Assessment
Once we’ve identified a potential project we have to assess it to find out if it has everything that our volunteers expect from an i-to-i volunteering experience.
That means it has to be:
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Worthwhile and Legitimate
Our volunteers want to make a difference so it’s important that the projects they’re working at are worthwhile and legitimate. We only work with established projects that have been set up by the community, for the community. This means that they’ve been developed for a purpose and that our volunteers will be working toward this. Our in-country teams will assess the projects before we decide whether to work with them. Having worked in the business for years they’re in the perfect position to assess projects to ensure that they’re worthwhile.
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Safe
The safety of our volunteers is very important to us and we simply won’t work with any project where their safety is compromised. We use a risk assessment system, to determine whether a project is safe enough for our volunteers and to identify any areas that present a high threat. On top of that, we won’t send volunteers to countries or districts which are particularly dangerous or volatile, nor will we send them to areas which we consider to be too remote.
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Fun
Our volunteers want to make a difference and they want to have an amazing time doing it. For that reason we look for projects that have interesting and varied activities, busy
schedules and are based in appealing locations. Projects don’t have to meet all these criteria but it’s important that they do offer our volunteers a really memorable experience and a chance to get to the heart of the host country whilst doing great work at teh same time. -
Affordable
We have to ensure that the projects we work with are going to appeal to our volunteers. If a project is too expensive then it isn’t going to attract any volunteers. We wouldn’t only be failing our volunteers by working with such a project, we would be failing the project itself.
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A Suitable Time Frame
The majority of our volunteers are looking for projects that are 1-12 weeks in length. Though we’re more than willing to offer our volunteers longer stays at projects, we will not be able to fulfil our commitment to a project if they cannot allow a flexible or short timeframe. For that reason we ask that all projects (with the exception of teaching placements or working holidays) offer a minimum stay of 8 weeks.
