What,Before,Paying,for,your,Vo travel,insurance What to do Before Paying for your Volunteer or Study Abroad
Torres del Paine is among the biggest of Chiles national parks, occupying almost 600,000 acres (242,000 ha) of land in the south on the border with Argentina. It is also among the most important, receiving a significant proportion of domes Like any American, traveling occasionally is just what I love doing and I bet you share the same stuff with me. But traveling does not mean that you would be safe. Escaping from our job and other stressful activities is just something that w
Often times, (myself included) students will sign up for astudy/volunteer abroad program based on a good feeling. They might see that the description on theprogram website best fits their desires, they might have been sweet-talked intoit by a coordinator working for the program, or they might just figure that allcompanies are the same and they might as well just pick one and go withit. All of these sound like reasonableways to choose an abroad program, but they have been known to backfire. Over this last summer, I paid a good sum of money tovolunteer in Costa Rica. I went for a few reasons: I wanted to improvemy Spanish skills, I wanted to experience a different country, and I wanted todo something intrinsically rewarding, namely volunteering. At least two of the three goals wereachieved. I went through a nationalvolunteer placement agency who will remain nameless. They assured me that I would be volunteeringin Costa Ricawhile learning Spanish all while getting the experience of a lifetime. I spent several hours chatting with thevolunteer coordinator, and she had me convinced to cough up over a grand tovolunteer for six weeks in Costa Rica. (This price didnt include the flight,transportation, etc.) When I arrived in Costa Rica,it didnt take me long to realize that the company I thought was going to bethere (the one I sent my money to) wasnt really there. They were simply the middleman to avolunteer organization in Costa Rica. The organization was responsible foreverything including my homestay, volunteer placement and support. The homestay was great, the support wasntbad, but the volunteer placement was virtually non-existent. I was placed in a clinic where they didntneed my help whatsoever. I wouldtypically sit in a room by myself while the doctors and nurses gossiped in adifferent room. I complained about myvolunteer placement, so they decided to move me to a temporary kids camp, whichwas extremely unorganized to say the least. The kids camp ended with 3 weeks left for me to volunteer, so I ended upjust hanging out with the host family the rest of the time. One day, I spoke to the host mom and found out they weregetting paid $70 a week for me to stay there. I quickly did the math in my head, and realized about ¾ or ~$900 of myfee went to volunteer placement. Thatjust didnt quite add up. They didnt doa darn thing to get me placed anywhere. I spoke with other volunteers who felt scammed just as well. Some went through other middlemen who took aneven bigger cut. There was also a largegroup of Medical Intensive students who paid a lot more for a shorter time,and ended up getting a worse deal than myself. They were promised several hours a day of medical-related volunteerwork, along with medical Spanish classes, and the volunteer organizationdelivered about 25% of the time. A fewpeople actually left early because they were so disappointed with theprogram. One girl is actually filing alawsuit against her program. The only guy that seemed satisfied with the whole thing didsome extra research before signing up to the program. Instead of going through a middleman, he wentthrough the organization in Costa Ricadirectly. He didnt have to pay thepremium of having a middleman, but also chose simply to be picked up from theairport and placed with a host family. He also negotiated directly with them to pay weekly, so he could leaveanytime he wanted. He was more informedbecause he found a blog of someone who had gone through the program already, sohe knew exactly what to expect. Too badhe was the only one.It makes me sick knowing that these volunteerorganizations are taking advantage of good people all over the place. Even though I know there are good programs outthere, this experience has left a sour taste in my mouth. I just hope that future students andvolunteers will read abroad reviewsbefore signing up with a company. Aslong as people are falling victim to these shifty programs, they will continueto exist. If you had a bad experience,make sure to post a review, warningothers to stay away. Together, we canhelp reform the industry and make volunteering what it is supposed to be.
What,Before,Paying,for,your,Vo