Teaching, Women Empowerment, Medical & Disabled Care - India

From the preparation till my farewell at the share house the experience was amazing. Organisation was good, facilities excellent, camaraderie fantastic but the opportunity to do something worthwhile while one experienced another culture was the best part.

We had the BEST time whilst here! The rooms are good- clean and comfy! Thank you Sajna and Sanee. Worm telling people that their stuff may go moldy due to humidity- this is not a criticism :) The food is incredible - we absolutely love everything that the ladies cooked. My mouth is watering thinking about it. We only used Rickshaws and Ubers/taxis as transpo which were all great. George & Sebastian (the drivers for Munnar & backwaters) were Amazing!! Can’t recommend enough. The cleaning was really good and the incense smelt amazing! The staff was amazing! The girls were all really helpful whenever we needed and would go out of their way to help every day.

I am very satisfied with both the women's program & gathering for Raksha Schol. Both projects have been managed exceptionally well. The women's project has proven to be highly effective & impactful while the gathering efforts have provided valuable support & enhancement for Raksha School. I am also satisfied with the accommodation arrangements, the facilities were comfortable and well maintained. The living area was comfortable and a welcoming treat, the TV provided a nice excuse for some downtime. The food was truly exceptional. A huge credit to Saneera Sagria and Raneeka. Furthermore, the food provided an insightful understanding of the rich culture in Kerala. I have also felt very inspired to replicate some of the dishes at home. THANK YOU! The transport services were reliable, timely, and cost-effective. The rooms were cleaned in timely, but thorough manner. I particularly appreciated fresh bedding on the weekends. The mattresses were very comfy. Great staff support which helped ensure I had a positive experience. All staff were readily available and approachable. The WhatsApp chat is a great way to communicate quickly. I recommend to stay two nights in Mumna. The spice garden was very disappointing, the spice tour guide was extremely rude. The tea museums was also closed which was disappointing. Yoga, swimming, cafe hopping, art galleries, museums, walking to shopping, restaurants, cooking class & indigo dying were local and amazing. Highly recommend the cooking class and dying - SUPER!

Very satisfied. The housekeeping and cooking team are amazing, the food is delicious. Thank you Saneosa, Renuka and Sajna! Also thank you to Ridhi, Shamla, Fami and Reshma! <3 The accommodation was lovely; very clean and good location. The food was delicious, healthy, and varied. We mostly used public transport. The house is in a good location and was always nice and clean. Our drivers for our trips to Munaas and Backwaters were excellent. All the staff were very welcoming and helpful.

The medical project was really good. I was able to change departments if I wished I was able to observe procedures and understand cases. The women’s project was incredibly inspiring. The women were so kind and generous. Only improvement would be to ensure clear communication. Accommodation was clean and enjoyable. As a tall girl, I found the beds were too short for me, but other than that it was pleasant. Food provided was amazing and very billing. The chef’s were AMAZING and we could request food if we wanted. At the medical placement, I had to buy my own lunch, which got expensive, but otherwise okay. Transport to and from airport was good. However, I had to pay for uber to and from medical placement which was an hour away, and I was not prepared to pay so much in transport.

I went to Kerala, South India for a month to do volunteering “women’s empowerment”. It was best experience ever! Staff in the house were super lovely, friendly and helpful! I felt so welcoming! Missing everyone already! I highly recommend it!

The project was amazing the school and the staff I think volunteers should be given an hour or 2 to do activities that they plan each day. This would require communication from VHQ staff to the school due to minimal English. The accommodation had comfy beds and clean areas in the house. Staff always around cleaning Food is lovely, it's nice to my preference foods. Sometimes small portions due to others eating more or miscommunication to who's eating and who isn't. Good transport, quite expensive compared to an Uber, But more reliable. Friendly drivers.

It was a unique experience. It was a month of full new experiences, new culture, new people, new faces and smiles! I had an amazing staff and other volunteers that always had made this experience even more pleasant!

Dear all of you wonderful people who make volunteering journeys so special... Thank you thank you thank you. This has felt like my my home and you have become like my Indian family! I will never forget the happy times with my lovely, energetic, adorable, sassy kids at the school and my week with the wauen-watching then blossom with confidence. I'll cherish these memories of fun, laughter, and lots of tears (sorry! haha) I love you all!

It was great working with the different schools and seeing the differences in how they run their schools and the differences between SA and Kerala's system. It's really hard to see that some of the kids at DBha School don't have people that are trained to work with them. Every school was welcoming and grateful for what we were doing for the children. I enjoyed every moment and hoped it helped in some way. The accommodation was sufficient, It has everything we needed. The cleaning was fine, a lot of the time it was just volunteers being untidy and needing to clean up after themselves. The food was interesting and different to what I am used to. Very wholesome and fresh, spicy at times but really good. For transportation, I still need to learn to clap to call a tuk tuk. But overall good experience and seeing the none tourist areas when going to the schools was great too. The staff support was super duper fantastic... always willing to go the extra mile! Tours and excursions were really amazing. (Backwaters and Toddy excursions). I loved the yoga here and ayuverda massage, it was an experience I won't forget. The yoga - I learnt a lot.

Dear ladies, This has truly been an incredible experience getting to know you and spend time with you. I can't thank you enough for welcoming me in with such kindness an dI am so lucky to have met all of you. I hope this is not goodbye forever that I will see you all again some day. Thank you for the memories, thank you for making me feel at home, and thank you for everything else as well. P.S. It has been such an honor to work with the students teachers. I love their beautiful brains and hearts. I've included a small donation (wish I could give more but its all I have left and I would love a copy of their magazine to see what wonderful things they do if its not too much trouble.

Hi my name is Will Le Heuze,a 17 year old student who had just finished his first year of A-levels, and I decided to do some volunteering overseas. I had had quite a few assemblies at school with different volunteer companies but volunteering journeys stood out the most for what I want to do. So I booked everything and was put in touch with Geetha, we exchanged a few emails, about how I was getting to the hostel from the airport and what I should wear, which was very comforting especially as I was young of age and hadn't traveled alone before. After landing down in Kochi airport, I was getting a little nervous, but after getting through security and collecting my bag, there was a man with a sigh saying my name and volunteering journeys, which was a relieve. He took me straight to the hostel for my first encounter Geetha and her team. They totally understood the condition I was in and just showed me room and let me go to sleep. Once I woke up, around 3pm there time, they had prepared some food for me and Geetha sat me down with another new volunteer and gave us an introduction presentation, she then gave some suggestions on what we should do on our day off to make the most of our time I time in India. So Lucy (the other new volunteer) and I found ourselves on a river boat in the back waters of Kochi, the following day. Geetha also booked us in for a trip to Munnar tea plantation which was stunning. During my time volunteering in Kerela I switched from the pre-medical programme to the teaching English programme, which again Geetha and her team were very supportive and helped as much as they could. The overall accommodation as been great with breakfast and lunch included (even if they were a little spicy), nice western style rooms and great communal area to just chill out with the other volunteers. However there has been a few negatives in the terms that that the showers were cold and the beds hard, but if all the negatives I can say about my trip to Kerela I believe I can safely say I have had a wonderful trip and would thoroughly recommend to anyone willing to volunteer abroad.

Kerala, was always going to be the highlight of our 5 weeks in India, I just knew it, and guess what? It didn't disappoint me. When I say we found the light, I mean that in so many ways. Literally, the light was soft and the sunsets were spectacular as the sun dipped below the skyline over the Indian Ocean. Figuratively ,the light was everywhere, it radiated from people, drew us into cafes and shops, and then tumbled us back out onto the unhurried pedestrian roads for more adventures and laughs in this beautiful city. We arrived at the VJ house late at night in mid-March after a tough couple of weeks in Kolkata, ready to get stuck and have an adventure while we worked with the Women's empowerment program. Kerala though would have none of that, and after meeting our glorious girls, Geetha, Medhu and Gina, and four other volunteers early on Saturday, we began a weekend that seemed to go on forever! Food is a big part of life in Kerala, and Gina is a superb cook, spoiling all volunteers at breakfast and lunch. It seemed important to enjoy your weekends, and every effort was made to ensure everyone had plans in place to do just that. We opted for a trip down south to the backwaters, but not on a houseboat, instead visiting Philipkutty Farm, and feasting on the truely inspired food, cooked by owner Anu, and her family. Riding back on the bus, the light did magic tricks again, or maybe I was just blissed out on what may be the best food I have ever eaten! OK, we did start work on Monday, but true to their word, the staff here make sure you are well set up as volunteers with time to plan, and a cupboard full of resources. We mostly paired up, as everyone knows that it's more fun that way, and headed out to the various sites, ours being the women's empowerment class. I am yet to be convinced that we as volunteers give more than we receive, as every day with VJ, I was challenged and every evening I reflected on how much I had learned, ( or how much light had shone on me!) However meeting these amazing women, 6 each morning, and another 4 each afternoon, I felt that it really mattered to them that we had come to spend time in their world. As many of them had tertiary degrees, ( Kerala has the highest literacy in India), and good English, we involved them in lesson planning, and ended up focusing on speaking. We worked towards doing presentations by the end of the week, and had many laughs, shared food, and all around enlightenment! I loved every moment everywhere in Fort Kochi, and am so glad I found the light!