Author: admin
Abroad Programs Reviewed
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 didnt feel like going to Europe or SouthEast Asia like a lot of my friends. I am a very productive person by nature and didnt 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 wouldnt 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 couldnt tell if the prices were good or bad. The average program fee was about 2000US for an 8 week program. These programs included a home stay 3 meals a day incountry 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 didnt 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 didnt 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 middleman many of which paid a lot more than me for the program. So already these middlemen are taking a cut of 2050 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 6week period this only comes to 420. Where did the rest of my program fee go? The volunteer placement was almost nonexistent. Students who were trying to gain experience were in a rage complaining that they were promised a certain number of clinical hours and didnt 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 dont 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.
About the writer: If you want to read unbiased participant feedback for any of these companies visit the Abroad Reviews website at http://www.AbroadReviews.com.
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