I'm hoping to volunteer teaching English with Travel to Teach in Samara, Costa Rica later this year. It all looks legitimate to me but it'd be great if anyone has already worked with this group or knows someone who has, so I could find out if it's as good as it sounds. Any other advice about travelling to Latin America would be greatly appreciated too. Thanks!
2
neeve
cool thanks, it looks amazing!! though i'm particularly lookin for info on the Travel to Teach organisation...
3
beachesfromcanada
Do not know anyhting about "volunteer" organization in Samara, but have worked as an English teacher in Nicaragua for a year, and I am now a volunteer English teacher for a native organization in the Ngobe Comarca in Panama (somewhat more primitive than Samara, and in the mountainous jungle, not the beach). See the volunteer page of the org site:
http://medo.awardspace.com/index.htm<BR>
4
k_massiel
That's very good that you want to volunteer, I could tell you about Nicaragua, not about Costa Rica, I know about an association that could help you there in Nicaragua, if you are interested, you could email Brady Dunklee at beto@atraves.org, he is the general director of the association and he could inform you about the topics you want to know about. it is a really good option, i have worked with them and they offer you good volunteering options, also they give you the chance to design your own plan and schedule, think about it and decide.
5
neeve
Cool, thanks for the info about volunteering in other places, I'll take it on board if I decide to travel there :)
6
jessnflorida
Sorry, don't know about Travel-to-teach, but I would like to warn others about a very unscrupulous organization that unfortunately, I know firsthand about in Samara. Beware of Volunteer Visions in Samara on the Pacific Coast (volunteervisions.org)!! Lawrence Woo, the 23 yr old guy who founded this business 7 months ago uses volunteers' money to fund he & his friends stay in this beautiful beach community (a community which is doing fine without any help!). There are 8 of us down here currently & no one is doing work that was promised on volunteer visions glitzy, very professional-looking website.
Don't give up on volunteering, but make sure to work with a known quantity--followup on references & talk to the people running it. Even in this you need to be careful, Lawrence invites his friends down as "interns' & they post glowing experience reports where ever they can.
Lawrence Woo (again, said owner of said volunteer visions business) expects volunteers to pay 90 days before a project, supposedly so he can "setup the project". In Costa Rica, everything is done last minute. In actuality, his 90 day requirement allows him to get around Paypal & Visa's time periods for filing disputes. Lawrence Woo does not give refunds. We know. We asked for one. Two other volunteers have asked since we've been here. They left empty handed as well.
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