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Original Volunteers- good/bad experience?

Hi,

I've been looking into volunteering abroad next year, and am quite interested in doing a trip with Original volunteers, in particular Cambodia. However, I've heard mixed reviews about them, although the older reviews tend to be worse and the recent ones seem to be more positive. Just wondering if anyone could share their experiences/opinions? As far as I can see, they're the cheapest out there by far, so if anyone knows of any alternative organisations that are a similar price, that would also be great :smile:

bump anyone?

bump again :smile:

Hey, I'm looking at cambodia or ghana and I'm gonna volunteer. Sometimes we have to just go for it, which I'm gonna do :smile:

will let youknow

Reply 4

Catherine_H

I went to Morocco for two weeks with them in July 2013. The trip itself was great and a really worthwhile experience. The company themselves are really cheap compared to others, and give you alot of information before you arrive. I was lucky because the volunteering house I was placed in was very adequate and we had a live in English coordinator. However, there were other houses in the town with Original Volunteers in who didn't have a live in coordinator and were left out of the loop completely. They weren't informed of when we were visiting orphanages, and were kind of forgotten about. Their house was also in quite a poor condition.

Overall, they can be a bit disorganised and I believe there are certainly better volunteering companies out there! But I was very pleased with my experience.

Reply 5

stuella

am looking to go India with volunteers, but are they anygood or bad :confused:

Reply 6

nikki237

I've just come back from Ghana - have you already sorted this? :smile:

Reply 7

fasteddy

Did you have a good time in Ghana? Always wanted to visit this country!

Reply 8

sarah163

I would not recomend using original volunteers. My friend and I have been on two projects with them both as badly organised as the other. Mexico is a fantastic place itself however original volunteers had not paid the coordinator out there therefore there were many issues in the volunteer house that she could not afford to fix such as a flushing toilet or hot shower! They also tell you that you don't need to speak Spanish fluently but you do need a good level of Spanish if you want to get by and enjoy your time as most the teachers on the project speak no English at all and you do not have a coordinator with you.
Moroccos volunteer house was better in ways however it only had 2 showers and can have up to 25people staying there at any one time. Original volunteers take money from you for 'admin' and 'support' however when I have tried to contact them many times I have had no response and felt a severe lack of support from them. The places you can visit and the children are amazing but I would suggest looking at other alternatives to original volunteers.

Reply 9

nadupoi

Original post by bananabrain

I highly advise not going with this company. They do not care for the safety of the volunteers they only care about money. The project in Malawi was taken over by an untrustworthy local that has a bad record for stealing and cheating volunteers out of money. He has kicked out any previous volunteers and only wants new ones, basically so he can tell them lies and then get money off them. He should never be trusted with money. I have told OV my concerns and they have ignored my emails for two months with their manager 'out of office'. They have no idea what is currently happening in the projects they are sending you to and quite frankly do not care. They are all for 'support & information' when tempting you into booking with them but as soon as something goes wrong they just completely ignore you. Please go direct to the charities instead of going through middle men like OV.

Reply 10

Worcs04

Has anyone been to Ghana? I'm thinking of going. Any tips etc how long should I go for? Do people travel after volunteering?

Any info would be great.

Reply 11

kaps84

well try and see international volunteers initiatives its a new company but they have got good services, you might like it.

Reply 12

cora06140

If you want to go to Ghana, I recommend volunteer corps - they are the on the ground NGO who look after the volunteers from IVHQ. My daughter went there on a construction project aged 17 a couple of years back and it was friendly and very well organised. Www.volcorps.org

If you want to go to Nepal, I can highly recommend Education and Health Nepal. Again my daughter has just come back from volunteering there for 3 monts and in the aftermath of the earthquake, there has never been a better time to volunteer and make a difference. But don't expect hot showers and all mod cons., living conditions will be fairly basic there now. www.ehn-nepal.org