What to do Before Paying for your Volunteer or Study Abroad Program
Posted on October 22, 2008 - Filed Under 5848 |
Often times, (myself included) students will sign up for a
study/volunteer abroad program based on a good feeling. They might see that the description on the
program website best fits their desires, they might have been sweet-talked into
it by a coordinator working for the program, or they might just figure that all
companies are the same and they might as well just pick one and go with
it. All of these sound like reasonable
ways to choose an abroad program, but they have been known to backfire.
Often times, (myself included) students will sign up for a
study/volunteer abroad program based on a good feeling. They might see that the description on the
program website best fits their desires, they might have been sweet-talked into
it by a coordinator working for the program, or they might just figure that all
companies are the same and they might as well just pick one and go with
it. All of these sound like reasonable
ways to choose an abroad program, but they have been known to backfire.
Over this last summer, I paid a good sum of money to
volunteer in Costa Rica. I went for a few reasons: I wanted to improve
my Spanish skills, I wanted to experience a different country, and I wanted to
do something intrinsically rewarding, namely volunteering. At least two of the three goals were
achieved. I went through a national
volunteer placement agency who will remain nameless. They assured me that I would be volunteering
in Costa Rica
while learning Spanish all while getting the experience of a lifetime. I spent several hours chatting with the
volunteer coordinator, and she had me convinced to cough up over a grand to
volunteer for six weeks in Costa Rica. (This price didn’t include the flight,
transportation, etc.)
When I arrived in Costa Rica,
it didn’t take me long to realize that the company I thought was going to be
there (the one I sent my money to) wasn’t really there. They were simply the middleman to a
“volunteer organization? in Costa Rica. The organization was responsible for
everything including my homestay, volunteer placement and support. The homestay was great, the support wasn’t
bad, but the volunteer placement was virtually non-existent. I was placed in a clinic where they didn’t
need my help whatsoever. I would
typically sit in a room by myself while the doctors and nurses gossiped in a
different room. I complained about my
volunteer placement, so they decided to move me to a temporary kids camp, which
was extremely unorganized to say the least.
The kids camp ended with 3 weeks left for me to volunteer, so I ended up
just hanging out with the host family the rest of the time.
One day, I spoke to the host mom and found out they were
getting paid $70 a week for me to stay there.
I quickly did the math in my head, and realized about ¾ or ~$900 of my
fee went to volunteer placement. That
just didn’t quite add up. They didn’t do
a 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 an
even bigger cut. There was also a large
group 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 volunteer
work, along with medical Spanish classes, and the “volunteer organization?
delivered about 25% of the time. A few
people actually left early because they were so disappointed with the
program. One girl is actually filing a
lawsuit against her program.
The only guy that seemed satisfied with the whole thing did
some extra research before signing up to the program. Instead of going through a middleman, he went
through the organization in Costa Rica
directly. He didn’t have to pay the
premium of having a middleman, but also chose simply to be picked up from the
airport and placed with a host family.
He also negotiated directly with them to pay weekly, so he could leave
anytime he wanted. He was more informed
because he found a blog of someone who had gone through the program already, so
he knew exactly what to expect. Too bad
he was the only one.
It makes me sick knowing that these “volunteer
organizations? are taking advantage of good people all over the place. Even though I know there are good programs out
there, this experience has left a sour taste in my mouth. I just hope that future students and
volunteers will read , we can
help reform the industry and make volunteering what it is supposed to be.
About the author
Author, Tom Noonan has started a study, intern and volunteer reviews
website: http://www.AbroadReviews.com.
Tags: desires, learning spanish, lifetime, middleman, national volunteer, six weeks, spanish skills, study volunteer, sum of money, volunteer coordinator, volunteer placement, volunteering in costa rica
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