My 12 year old daughter and I had one of the best experiences of our lives while volunteering with CCS in July of this year. To be able to take a 12 year old across the world and know our safety is being taken seriously was a huge factor for me. From the first moment, I knew that the CCS staff had us covered. Their professionalism and kindness was such a blessing. Yes, thing are done very differently there and that is one of the beauties of volunteering. When I see negative reviews that have to do with how things are handled, I wonder if those reviewers set themselves up by having too many expectations. That is one of the first things CCS tells you. Get rid of your expectations and be open to a true experience. There are a few things like safety and health where one should have very high expectations, but for all other issues I found it was greatly to our advantage to just let go and learn! The accommodations where exceptionally clean and safe. There was never a moment where at least 1 or 2 staff members where available to help in any way we needed it. The food was delicious and nutritious, gut it was the little extras that made it truly special. The visit to a traditional healer, a Swahili teacher coming a few times a week, in depth conversation with a Dr. regarding the AIDS epidemic in their region. I could go on and on. The information led us to understand and respect the culture so much more than being mere visitors in their beautiful country. The cost was not cheap, but I am a single parent on a California teacher's budget and I managed it. I took the bull by the horns and applied for many grants, looked into sponsorship and were fortunate enough to receive a family volunteering grant. My daughter learned things from this experience that could never been taught by a book. I am forever grateful for our experience and am already saving our pennies for the next round! Thank you CCS!
Cross-Cultural Solutions
As an international volunteer with Cross-Cultural Solutions, you're making a meaningful contribution, working side-by-side with local people and sharing in the goals of a community that warmly welcomes you. You're experiencing another culture like never before and really getting to know its people. You'll gain new perspectives and insight into the culture and yourself. It's an exciting and personally inspiring experience, and you'll develop memories that will be with you forever.
The first time I ever volunteered abroad was in 2008 with Cross Cultural Solutions. I'm quite the traveler, but have never volunteered internationally before so I wasn't sure what to expect.
I was nervous when I arrived, but quickly saw I had nothing to worry about. The program manager was amazing and could not have been cooler to talk with. He wanted to make sure every volunteer not only had a good time, but a positive experience working so he was always around to answer any questions we had.
The organization took precaustins to ensure our safety such as posting a security guard outside the house 24/7 and we were driven to and from the orphanage we worked at.
The home we stayed in was incredible and really clean. Our three meals a day were always great and the staff who worked at the house was very friendly.
I highly recommend this program. It is expensive, but well worth the money. I've learned you get what you pay for with international volunteer organizations.
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I volunteered in Moshi Tanzania when I was only 17 years old and cannot emphasize who life changing the experience was. During my most impressionable years of growing up, this was by far the best way to spend a summer and was the most educational experience I have had. Homebase was very welcoming, the food was fantastic and the people at working there always wanted to ask questions, get to know us, and just talk to us. The other housemates were wonderful as well and yes they were younger, they still brought a lot to the table of making everyone's experience there better. We became a little family in a way. The cultural training sessions the first week were very informative of how to immerse yourself in the local culture, work with the locals and how to use yourself in an efficient way without throwing money at the locals. They taught us not to hand out money and that CCS doesn't hand out money because we as volunteers are there to help the locals come up with sustainable ways to help the local economy. The volunteer experience itself was the most valuable. I loved working with the kids at the school and then the orphanage with their school studies and just playing games and different activities. I wouldn't have had the volunteer experience any other way. I drew so much from this trip and still to this day think about what I saw and how I continue to grow as a person because of it. I highly recommend any trip to Tanzania because you, much like myself, will have the trip of a life time.
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I was a volunteer with CCS in Moshi, Tanzania for 9 weeks in the fall of 2009. I had a life changing experience there, but none of that was because of anything CCS did. The food was great, but everything else was terrible. There was no useful training about how to be an effectove volunteer. There was no teaching about how to promote sustainability so that subsequent volunteers could build on your accomplishments. From the perspective of the organizations and people in Moshi who are supposed to be helped by the CCS volunteers, it\'s just an endless parade of untrained, nonserious, 20-somethings from the West who have little to no impact on their lives. I made my stay meaningful because I spent 8 hours a day working to improve the health of the wonderful men and women I was working with. I missed CCS meals and cultural education because I was too busy fighting doctors and the medical establishment to get proper treatment for my clients. I was too busy interviewing my clients and documenting their needs and histories to party with the other volunteers and go on shopping expeditions. It was the most rewarding but hard work I ever did, but no thanks to CCS. My stay at the CCS homebase was eventually cut short because I could not tolerate my roommate who came home drunk most of the time, was abusive to staff, and had endless arguments with other volunteers. When he got drunk and physical with me one night, I left the homebase for good. Did CCS authorities expel him? No. Did they discipline him in any way? Well, they said he could only drink alcohol on weekends, which even if he complied with that edit, he could still be abusive to staff and volunteers 2 days a week. CCS authorities were too timid to provide a nurturing and safe environment for the volunteers. In the 18 months since I left CCS, it has come to my attention that the CCS-Tanzania country director, Thea Mushi, has engaged in shocking conflict of interest behaviors that have provided great financial benefit to herself at the expense of CCS volunteers and the integrity of the organization. Thea Mushi owns one of the two houses that is being rented by CCS in Moshi. Her house is located in the Karanga suburb of Moshi. She presumably was heavily involved in the recent decision to keep her house open year-round instead of the other house that is owned by nuns. This kind of thing should not be happening and severely undermines volunteer and alumni confidence in CCS. The Karanga house was closed on the same basis last year while the other house was kept open. That was a much more confidence-inspiring decision. Corruption is a big problem corruption is in Tanzania. Self-promoting decisions by CCS staff, such as conferring substantial financial benefits upon themselves, are very destructive.
I volunteered with Cross Cultural Solutions on November of 2010 in Costa Rica. I was extremely disappointed with my experience. They spend more time going over rules and policies (such as curfew and no drinking) and much less time over what you are there to do (volunteering.) It is run like a grossly overpriced Summer camp for toddlers. My program fee was $2200 for two weeks and I shared a room, complete with bunk beds with four other women. On our floor there were a total of fourteen women and we all shared one bathroom. The showers are downstairs and require you to walk through a common area in your towel, up a flight of stairs to get back to your room. The curfew and general rules are put in place, or so they tell you, for your safety. After two weeks I watched as four volunteers were sent home for violating rules with no refunds issued. Some of them had paid for 12 weeks and were only two weeks in! That's about $28,000, where does that money go? It certainly didn't go to the volunteer placements where we really were just glorified babysitters. At one placement there were three volunteers and two children...we were there for three hours. The whole thing seems incredibly corrupt. After your three hours of volunteering you have mandatory meetings and Spanish language classes. There is very little freedom and very little cultural experience. The staff was nice for the most part until I started asking questions. I was ready to leave after the first week. I would never, ever tell anyone to volunteer through CCS. I have volunteered all over the world and this, by leaps and bounds, was the worst experience I have ever had. I didn't feel good when I left, I felt like I had wasted two weeks of my life, and thousands of dollars, I felt like a fool.
I will answer any questions if anyone needs any other information. I hope this saves someone from making the same mistake I did.
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