projects I have worked on have had serious incidents. In my experience there has never been an incident on a Kido project and that is down to how seriously they take volunteer safety.

In my opinion you are always going to take a risk when working abroad and to be honest, I don’t think that risk is any greater than walking down the road in your local town or city after hours. I have had my bicycle stolen out of my hands in broad daylight, been threatened verbally and physically, attacked etc all in my home city of Chester. I think the worst thing that happened to me at Kido was that I got hit on the head by a turtle’s flipper. I had some other minor injuries - all my own fault!

And I did happen to meet the ‘local poacher’. He waved at me and smiled. He did have a machete in his hand, but it’s important to mention that ALL local guys carry machetes on the island – it’s perfectly normal as they use it as a tool for day to day tasks.

3- “An example of the danger the volunteers were placed in was when I was stopped by a local smuggler & poacher holding his machete and I told I should get of his beach now. I called the hosts who informed me to 'man up'”

My response: I think I’ve addressed this point above, but I would like to add that every time I felt that I wanted to raise an issue of safety with the hosts, it was taken VERY seriously.

4 –“Several other volunteers who were young females were patrolling these beaches at night either in pairs or on their own which was incredibly dangerous.”

My response: In my experience females NEVER patrolled on their own. All females patrolled either with myself or a trusted and experienced local guide.

I’m surprised that he actually managed to last more than one night on the beach, seeing as it was “incredibly dangerous” he must have been terrified!

5- “The hosts saw themselves as some sort of wildlife guardians but in reality they were more interested in the publicity and looking good in front of the tourists.”

My response: This is just absolute nonsense – completely ignorant of all the wildlife Kido foundation have protected, saved, rehabilitated, nurtured over the years they have been active. You only have to read the biography of Marina Fastigi to know this is not a person who is just concerned with “publicity” and “looking good”. In fact, it’s the complete opposite of Marina’s personality. I think the truth is most people who meet her see her as a wildlife guardian. She does what she does because she is passionate about it.

6- “One example was for a photo opportunity for a paying groups of tourists dragging a female Hawksbill back up the beach to allow all the groups to have they photo taken with her.”

My response: This is completely taken out of context. Kido have rescued countless turtles and have ensured that turtles can lay their eggs safely on the beach. Turtles are often moved to and from the beach, to boats, to and from the project site – for measurements, to check their health etc. When tourists are present at the beach, it is important that they get a chance to take a picture with the turtle – and this in no way harms the animal. I’ve worked for many other turtle projects where turtles have to be handled for scientific data to be recorded – sometimes pulling them out of the water, dragging them up onto boats and even carrying out surgical procedures. This isn’t ideal of course, we would like to just leave them alone, but without handling them sometimes – how do we get any scientific data? Turtles are pretty tough animals: they can survive shark attacks, hurricane force seas and crashing waves, they swim thousands of miles…. I’m sure a turtle can survive a photo opportunity. Of course, this doesn’t mean it’s ok to “drag one up the beach” for a photo opportunity – but in my experience, I never saw a turtle handled in this way.

Additionally, I never saw hosts at Kido charging tourists for pictures with turtles. Sometimes tourists were so moved by the experience of seeing a turtle that they insisted on making a donation. However, on many occasions no donations were made by tourists – but they did go away with a picture and story to tell their family and friends and spread the word of turtle conservation.

7- “A Spanish volunteer who was there at the same time as us who had agreed to stay for 1 year felt he was being treated like a slave and joked 'I'll die on this beach'.”

My response: Again, not my or anybody else’s experience I know of. On some other projects I’ve worked on in the Caribbean, Greece and Thailand you have to work 6 days a week. On some occasions (on other projects) when volunteers were short, I had to work as many as 14 days straight. In contrast, for Kido, I only worked 5 days a week. Even though the beach was walking distance – and a beautiful walk at that - they drove me to the beach and picked me up whenever I was feeling overtired. I got time off whenever, no questions asked, when I felt sick or unable to work. They left me to rest in the day time, unless one of the hosts came to deliver me some delicious cake he had bought! Or he didn’t want me to miss out on an experience rescuing a turtle.

8- “If you want to work with sea turtles there are many other areas better to do it. Sorry for the negative review but I felt it important for potential young students keen on gaining experience know what they could be letting themselves in for.”

My response: For a start, I would like to know which other projects he has worked for. I’m not sure how he can make such a comparison. I’ve worked on many other projects and have found them to be in line with what is expected of you – and in fact, Kido allocates volunteers more in terms of free time for sure.

Finally, I’m not sure why he’s apologizing for such a negative review 9 years later and then justifying it by showing how concerned he is for potential young students? What happened to his concern over the past 9 years? How many vulnerable young students have been in potentially dangerous situations during that time according to him? Jeez! More to the point, how has he been able to sleep at night?

To round off – I would like to let potential young students know what they could be letting themselves in for: The experience of a life time working with dedicated wildlife conservationists who are compassionate and inspiring people in a breath taking environment that is pristine. Enough said…..
Again, mail me if you want to know more details.