a review of volunteer abroad programs

Abroad Programs Reviewed

Author: Tom Noonan

All too often, I hear people complaining that they were really let down by their study, volunteer or intern abroad programs after returning from their trip. They always say the same thing: “I had a great time, learned a ton, met a whole bunch of wonderful people, but it could have been a lot less expensive”. I felt the exact same way after returning from my volunteer trip to Costa Rica.

Let me give you a little background information. As my college graduation was approaching and the reality of the working world was setting in, I realized that I needed to do something exciting to really transition between school and work. I was never really into travel because I always thought of travel as tourism and sight seeing. I didn’t feel like going to Europe or South-East Asia like a lot of my friends. I am a very productive person by nature and didn’t want to spend a few months just sitting around.

I decided that some sort of volunteer based trip would be the best way to go. It would be structured enough where I wouldn’t feel like I was sitting around, I would feel like I was making a difference, and it would provide me with a very unique opportunity that I would remember forever. I also wanted to go somewhere in Central or South America, namely a place where Spanish was spoken. I took a few years of Spanish and also wanted to improve my Spanish speaking skills.

I did a little bit of research online and was surprised to find that there were a ton of companies that were all offering basically the same thing. I couldn’t tell if the prices were good or bad. The average program fee was about $2,000US for an 8 week program. These programs included a home stay, 3 meals a day, in-country support and volunteer placements. No prices included the $600 round trip ticket. Some companies were asking as much as $4000 for an 8 week program, and others were asking for around $1600. I decided to go with one of the cheaper companies because I simply didn’t have the money to spend on a more expensive one. I also decided to go 6 weeks instead of 8. Finally I decided that Costa Rica would be my destination since I had never traveled before and I heard that Costa Rica was the easiest place to start.

The program fee ended up being $1300 for the 6 weeks. To my surprise, when I arrived in the country, nobody was from the program I thought I signed up with. No, they didn’t take my money and ran; they simply were the middle man for a local Costa Rican language school. I soon came to find out that the local company took care of everything – the local support, volunteer placement and the home stay.

After some digging around, I found out that had I gone directly through the local program, I would have saved a few hundred bucks. I also realized that most of the other volunteers went through some sort of middle-man, many of which paid a lot more than me for the program. So already, these middlemen are taking a cut of 20-50%, just for referring you down to this local company.

Next, I talked to my host family and found that they were getting paid $70 a week to give me a room and feed me 3 meals a day. Over a 6-week period, this only comes to $420. Where did the rest of my program fee go? The volunteer placement was almost non-existent. Students who were trying to gain experience were in a rage, complaining that they were promised a certain number of clinical hours and didn’t receive anything near that.

Finally, I spoke with one of the other volunteers. He was actually a young lawyer and went through the local program himself. He struck a deal just to have the home stay, so he paid less than half as much as I did for the same duration. I don’t know if I would have been comfortable setting something up with some unknown local program though.

All in all, I had a great time but felt a little ripped off. I wish at the very least the program I joined would disclose their plans and what they do with your money.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-tips-articles/abroad-programs-reviewed-746116.html

About the Author:

If you want to read unbiased participant feedback for any of these companies, visit the Abroad Reviews website at http://www.AbroadReviews.com.