Volunteerhq Reviews

There were not enough Senior volunteers to relate to Made the experience less satisfying the lodgings although very nice were too far away from the city center The food provided the volunteers at dinner was insipid The commercial menu was far superior for Xtra money We were in Italy They should have done better The work project was fine I was happy to do it

Business above cause Pros IVHQ is well organized Cons is NOT a nonprofit organization and as such it seeks to make money at any cost This includes double charging while taking advantage or using of volunteers who are genuinely looking to contribute to society

IVHQ is a company owned by an Equity Management fund whose core business is generating profit If your interest is Voluntary work go to a non-profit voluntary organisation for an adventure holiday use an adventure holiday company Stick with organisations whose core business is providing the service you want

I spent 3 weeks in Chios to volunteer with special needs students The island was so beautiful and the friends that I met there were unforgettable As much fun as I had in Greece there is one reason I would not go back to volunteer for the program there and that is the head director in Greece This is only my experience with the director but I can assure you that none of the interactions I had with him were positive I had met the head director twice during my time in Chios and both times that I met him were not pleasant The first time I met him was my first full day in Chios I had just gotten back to the house from my orientation and was the only one at the house since all the other volunteers were at work Unfortunately during my orientation they forgot to tell me that the house had an alarm They also forgot to tell me the code to disarm the alarm So when I got home the alarm went off As soon as the alarm started going off I immediately called Maria to figure out how to disarm the alarm since I was not told during my orientation As soon as I got on the phone with Maria the head director walked in to the house at the time I did not know he was the head director He started to raise his voice at me asking me why I set off the alarm I informed him that no one had told me the code to shut the alarm off I was still on the phone with one of the co directors while we were having this conversation and the director asked who I was on the phone with and I told him Once I told him who was on the phone the director proceeded to take my phone away from me and hang up on the co director He then told me the code and made me feel very dumb while going over the alarm with me I know how to work an alarm I just did not know the code but he didn t seem to care when I told him that The second time that I ran in to the director was my last night in Chios When Marcos came to check me out I had asked if I needed to go to work that night since I was checked out of the program needed to pack and had a very early flight in the morning Marcos proceeded to say no I didn t need to go to work that night There were also two volunteers checking out at the same time with me and they also understood that Marcos said I did not need to go to work that evening So I did not end up going to work because I was packing About 30 minutes after I met with Marcos the director showed up at the house and pointed in my face asking why I wasn t at work I proceeded to tell him that Marcos told me that I did not need to go since I was packing and leaving the next morning The director called Marcos and made me talk on the phone to him Marcos said that he did not say that to me It was a very bad situation and I felt very disrespected The three weeks that I was in Greece I never missed one day of work so for the director to come up to the house accusing me of not showing up was not okay He did not handle any situation in a professional manner and I would not ever want to come back and do the Greek program due to his lack of professionalism These two situations happened to me specifically but while I was there he was also not being fair to some of the other volunteers that I was with There were two volunteers there for their university and they needed this experience to graduate They had told the director that they needed their evaluations signed and given back to them by the time that they were leaving to go home Their evaluations were to prove that they had worked in the schools in Chios The director refused to give them their documents back until they left a positive review for the IVHQ program in Greece This is a terrible form of blackmail especially from a program that they were helping out The director was willing to sacrifice the volunteers grades just so they would give him a good review I personally think that as a director he should make himself known to all of the volunteers in a positive and professional manner Some of the volunteers through IVHQ did not even know that there was a head director here in Chios The director would never confront any of the volunteers unless he was very angry with them He would do all his communicating to us through the long terms in the house I really did not like this because the long terms were so young and a lot of the times the information that was being relayed made the long terms come off as the bad guy I believe that the director should be the one to personally handle any situation in the house I understand that the IVHQ program overall is not like this but if you are looking to volunteer in a school or with kids I would not look in to Greece until the IVHQ program has gotten rid of their head director there

education experience and travels

I signed up and in order to complete the registration it required me to pick dates and a place but claimed they could be changed after registration was complete it also said in order to hold a spot to pay a fee up front with I did 300 00 I never even finished the rest of the required documents and decided to back out With in 24 hours I emailed Kate Parkenson and canceled and instead of acknowledging my cancelation I received several emails claiming I was already approved NO back round check no health records nothing and I was suppose to be going 6 14 2019 Again I resent the cancelation and was told it was too late they now are trying to keep my money Kate Parkenson will not refund my money and claims she never got my cancelation and Ive sent several emails trying to reach her boss what a rip off Not sure if its just Kate Parkenson or IVHQ but this need to be looked intoUPDATE 6 6 2019 I finally was put in contact with a very helpful employee at IVHQ who has looked into my complaint and will be issuing me a refund Thank you very much Charlotte Verry

Great people Horrible food

Volunteering in Bali was an amazing experience I got to experience a whole new culture of people and everyone is unbelievably kind Even though I wish there was more scientific validation behind the turtle conservation program it was still really awesome to be up close working with the sea turtles Being an ecology and evolutionary biology major working with the sea turtles made me want to pursue ecology even more than I already do

Entry requirements are very thorough and offerings were varied I would not particularly recommend IVHQ for Europe-based volunteers due to the time zone difference with this New Zealand agency - it made timely responses very challenging Also information flow was not always consistent - the agent stated one requirement but the automated computer system generated a different requirement which created confusion

I feel like my placement should have had more accuracy on the description but it was still an amazing experience