I volunteered at a local primary school in rural Kenya with Madventurer and I had an amazing time. The organisation was brilliant before I had even got to Kenya I knew what to expect and what was going to be happening such as emergency contact details, a complenetary airport pick-up from the Mad staff so you knew you wouldn't be alone when you arrived. The organisation once I got there was just as good and they really let you know how things were going to work. The staff were so friendly, hard working and we all had so much fun.
I didn't want to leave after my 2 weeks were up, I wish I had chosen the do a longer project as it was incredible. You do volunteer work, meet incredible people and have immense fun at the same time. I recommend it to anyone, you feel so looked after especially if the trip is the first time you are going to be travelling far away.
Madventurer
If you want to truly help people then Mad probably isnt the option for you. If you want a lightweight 'safe' experience and don't care about international development then Mad IS for you.
This review doesn't say that it isnt fun to travel with Mad, simply to point out that they are a travel agent with a sham development charity. Their projects are like high-tech missiles, fire-and-forget.
Comments
Hello all,
I spent six weeks in Fiji with Madventurer volunteering in a primary school. It was a good experience and the staff were great. A downside was it was coming to the end of the season so the Mad house wasn't as full as it had been previously. But the crew members living there made it a good experience all the same and helped me to book a weeks trip 'island hopping' around the other Fijian islands. I am now back home and am completing an assignment on the company for university. If anyone has any exeperiences of this company and would like to tell me about them and answer a few queations, please email me on kelly_mcpherson1@hotmail.com.
Thanks
I was horribly disappointed with my Madventurer volunteer experience, and for many different reasons:
-- the volunteer trip started two days late, but they did nothing to accommodate us while we waited for them to sort out their problems
-- the trip was overbooked, so there were too many volunteers and not enough tools or work for everyone
-- they gave us broken shovels that they borrowed from locals, and did not buy a single new shovel with the tens of thousands of dollars they received in total from all volunteers on this project. I would have brought my own shovel had they simply asked!
-- they said that we would be working in an extremely poor community, but we stayed in a house that had electricity and many of our neighbors had satellite dishes, nice cars, and electric fences surrounding their big houses
-- they promised that we would have an opportunity to meet with local women and assist them with business development, but there was not a single opportunity to do this
-- the project was poorly managed and our time was wasted. For example, they dropped bricks off a hundred feet away from our build site instead of driving down another road and dropping them off just twenty feet away. When I pointed out this inefficiency, the group leader said "well, we need more work for the extra volunteers anyway". Umm.... no, I didn't travel to Africa to do busy work, but actually came here to make a difference.
-- There was a new school building that was not being used because it was missing window coverings. Rather than spend our time and money on this, the group leader wanted us to pain a mural instead. Why? These children don't need pictures, they need classrooms!
-- there were two little boys in the school who would carry the same desk back and forth from classroom to classroom. Meanwhile, there was a new classroom full of desks that was being used as the lunch room for the teachers and volunteers. There were many more desks than needed in this new, unused classroom, so simply no need for these two boys to keep moving the same desk back and forth. When I pointed out that these two boys could spend more time studying if we just moved one of these desks to the other classroom, the group leader told me that "we shouldn't get involved." Why?! I came here to get involved!
-- the group leader did not speak Swahili and could not negotiate any of the project specifications with the locals (or help us to reach to others in the community)
-- they bought one can of paint and proceeded to water it down so much that it took at least ten coats to cover a wall when only two should have been needed. I read the directions on the can, and told them that they were watering it down too much. The group leader again said, "This is how they do it here." Okay... and they are a developing nation, so do you think that maybe they need some help from those of us who actually understand efficiency?
There were 14 to 20 volunteers on this one project, most of us standing around while a couple of people worked with the few lousy tools provided. It was a poor use of many good people's time, and we ultimately did little to help this community. A total disappointment.
Comments
I went to Ghana with these guys and thought that they were great, from the first phone call to the reunion ball that they put on in Newcastle a couple of months after I got back to the UK they really seemed to go the extra mile for us volunteers.
In Ghana I was staying in a small village with seven other guys from the UK and one Canadian, my time was split between teaching and helping to build a new classroom. We had good support from one of the Madventurer crew on the ground and they were happy to recommend places to visit at weekends and point us in the direction of a good bar in Accra.
I have recommended Madventurer to all my friends at Uni and have no doubt anyone reading this review would be looked after by these guys.
