ELIabroad Experiential Learning International

My experience volunteering in Kenya was incredible. Please let me start by saying one thing - one very important thing - this program is fairly bare boned and really gives you the basics BUT IT IS A GREAT MEANS TO GETTING ABROAD AND BEING ABLE TO VOLUNTEER. After reading a negative review about ELI I am completely upset because it seems the reviewer expected ELI to hold their hand as they volunteered. ELI PLACES you in organizations. They PLACE you. Once you get there there will be support but you are an adult and you have to make of the situation what you want! So many volunteers come in and out of Africa that these institutions can\'t stop and kiss the ground you walk on the day you show up. No, you have to be an adult, be pro-active, and put yourself out there. ELI will do everything for you (pick you up from the airport, help you with pre-departure info, make sure you\'re safe, etc etc etc). But when you get there, you will then have to navigate your way through the orphanage/hospital on your own and find your \"nitch.\" It\'s fun! My host mother in Nakuru was incredible! My meals were terrific! The friends I made at the orphanage/in the city/on my safari were amazing! Like everything in life, your experience is what you make of it. ELI will help you tremendously. But please do remember that you need to be pro-active and initiate once you get there. It\'s not hard...you can do it! I was so scared at first but have gained so much confidence in what I was able to accomplish there. ELI is awesome! Also, most of the friends I met in Kenya were volunteers from the much bigger i-to-i program, and I am not kidding when I say all of them felt ripped off! They paid three times as much as I did and really felt like they were cheated. I, on the other hand, went with ELI and felt like the phone calls pre-departure were PERSONAL, people called me back when they said they would, and even once I got to Africa they kept in touch with me as much as I wanted them to. I was homesick and a little scared at first, but honestly I felt like people were watching out for me and listening to my concerns. ELI is great :)

I've done many abroad programs in numerous countries and have never had such a terrible experience. The program is absolutely corrupt and I truly wonder where my money has gone too. I'm a medical student and expected (according to the numerous emails sent from ELI) to be working in a local community hospital. Instead, all I did was observe and shadow. I did not pay money from my federal loans, travel halfway across the world during the only time off I get from medical school to just watch doctors for two weeks. I have a set of skills and went to Nepal to contribute. The program housing was really terrible. The bathrooms were in terrible condition, electricity was non-existant and the so called "wireless" often didn't work. The "filtered water" was also very questionable. The two meals that was under the costs apparently meant toast and coffee for breakfast every day and vegetable and rice for dinner. On such a diet, one is bound to suffer from malnutrition after a few months. I will never travel through ELI, nor will I recommend them to any of my friends and colleagues! They really need systemic change if they want to survive as a program.