Affordable Volunteer Programs in India: $250/week

I spent three weeks with friends volunteering with IVHQ in India. We spent our time teaching english classes in a slum school, with two morning classes of young children and an afternoon class of older girls. Overall, it was an amazing experience and offered a truly unique insight into Indian culture

IVHQ links up with grass-roots projects in India and the staff involved in our project were very supportive. From the beginning, we felt safe and at home with our Indian host family, and the staff were in regular contact with us and dealt with any issues we had straight away.

One of my favourite aspects of the program was living with an Indian family. Being totally immersed into family life and getting to know the students in our classes proved to be the best introduction to Indian culture. We learnt so much more in those three weeks about India than in the other three weeks we spent backpacking around Rajasthan.

The school experience was very enlightening, and although we would have appreciated some more information about what learning materials to bring with us, we really enjoyed it. The volunteer experience will only improve as the school program and curriculum better develops. For most of the children, we were involved in the only 'formal' education they would receive in their life, and that was quite confronting at times.

If nothing else, my time in India reminded me of the important things in life. As actions speak louder than words, the best review I can give IVHQ would be to say that we enjoyed our time in India so much that we are looking at going back to India and helping the school further!

This volunteering project provided volunteers with an undeniably good insight into Indian culture. I think living with a local family anywhere in the world is always a beneficial experience for both family and volunteer. This was the case for me living with a middle class Indian family in the industrial city Faridabad, near Delhi. But apart from the rewarding exchange of knowledge with a local family, the other main component of choosing to volunteer is the volunteer work. In this area I think organisations like IVHQ have to do more in depth research into the benefits of projects they are offering for the local community. In my case, I was working at a private hospital not far from my family's home. This hospital did not have much going on for volunteers to get involved in. There were less than 10 patients, and the hospital was running well with plenty of competent staff who did not need our help. With this volunteer company, volunteers do not need any qualifications to be allowed to watch surgery. So I was able to watch many operations and enhance my own knowledge of medicine. But when there wasn't any surgery, I found I was really lacking in anything to do to help, and passed the time talking to the technicians and drinking plentiful cups chai. We were able to request to IVHQ co-ordinators to be placed in other hospitals to get some variety in our work, but it would have been nice for them to have had other options already researched for us. And it was almost impossible for us to work in the public hospitals because of the huge amounts of paperwork for the organisation to complete. Bureaucracy in India... Ultimately, although I was able to watch various operations, the reality is until volunteers have a medical or nursing degree they are kind of more of a hindrance to local workers than a help. Organisations need also to be better adept in placing unskilled volunteers in hospitals that are more in need of help, even our basic help. In India I do not imagine this is that unachievable. I compare this program to one I completed with another company in Cusco, Peru. There I felt really valued as a volunteer and could really be of some help whether it be washing instruments, folding bandages or helping in basic medical work. But after saying all this, I remember that IVHQ is extremely cheap compared to other organisations, and perhaps that is why it is not as organised as others. I would recommend it for the price, but I think the medical community ultimately did not benefit from this project.

---- Response from IVHQ ----
Thank you for your review. While we pride ourselves on providing affordable volunteering programs, we also pride ourselves on the high quality of these programs so your feedback is of great value to us. We are sorry to hear you felt there was not enough work for you on your placement and we have addressed these concerns with our local staff. We are glad to hear your enjoyed the insight you got into the India culture while volunteering with IVHQ.