Sankalp Volunteer Society India

I was there in august of 2014. It was a great experience teaching english and maths to childs that live in risk of social exclusion, although another volunteers were working in an orphanate and another programs that the NGO gets you to chose. It was a invaluable experience because you can learn how that culture and religion are, and how those people live. The NGO provide you tasteful vegetarian food and bring you everyday to your workcenter where you will work 4 hours, the rest of the day you will can enjoy the live in Jaipur.
Don't miss this opportunity to rise your awareness and your knowledge enjoy helping people!

I had attended the 2015 summer program and really enjoyed it. I wanted to make a review for the program, say some things about my stay, India itself, and tips for first time abroad travelers.
I was using the Verizon 3G network and had lots of coverage, more so than anyone else in my group. If you are doing just brief calling and texting I wouldn’t worry about an international plan at all. But I ended up unexpectedly using a lot of my data coverage for navigating my way through the city with Google maps, as well as finding places of interest and doing quick Google searches on something. You can very easily use up 100 meg and I would suggest getting on some kind of international plan if possible.
For my 3 week stay, I applied for the Visa on Arrival which was very easy and didn’t have a problem getting it. When you go through customs, I just said that I was doing sight seeing and where I was going. They advise in advance not to say that you are doing volunteering as this requires a different visa and is a more difficult process to go through. You might have to check if you need a visa for doing international transfers in a particular country but in China you did not need one. When it comes to travel insurance you usually can tack on some for a little extra if you go with an online travel agency like priceline, Travelocity, Orbtiz…etc.
One major problem that I had was using the ATM machines. They were not reliable at all and most of the people in our group had issues withdrawing money at one point or another. You have to make sure that you are withdrawing from an international bank and not a state bank (you can do a wiki search on the list of banks in India for reference). Unfortunately in the process of discovering this I was blocked out of my account after repeated attempts and had to call my bank to have them unblock my card or wait 24 hours to try again. I only was able to withdrawal money once during my 3 week stay there. It's better just to bring a big wad of cash to last you the whole time as unadvisable as many people say not to do. You can bring credit cards but most merchants, rickshaws, restaurants, and eating areas will not accept them. It was a frustrating experience to have and am glad that I brought enough to survive my trip as I would have been in trouble otherwise. In general, food costs about an average of 250 rupees at a restaurant plus or minus one hundred for a meal with 150-250 for one way rickshaw rides. Higher end restaurants will cost more in the 500 range for a meal. Clothes are also in a 150-250 price range. 3,000-4,000 rupees a week is fine for food, transportation and other purchases though you could get by with less if you just stayed at the guest house.
The heat during the summer was relentlessly uncomfortable. I had to constantly keep a rag around my neck to wipe the sweat out of my face on a regular basis. I could literally just be sitting doing absolutely nothing and be sweating. Most of us after our volunteering activities had to take a cold shower afterwards. I would visit India again but not during the summer.
Pranay handles all of the e-mails and was really awesome in responding to all of my messages and questions that I had. I was really concerned about my first time abroad and wanted to make sure that it was a legitimate organization. There are a number of similar volunteering in India organizations and I wanted to stick with a more reputable one based on the reviews I was reading. He provided me with 6 different references of people who had all done the program before and I exchanged e-mails with them before I committed to it myself. During our meeting in person though he seemed rather disinterested in our group and lacked a kind of proactive engagement to get to know everyone. It was almost as if he was kind of bored with his mind elsewhere, but he was still kind and polite if you spoke with him. All of our guides were really great, spoke with everyone, and made sure we were all together. Our pick up and drop off tour drivers were good for the most part but could not speak English enough to answer any questions we had which was difficult. This can also be unnerving when you don’t know where you are going and traveling down dark alleys in slum like areas. It's also weird when they drive in the opposite direction on the roads, constantly open the door to expectorate, and honk at everyone and everything that is in their path. A behavior pattern I didn’t find out until much later in my trip to actually be normal for their culture…
The tourist companies provided by Sankalp will take you directly to where you need to go and know the locations of all the places. Many rickshaw drivers do not however and will take you to jewelry stores and textile shops (places where they are paid by to get more customers) or request more tips for taking you to tourist sites. Choosing to go along with them is up to you but most of us were not interested and found the experience frustrating.
I was volunteering with the Street Kids and found the experience to be absolutely fine with no problems whatsoever. I regularly volunteer in the U.S. and fully understand all of the logistical problems that come with it. During my stay there were a few people volunteering at the orphanage who openly disagreed with the way the program was run and wrote a lengthy document expressing their disapproval. These particular individuals were not with our summer program and I only heard through the grape vine that there was some heated arguments which ended in their termination of stay at the guest house. I know from experience that this can happen as many volunteers can be overly aggressive. Don’t fall into this trap. If you have a problem, do not write a lengthy document stating the problems. Simply make an inquiry into the areas of concern and schedule a meeting for conversation. One thing that would have been good would have been to ask the level of experience a person has in dealing with kids and volunteering so that there could be a proper placement. For some it was easy but for others it was a first time experience which made things unnecessarily difficult.
The Himalayan hiking was definitely more than I think a lot of us had expected. Two people from the previous group had ended up getting sick and were not able to make it. And two of our own people where having a really difficult time with it but were able to make it to the Triund Lodge with some encouragement from the group and our guide. You definitely need some hiking experience and don’t try it without at least some level of physical conditioning, especially if you have never been in a high altitude location before.
I would have definitely liked a confirmation e-mail sent to communicate an expectation of arrival and last things to consider and think about. Such as (make sure to bring a travel adapter, or name of person who is doing the pickup). Traveling all the way to the other side of the world to an organization that you are not familiar with is a big commitment and I just felt that the communication when it came to this was a little too loose for my taste. Sometimes, like on the visit to Pushkar, we were just sort of left in a city to do whatever without much guidance as to where to go or how to get there. It would have been nice to get more direction or a traveling map on these visits but we seemed to manage it ok without any. One last thing was the age differences. Most of the people there at the guest house were around their late teens and early 20s. Given that I was 30, I was roughly 10 years older than anyone else which was kind of isolating in a way. I don’t know why there wasn’t a more diverse age group but if you are looking for people to talk and socialize with that are in your generation I would check in advance to see what the ages of the people are. When it comes to the program as a whole, it didn’t really blow me away but I trust and would recommend them to anyone interested in visiting India for the first time.