We've tried to answer as many questions as possible below. Hopefully
we've succeeded to answering all yours, but if not, please do contact us
either by email or
telephone: +44 (0)1903 502595. We're happy to help!
And Parents, we have a special section for your questions as well, but
please don't hesitate to contact us if you'd like more information or
reassurance that your child is in good hands.
1. How old do I have to be to
participate in a programme?
Travellers welcomes all ages, from 17 to 70. Most of our volunteers are between
18 and 25 years old, but we also have people who are retired and wanting
to do something worthwhile and gratifying, or people taking a short break
from their careers.
2. What qualifications do I need?
On most of our programmes you don't need any formal qualifications. There
are one or two exceptions, though. Teaching: If you're teaching a
language such as English, you don't need a TEFL or any other formal
qualification but you do need to be fluent in that language and have a
reasonable standard of grammatical correctness. Conservation: You don't need
qualifications for most of our Conservation projects, but if you want to
take part in a science-based project such as the Dolphin Programme, you
need to be at least in your second year of a sciences degree. Work Experience Internships: In fields such as
Medicine or Law, you need to be studying the subject or working in the
sector or have some background experience. In other fields, such as
Catering, no qualifications are necessary.
In all our programmes you do need to have patience
and understanding, and a good sense of humour! You will be living and
working in a different culture, with different ways of doing things to
what you're used to - their standards may not be as high as yours - that's
part of the fun, learning about their culture and teaching them about
yours!
3. Do I need to speak the local
language?
No, you don't. Very few of our volunteers speak the local language before they go.
On the other hand, it is certainly an advantage
to learn a few basic words and phrases, particularly for a placement in
China or perhaps a medicine placement in Guatemala, but it is not necessary to be fluent.
4. Which countries can I go
to?
Programmes are available in many countries,
and the list is continually growing. Countries include Argentina,
Australia, Brazil, Brunei (Borneo), Cambodia, China, Ghana,
Guatemala, India, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, South Africa,
Sri Lanka, Thailand, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
5. What type of programme can I do?
We have many different types of programmes. For example, you can
teach English or any other subject you have knowledge of or
expertise in, like French or German, or academic subjects like Maths and
Biology, or Computers and IT, or Sports and Drama or Music. You can do a
Conservation placement working with dolphins or elephants or a variety of
other animals, or become involved in a botany project. You can also do a
Work Experience placement in many different fields, such as Journalism (newspapers, radio and TV),
Medicine, Law, Tourism, Veterinary Medicine, and lots more.
6. When can I start?
Whenever you want to - the choice is
yours. The only 'restriction' applies to teaching placements insofar
as we cannot start your placement at the beginning of the local school
holidays, particularly if they are long holidays.
7. When should I apply?
Some placements are extremely popular and we would advise that you think about applying
about nine months before you go. Most of the time, though, it is possible
to arrange a placement with just a few weeks’ notice.
8. How long do placements last?
Travellers is first and foremost flexible. You choose how long your placement
lasts and you also choose your own starting date. Placements can last from two weeks
upwards, with a maximum of one year. We have found the most popular length
to be between 3 and 6 months. The length of some placements in some
countries is limited by visa restrictions.
9. Can I extend my stay while overseas?
Yes, provided there are no visa restrictions or other technicalities like
school holidays (if you're doing a teaching placement). Many of our
volunteers do extend their stay, which is why we always try to ensure that
your flight ticket has a changeable return facility.
10. Will I be able to travel around
while I’m there?
On weekends you'll be able to visit local places of interest and many of
our volunteers get together in groups to go on trips to explore the
surrounding country. Mostly our volunteers arrange to travel
around after their placement before flying home. By this time you will
most likely have made friends who you will want to travel around with.
This is another "fringe benefit" of doing a structured placement
with Travellers.
11. Will I be on my own or can I be
placed near other volunteers?
In some countries you will live and work with other volunteers. In others
there will be other volunteers close by. However, if you've chosen an
out-of-the-way destination (like Siberia, for example), you may be
quite far from other volunteers. However, if you ask to be near
other volunteers, we will ensure that you are. Mostly, though, our
local organiser arranges get-togethers so that volunteers can meet each
other and make friends, go out together, and generally socialise. Many of
our volunteers go on trips together to explore the country. For example,
recently a group of 10 volunteers from Sri Lanka went to Thailand together
at the end of their placement and had a wonderful time.
12. What support and back-up will I
get?
We have a local organisation with a country
manager/organiser in all our destination countries to look after you.
He/she sets up your placement, meets you at the airport and generally
looks after you the whole time you are on your placement. They won't baby
you but they're always available should you need any assistance or any problems occur.
You will also be allocated to a supervisor at your place of work who will
be available for work-related help and advice.
EXAMPLE: A
volunteer didn't arrive in Cape Town on her scheduled flight and our
organisers couldn't get in touch with her. hey were very worried and
spent several hours trying to track her down. Later it was found that
her cell phone had run out of battery and her connecting flights had
been re-arranged due to one arriving later than scheduled - on hearing
the good news that she'd been tracked down her mum said; “This
is the reason we booked through Travellers and it is so good to know
that an incident like this is dealt with so smoothly and
professionally...Thank you!”
13. Will I be met at the airport?
YES. We meet you at the nearest airport without extra charge, regardless of
whether you've made your own travel arrangements or we make them for you.
14. What if I am ill?
Unfortunately volunteers do sometimes get ill and our overseas staff will
ensure that you receive immediate medical care, as will your host work
organisation and your host family. If you are seriously ill, you will be
covered by your
insurance policy, which is why we stipulate that insurance is a requirement.
We will liaise with our local office, your family and the insurance
company to ensure that all the medical wheels runs smoothly.
15. Where will I live and who will I
live with?
Your accommodation will depend on the type of
placement and the town or country you're in. Most of our volunteers live
with local families, some live in school residences and a few live in
hostels or even guest houses. Some conservation placements have
accommodation on-site and you wake up to the sounds of birds and animals,
or even an elephant walking past your window!
If you have a special preference, please inform us and
we'll do our best to accommodate you.
Although not all countries have Western standards, all
accommodation is reasonable by local standards; some could be on the
luxurious side. Family accommodation gives you the opportunity to really
learn about the way of life from the inside and all types of accommodation
provide an additional support network and new learning
experiences.
16. Can I go with my boyfriend or
girl
friend?
Yes, you can. However, because some cultures have different moral
standards, we do need to know in advance if you want to live together so
that we can ensure that appropriate arrangements are made. In some
countries there may be a supplemental charge if you only want to share a
room with one other person, i.e. your partner.
If you'd like to live and work together with a friend/s,
we will ensure that you're placed together - just let us know.
17. Why do I have to pay to do
voluntary work? Travellers is not a charity and does not receive government funding or
any other type of funding, yet we support financially the research and
development of new projects in new destinations, the costs involved in
running all the programmes and providing the back-up and support you
receive on your placement, and ensuring that awareness of Travellers
placements reaches you, whether via your university or education institute,
magazines and newspapers, careers fairs or exhibitions,
or the Internet.
You gain the opportunity to live and work in countries
where you wouldn't otherwise be able to, and you gain experience and
knowledge which you wouldn't otherwise receive. In most of our placements
you make a tremendous positive difference to the local community - in
others you gain a wealth of experience.
Because you do a voluntary placement, Travellers is able
to provide assistance and opportunities to our host countries without any
cost to them - see We Make A Difference.
The addition of a new classroom which enables more children to receive an
education, or a safe playground for the children to play in, can be of
enormous help to a poor community. Equally, providing a free website for a
research institute that enables them to get more visitors and hence more
research funds, or a customised database for a conservation project that
helps them to work more effectively and efficiently also has a long-term
benefit.
18. What will a placement cost me
and what does the fee include?
See the prices
page for costs of the different programmes.
The fee includes all your food and accommodation (unless
otherwise stated), and
back-up and support both at home and in our destination country, during
the entire time you participate in a placement. We also meet you at the
nearest international airport at no charge and transport you to your
placement. It is very re-assuring to know that you have a local contact
who is being paid to look after your welfare when you are in a foreign
destination.
If we
arrange your international travel for you, then ALL
your travel is included (except when you travel around on holiday). In other words, all you will need is spending
money.
19. What
"hidden extras" are there? There are very few:
Insurance: You will need to
pay for your insurance (but we can help by getting you very comprehensive
insurance at very low cost).
Visas: You will also need to pay for your visa
- but only in countries that require a visa. Countries where you don't need
a visa are Argentina, South Africa and Sri Lanka (for one month or less).
Costs of visas range from about £15 to about £65.
We arrange all the necessary paperwork and provide all
the forms you need - we make the entire visa process very easy
for you!
20. Do you
give guidelines on safety issues? Yes, we do. We give you a very comprehensive, customised Personal
Safety Guide & Travel Tips which we have compiled especially for
our volunteers. We feel so strongly about safety
that we have made the Personal Safety Guide available to
download
from this website so that everyone - regardless of whether you decide to
go with Travellers or not, will be able to use it. (Please note that
the file is half a mb in size, so it may take a while to download, and it
is in .pdf format.)
Personal safety is mostly plain common-sense, but we
nonetheless give detailed guidelines on safety measures to take. We also
give advice directly related to each of our destination countries. In the Travel
Tips section, there is a lot of very useful general information on the
do's and don'ts of travelling, including how to look after your luggage in
airports, taking taxis, hitch-hiking, and other similar
advice.
21. Are the countries safe?
We always ensure that destination countries are stable and safe before we
implement any programmes in a country and to date we have not had a
situation where a volunteer has been in danger. However, sometimes even in
the "safest" countries situations can change, as we've seen
recently in America. For that reason we constantly refer to and heed Foreign Office
advice. More importantly, though, we are in constant liaison with our
overseas staff regarding safety and security issues and should an
unforeseen situation arise which warranted your removal from that country
or region, we would do so immediately.
As far as general crime is concerned, none of our
destinations is any worse than a typical English or other Western town or
city, and many are much safer! If you take the same common-sense
precautions you would take at home, you'll be perfectly safe.
22. Do women encounter any special
problems?
Sometimes in places like Sri Lanka and India, women do attract more overt
attention from men, but in our Personal Safety Guide we give you
advice on how to avoid situations where you attract unwanted
attention.
WHAT DO I GAIN FROM A VOLUNTARY
PLACEMENT?
23. What do I gain from doing a
voluntary programme?
You will gain so much it's difficult to know where to begin! The old
cliché "Travel broadens the mind" is very true - and for the
rest of your life you'll find that the knowledge you gain from your
experience will influence your thoughts and even your choices and
decisions.
On a Travellers placement you'll gain the experience of
living and working in a different ethnic culture and increasing your
understanding of how different the lives of others are to what you are
used to. In many of our placements you'll gain the satisfaction of knowing
that you have had a positive impact on people and children less fortunate
than you are. On other placements, such as a Work Experience or
Conservation placement, you'll gain knowledge in your particular field of
interest in a structured placement that will make an excellent entry on your CV or
résumé. You'll also improve your communication and presentation skills
and you'll learn how to work in an environment of co-operation.
24. What do I get from Travellers
before I leave? Travellers has a well-deserved reputation for the quantity of
information we send you before you leave! Of course, we send you
lots of information about your specific placement, your work and your
accommodation, including contact details to give your family, what to
wear, what to take with you, pocket-money, etc., etc., etc, but we also
give you a comprehensive book which we've compiled with information about
the country itself. It contains tips on how to use the telephones, change
money, exchange rates, local transport, cost of taxies, places to see,
where to eat, cinemas & TV, the climate, the history and the culture
... and very much more!
If you're doing a teaching placement, we provide a Teaching
Suggestions Guide that has received praise from many of the
headmasters and teachers in our partner schools and institutes. You can
also do a Travellers 1-day intensive training
course. The course includes classroom role-play scenarios and is designed to give you
confidence prior to embarking on your teaching placement.
25. What do I need to do to ensure
that I benefit from my placement and I enjoy myself? Most importantly - you need to remember that you're going to a different
country, a different environment, a different culture - and
probably one that is poor and undeveloped. So don't expect the earth and a
rainbow! You won't have the luxuries of home. If you're used to
freshly squeezed orange juice every morning ... forget it. If you're used
to being given life on a silver platter, please don't do a placement,
rather take a cruise around the Mediterranean.
You will get out of your placement what you put into it.
If you're prepared to enjoy the unexpected, like the earthy smell of
African clay, and ignore the inconveniences, like power cuts and no-show
buses, you'll enjoy your placement.
Homesickness: Everyone gets homesick -
just to a greater or lesser degree - so don't feel embarrassed about
it. But do give yourself a chance, don't go running home as soon as
you arrive. Homesickness wears off - honestly!
26. Can I talk to people who have done
a Travellers placement?
To hear what our volunteers have to say, please either select a country on the
left or click on any one of our countries from the buttons above. We have lots of reports from previous volunteers about their
placements from all our destinations. Some countries even have reports on
"A Typical Day in the Life of my Project" and others have some
on-going Diary accounts of volunteers' placements. To contact a volunteer directly, please call us on +44 (0)1903
502595 and we'll give you the phone numbers or e-mail addresses of people who
have done it.
27. What if I have more questions?
If you have any questions or would like to discuss our programme in more
detail, please call us on +44 (0)1903 502595 or
e-mail us with your phone number and a convenient
time to call and we will call you back.
28. What do I do now? Apply now and once we receive your
application, we'll telephone you to discuss your placement with you so
that we can tailor it to your requirements.
FOR PARENTS: REASSURANCE!
29. How do
I know that Travellers is a "real" company Travellers (TravelQuest Limited) was established in 1994 and is
currently celebrating its 16th year. Travellers is registered with
Companies House (Registration No. 3072191). The company is one of the
leaders in the volunteering sector and has built a deservedly excellent
reputation over this time, not least for the amount of in-depth
information which we provide.
30. What credible affiliations do you have? Travellers is a Founder Member of the Year Out Group (www.yearoutgroup.org),
which is a self-regulatory body set up with approval from UCAS and
the DfES. Members of the Year Out Group must adhere to the very
highest standards of year out provision and are only approved and accepted
by the Group after rigorous inspection and approval process. Travellers is
a Founder member and contributed substantially to the Code of Conduct
requirements for the Voluntary Sector.
Travellers has been with the Careers Services and
Students Unions (and the Departments) in all the Universities in England since its inception in 1994 as well as with most Sixth Form
schools and colleges. We have also worked for many years with various
universities in America, Canada, Australia, South Africa and Europe.
We work with many, many government departments, ruling bodies, NGOs,
sports affiliates, and
local community centres in all our countries around the world.
31. How do I know where my child
will be? All volunteers are given their full destination addresses, contact
telephone numbers, emergency numbers and Overseas Manager's contact
details, including, where possible, the address and contact details of our
partner work organisations (e.g. schools, game reserves, work experience
partner companies, etc.). We also provide a
separate document with all the above information specifically to be given
to our volunteers' parents and families for them to keep while
their children are on their projects.
32. Are you registered with ABTA,
ATOL, etc.? Your child has the option to arrange his/her
own flights or we can assist them with their flight arrangements. If they choose
to have us assist them, we will liaise with them regarding available flights
and dates and obtain their approval for same. Once they have approved the dates,
all arrangements for flight bookings/payments will
be fulfilled by Murray Rogers Travel Ltd., ATOL No. 6856. (Read more about Murray Rogers Travel Ltd.)
As happens when volunteers make their own flight
arrangements, airline tickets are sent to them before they leave home, so
they are always in possession of their outward and return
tickets.
Where possible, we arrange for two or more people to travel on the
same flight and we provide your child with the names and telephone numbers of other
volunteers on their flight, so that they can chat to each other or even meet up
before leaving for their placement.
Please remember, you can always call
and speak to us directly. We are very happy to answer any and all
questions you may have.
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