Sankalp Volunteer Society India

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8.6 / 10 after 189 Reviews Based on overall, support & value average ratings

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I volunteered with Sankalp for 4 month (January-May 2014) in Jaipur and worked there in the orphanage. It took me some time to write this review, and to find the right words for everything. First of all I want to say that altogether I had a great experience in Jaipur, the children in the orphanage were amazing, and I would definitely do it again! There are positive and negative aspects about the organization, and I will try to write everything down.
It took me several weeks to find some good and affordable volunteering organizations. I finally chose Sankalp, because I`ve read some really good reviews about the organization, and it was not as expensive as other volunteer programs. I always got an answer via e-mail from Sankalp within one or two days, explaining me everything I had to know! At the airport in Jaipur I had to call Amita from the organization because the driver was not there, but after some time he picked me up and took me to the volunteer house! I felt comfortable immediately.
The accommodation in Jaipur was really very good! There are nice rooms and a great rooftop terrace, and the house is really clean and nice! Well, the cleanliness of the rooms and the kitchen is mainly dependent on the volunteers, and sometimes it was just impossible to make all volunteers washing their own dishes. Nevertheless, the house was really nice, and I felt safe and comfortable immediately! The house gave me the opportunity to feel a bit like home in such a different country like India! The lovely cook Puni always brought a very positive atmosphere into the house, and she cooked amazing food for us (lunch and dinner)!! The food is always vegetarian, not too spicy and absolutely trustworthy.

There are several rules for volunteers, and in the first 3 months I was always fine with them. We had to be back by 9pm every evening, the lights (and TV) in the common rooms had to be switched off by 11pm (to avoid noise for volunteers who want to go to bed earlier), and the air condition was not turned on before 10.30pm. There was a rule which said that we were not allowed to attend yoga classes (or anything like that) within 5km distance of the house, to avoid strange people following us. But for me this rule didn`t make sense, because nearly every person and every rickshaw driver in this area knew our volunteer house anyway. It made it difficult for us to do activities like this in the afternoons, because going to a yoga class far away and pay 400R for every single rickshaw ride made it just too expensive. Nevertheless, I chose an organization like Sankalp on purpose, because I really wanted to feel safe when I go to India alone for such a long time. So in general I was fine with the rules, because it made me feel better that someone realizes if you are not back in the evening. I guess in my last month I just got a cabin fever, and the rule to be back by 9pm every day got a bit annyoing. Most of the time I didn`t plan anyway to stay outside of the house longer, but sometimes it was difficult to have a stress-free dinner in a restaurant with this curfew. I think this rule shouldn`t be there on, for example, Sundays, because sometimes when we travelled in the weekend we had to take a train back on Sunday early morning and missed a whole day of sightseeing. Maybe they can offer to send a driver to the train station when volunteers come back a bit later, to still make sure that everyone comes back safe. Probably everyone would be happy to pay for that! In my 4 month stay the curfew was sometimes more and sometimes less strict, this made it also a bit confusing for me.
Well, altogether I think when you stay there for only 2,3,4,...weeks, the rules shouldn`t be an issue at all. We all came there for volunteering and doing something good, so it is good to adapt a bit to the rules of the house. I just had problems with the rules after being there for so long, because the rules (being back by 9pm and being not allowed to get close to Indian people or neighbours) made it difficult to get to know the real culture.
Nevertheless, altogether I think it is good that you can feel safe there, because there is someone who makes sure that everyone comes back to the house safely. So even if some volunteers were annoyed by the rules sometimes, I think it is the only way to take care of such a big group of people!
So if you want to feel safe and are a bit worried or scared of going to India alone, then Sankalp is definitely the right choice for you! If you want to explore India by yourself and do whatever you want in you free time, then you shoud maybe look for something else.

The most important part was the work in the orphanage. This was definitely a very rewarding experience for me! Before I started working, I`ve heard horror stories from the other volunteers who worked there, about women hitting the kids with a stick and about the bad conditions there. First I was shocked that Sankalp supports an orphanage like that and hires staff who hits the kids. But in the orientation I came to know that it is a government orphanage, and that Sankalp cannot change the conditions or the staff in the orphanage- they can only send volunteers there, to make life for the kids a bit easier. When I went to the orphanage first, I didn`t look at the bad things at all. I was only focused on the kids, who were so excited and happy when we came. This was the best thing of every day: seeing the shining eyes and the smile of the children when the volunteers arrived – the only people who hugged them, kissed them and payed attention to them in a positive way. Yes, the conditions in the orphanage were indeed bad, but in India I think it can be even worse. I think as a volunteer it is much easier to focus on the fact that these kids get clothes and food there, they get washed and stay inside a house – a better life for them than staying on the streets on their own. But still, I think it could be so much nicer there for the kids! The children (1-7 years old) sleep in one room, and are locked there in the morning until the washing starts. It was definitely not good for them to be put together in this age range, because some of the older boys were aggressive sometimes, and just didn`t know how to treat the babies. The disabled kids were the poorest ones, because they were seriously treated like non-human-beings!
In the mornings we helped the staff to wash the children and dress them. Then we had time to “play” with them. This was really difficult, because they had no toys! Well, the orphanage had toys, but they didn`t give them to the kids…who knows why!! The problem was that the children were not used to toys, so they didn`t even know how to play with them. When we once got toys from Sankalp for the orphanage, the kids were fighting for the toys and broke them, or even threw them out of the window. Another really bad thing was that the children were not allowed to leave the house, or even the floor they stayed on. There was kind of a garden outside, but the kids were never allowed to go there. This was really sad, because sometimes the children just didn`t know what to do with their energy, they couldn`t run around or play under the sun. I hope that Sankalp has the influence one day to change that, and that there are enough volunteers to maybe split the children and just take small groups of them outside. Here I have to mention that most of the time we were only 2 volunteers in the orphanage, and there are so many more volunteers needed for this project!!
Around noon we also helped to feed the kids. In general our working time was from 8.30 – 12.00, and even when the free afternoons were a bit boring for me sometimes, I was totally exhausted after these 3 ½ hours. I always tried to understand the way how the staff handled the kids. I know that the Indian culture is different, and that using sticks or slapping the kids is still common in some parts of India, at home and in schools. Nevertheless, this was the most difficult thing for me to accept! The women who worked there were in general a bit rough, and they didn`t handle the children with kid gloves. I think the major problem is that we all come from a probably nice childhood and have a lot of sympathy with the orphans in such a home, so we just want to hug them and kiss them and take them home! But for the women who worked there, these kids also have to learn discipline and have to be prepared for a life in which probably no one will ever handle them with kid gloves. These women also came from a lower life standard, and I think that their way was just the way they learnt, and the way they treat their own children. So I always tried to see these women not as "monsters", but as women who just don`t know better. But coming from the western world, in which “discipline a child with corporal violence” – even if it is “just” a slap on the back – is extincted since around 40 years, it was very hard and sad for every volunteer to accept this. Once I saw a man who worked in the orphanage office, hitting two boys, and I stopped him and told him that this is wrong, and that there is never a reason to hit a child, not matter what the child did. After that, Pranay from Sankalp told us that we are not allowed to intervene in something like that anymore, because with this behaviour we risk to get kicked out from the orphanage. This made me very sad, and I felt like not fighting for the same thing with the organization I worked for, and that even the organization may also see "slapping a child" as the best way to discipline it. This was the time when I started being not sure about the whole organization anymore, because I realized that we just had different opinions about how to deal with a child. I just hope that one day everyone in the world will learn and know that there are other ways how to discipline a child! The kids in the orphanage were aggressive sometimes and hit each other, because this is the only way they learn. You cannot expect that the children behave well, when no one ever explains them why some things are right and others wrong. When their only punishment is a slap, than they will never understand why their behaviour is bad.
Still, I think that Amita and Pranay try to do their best and only want the best for the children. I am sure that they only want the best for these kids. I just think that they have another, maybe for us "old-fashioned", way of thinking.

Well, I just can tell everyone who wants to volunteer- and really wants to do something good- go to the orphanage wehere I was! And don`t look at the bad things. As sad as it is: you cannot change the way how the kids are treated, you cannot change the mind of the women who work there - you just can make the life of the children a little bit better. With the volunteers these children will learn how it is to feel loved. Every single volunteer is so much needed there! Most of all the disabled children need so much love and care! But with only 2 volunteers and 30 children full of energy, which all want to sit on you and play with you, it is nearly impossible to also take care of the disabled ones. After being in the orphanage for so long I really felt that I have done something meaningful, and I hope that many more volunteers will help in the orphanage!

I want to recommend Sankalp, because I had a really good time there! India is an amzing country, and I never made any bad experience or felt unsafe.
There are one or two things I want to mention:
- the car for the volunteers should have seat belts (this is probably the most important point when it comes to "safety"!)
- no volunteer should be forced to do a project. When someone can not deal with the orphange mentally, then it doesn`t help to force the volunteer to go there. Even if we got there to do something good and volunteer, everyone should also enjoy this experience a bit.

Thank you fpr the great experience!

Program:
Location:
Posted: August 23, 2014
Overall:
8
Support:
7
Value:
7
By: LisIndia
Age:
27

This is a review I've written and submitted to people who have contacted me; concerned fathers for their daughters were predominately the people who reached out to me. I was happy to submit this review to them, particularly seeing as how both myself and my parents held similar reservations about virtually any program we didn’t directly know someone who had attended.

I’m a 24 year old female, was 23 at the time of the program, and live in LA now. I've studied in both Germany and Morocco, and traveled internationally by myself many times. Because of this my parents were more willing to trust my decision; however, as the program date got closer, I became nervous that it was a scam, fraud, etc. Not the case at all. There’s a cultural difference in communication which lends them to having a rather “hands-off” approach to communication, or rather, the level of communication isn’t up to Western standards. This doesn’t mean it’s not a great program. Pranay and Amita founded the NGO together when they were 21 (they’re married), and truly believe in what they’re doing. I cannot praise the both of them enough.

They contract drivers to shuttle the volunteers to the program sites, and the in-volunteer-house cook, Puni, is not only a wonderful cook, but a wonderful person. Nobody got sick while eating at the volunteer house as the cooks are very sensitive to what volunteers’ stomachs may or may not be used to. Pranay and I had corresponded via email and arranged for him to book my first night in a hotel (he even made the hotel recommendation), and arranged transportation and paid both the hotel and driver from the airport (for which I reimbursed him for later, of course). He even had the driver from the airport phone him when I was in the vehicle, and spoke with me over the driver’s phone to let me know that this was the legitimate driver, and to which hotel we were going. This was above and beyond in my eyes.

I was pleasantly surprised at the volunteer house facilities. The rooms had ac from 11:00pm to 6:00am (I attended the summer, Jaipur program), and there’s actually a western style bathroom. There’s even a brief orientation in which they give the breakdown of cost percentages of your program fee, and how much actually goes to those in need. I don’t remember the percentage off the top of my head, but it is a large one.
I did the Women’s Empowerment Summer Program, and at the beginning of the program, everyone has a chance to change their program after learning about all of them. There are many nationalities, and I was only one of three Americans, which made the program a blast. Essentially all programs, government school, street kids, women’s empowerment, and orphanage work are all just teaching English. Just in different locations. This was such a challenge, but so very rewarding and a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

On another note, Pranay and Amita don’t go on weekend excursions with you, though Pranay goes on the week-long summer program excursion with everyone. He’s young (about 28) and a lot of fun. The age demographic was that of self-sufficient, early to late (mostly those out of university) 20-something year olds.

I’ve done four overseas program (none volunteer though, Sankalp was my first), and while the organization to this one is perhaps the worst, the heart of the people and customer service is the best. Other volunteers and I did come to the conclusion that, from an organizational perspective, there was a Western bias and expectation that we held. I think the existential thought most people held was “who am I to come into a culture with little-to-zero legitimacy and still think I can make a difference?” This is incredibly valid, but once you’re there and complete the program, you realize that the point isn’t to teach them English fluently, it’s not to build a curriculum (which is virtually impossible because no structure exists, nor are we there for years), but just to keep the kids and young adults interested in schooling and learning. That, rather, is what I took out of it.

Program:
Location:
Posted: July 22, 2014
Overall:
9
Support:
9
Value:
9
By: Barre119
Age:
24

Well, hello. I'm sure you're reading this because you're considering volunteering in India. Let me just start off by saying that I would love to go back and volunteer with Sankalp again in the future. I would like to say that this volunteer organization is trustworthy and provides great opportunities for memorable experiences. Here is a quick review based on my personal experience in Jaipur while volunteering with the Street Children Program.

Plus:
-Friendly and personable staff at the volunteer house
-Respectful and understanding directors of the program
-Great group of kids and rewarding experience
-Semi "strict" rules at the house but it shows that the program cares about your well being
-Orientation was informative
-Food was delicious (home cooked two times a day)
-Rides to and from work daily

Delta:
-Was not given any information in regards to the curriculum that was supposed to be taught/what was taught already
-Informed not to bring any additional resources for teaching but content based resources were not provided

Be ready for an adventure and be willing to put in extra work to figure out what to teach. However, if you need any materials (as far as school supplies), don't hesitate to ask the program directors (or consider bringing things to donate). Although many times things seemed a bit unorganized (as far as how the school was run, what to teach, etc.) it was a rewarding experience and a great opportunity to meet and work with kind people.

Program:
Location:
Posted: July 18, 2014
Overall:
7
Support:
7
Value:
9
Age:
24

I had a wonderful time volunteering for four weeks with Sankalp. I stayed in Jaipur in the volunteer house run by Amita and Pranay. They were gracious and welcoming hosts, always open to our ideas, and always interested in a dialogue on what we were up to in our classrooms and how we could improve the students' experiences. The volunteer house was comfortable, clean, and the food was AMAZING.

I highly recommend the program. It is up to you, though, to make it as amazing as you want it to be. The only complaints I heard were from volunteers who didn't want to put in the extra time to make lesson plans. They wanted Sankalp to provide them with what they were to cover and when. Instead of waiting for other people to tell you what to do, I recommend coming up with your own ideas. The internet is full of resources, including lesson plans, exercises, quizzes, flash cards, games, etc. that you can use to teach ESL to beginning learners. Use these resources! They're a great help. I had never taught young children before and these online resources helped me a great deal. Also if you're willing to come up with cool ideas to improve the school, Sankalp is really excited to hear them. This is where I really, really appreciated Pranay and Amita. My sister and I volunteered together and we asked if we could spend our free time painting the school. Amita and Pranay were not only really supportive of our idea, but went out and got us all the supplies to complete our project. They even went out of their way to drive us to the school on their own time so we could paint when the school wasn't even supposed to be open.

I love this program and I highly recommend it. As two single girls traveling abroad, it was nice to have Sankalp on the other end of our journey to India. We were picked up at the airport in Delhi and driven by a private driver to Jaipur. It was all organized for us in advance of our arrival, so it was all really easy, which was nice after our flight from Minnesota. Amita and Pranay also help you organize weekend travel plans if you want (and you're free to make your own travel plans if you want to be completely independent too!). They give great advice on how to stay safe when you're out playing tourist and provide a wonderful house to come home to at night.

Program:
Location:
Posted: July 16, 2014
Overall:
10
Support:
10
Value:
10
By: Sarah B
Age:
25

Comments

Hi there, I am very interested in learning more about this organization through the eyes of another volunteer and was wondering if you had time to answer a few questions. -What did a typical day look like for you? Was there a lot of down time where you felt you did not really have a chance to be active within the organization or was there a lot of opportunities to stay active and involved? I read another volunteer said you can take on two volunteer roles(one in the morning and in the afternoon if you so choose, is that correct?) -Was there a lot of direction and instruction for volunteers on their contributing roles? Or was it quite flexible and left up to the volunteers to navigate? Was there any training or orientation for volunteers? -Did you have prior teaching expeience? Was there a lot of direction and instruction for volunteers on a specific teaching curriculum to follow? How did you go about making lesson plans? -What was the surrounding city environment like? Was it safe? Was it friendly and welcoming? Are there any specific places you would suggest I visit in the surrounding area? -What were the main sources of food you were served?.. I have an allergy to wheat and dairy so the diet is my biggest concern. -Are there any particular pros and/or cons you think would be helpful to share about your experience with this organization?..I read that under Sankalp's policy you are not able to interact with the locals in the area, is this true? Thank you SO much in advance, your insight is greatly appreciated and will really help in allowing me to decide if this is the right organization for me:) My email is gemini_88@msn.com!

This was my second time volunteering in Jaipur, India. Yet again it was an amazing experience! I was volunteering in the orphanage, every day was fantastic, the children are utterly amazing in their own right and the relationship that you can build with both the children and the staff who work there is something really special. I was in Jaipur for 12 weeks and saying goodbye to the children was one of the hardest things! I didn't think it was even possible to become so emotionally attached to children!! However as a whole I solely recommend the orphanage project to anyone of any age and believe that Sankalp is a fantastic organization and that they have their hearts in the right place. I will definitely be going back again and can’t wait until I do!

The accommodation is very comfortable and relaxing with all the facilities that you need. The rooms, washrooms, kitchen, everything is bigger and cozy than previous volunteer house, it’s providing a good place to relax and chill out as well. The food was to a high standard and was constantly varying which is great.

But this time the volunteer house was not having a great atmosphere as before because few of our fellow volunteers were uncomfortable with the set rules. It made me little disappointed but for me all the rules are for my security and I am glad that I followed all the rules this time as well. India is a very different country from the place where I am from. Other thing, don’t take me wrong, many people think volunteering is place to have fun all the time and very few take it seriously and work hard.

Finally I want to say, we got everything from Sankalp that we required as a volunteer. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in doing something meaningful!!!

Program:
Location:
Posted: June 29, 2014
Overall:
10
Support:
10
Value:
10
By: Sngh
Age:

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