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An unpleasant experience with a Volunteering Organisation |
 Posted: Fri Oct 9, 2009 8:52 pm |
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| In July this year I attended the Latin American Triangle Volunteering Project, offered by Travellers Worldwide. It lasts for 6 weeks, 2 weeks in 3 different locations. When I booked this project, I was fully aware that the price (2000 GBP) was quite high, but I was convinced that the price is justified as it will give me security as well as services I might not get doing it alone or with another company.
Unfortunately 2 weeks into the project I realised that this was not true. The projects were not well organised and even worse, did not regard the information I have provided in advance, in regards to what I would like to do. Furthermore the local orgnaiser did not really bother much about the volunteers and was hardly around. In the second location, things went even worse. The appartment we stayed was far away from anything so we got stuck there. Work only started 3 days later as the local organiser had private appointments, which interferred with the introduction to the project on the first day. The transportation between the locations had to be organised by ourselfs and we did not get any support when going to the bus station to buy tickets (none of us spoke Portugues and English is not well spoken). The last location was bit better, but sitll the project were not well organised. We turned up at the school and were told that the class we supposed to work with had another program scheduled for the day or they just assigned us to do something else than agreed earlier with the local organiser. All in all, I did not had the feeling that my work was of any significant impact. I loved to play with the kids and this was for sure quite fun and an amazing experience. But my expectation as managed by the organisation was definitely not meet in regards to anything else. Worse came to worse when I provided feedback to Travllers Worldwide, specially on the lack of local support. I was told that it was my own responsibility to get this support and ask for it (I wondered what I paid for)! At the end of the project I sent a summary of my feedback and was only accused that I had the wrong expectation on some of the points. Other points were simply ignored. Finally the local organiser even started lying to protect themself in regards to my feedback. I am very much disappointed in this company, specially the way they treat their clients. I paid a lot of money and would have expected that my feedback would be valuable to them. But it seems they just want the money and do not intend to work with any critical feedback. Baesed on this experience, I would not recommend anyone to go with Travellers Worldwide on a volunteer project, specially not in Latin America. P.S.: I recently learned that Travellers increased the price while reducing services.... |
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