Travel and Volunteer In India with IDEX

I am overwhelmed by the good work that is done here and how involved the volunteering program is. I loved going to Monte Hill to do the Women's empowerment program and making a difference to their lives. It is instantly rewarding to see how much they want to learn and how accepting they are of you. Plus it's so much fun to get to know the women! Everyone there, not just the women in the class are so welcoming

The volunteering was great- if you can be organised and plan everything by yourself.

Organisation very poor from idex team. Head of jaipur house - not hugely helpful despite being friendly.

Lack of information when arrived lead to a pretty bad first impression and wasn't a nice experience.

Jaipur house very nice and staff were great, delhi house- people were clueless and couldn't speak english- 3 men picked a lone girl up from airport, did not speak a word to her and left her in her room for over 6 hours without any info. This experience happened with 3 other girls.

When arriving in jaipur had a very welcoming time, despite the long drives from delhi and agra without much information of what was going on.

Would recommend volunteering to others but not idex.

It was a great trip and I could have stayed longer. 1 month is just not enough exploring India. Traveling from red hot desert to icy Himachal was great fun. Goa has been one of my favorite place during the trip where I met lot of people from various countries in the camp. Overall, the program was wonderful and I would remember this for long long time.

It is fantastic here at Himachal in IDEX i would recommend any person who wanted to do volunteering to come here. The staff here are amazing and so friendly it feels more like being part of a big family. The manager here has answered all my questions within ample time and with great results. The food is amazing and the rooms here a very comfortable and brilliant to sleep in. The volunteering here is so much fun and its a joy to work with all the children. In the morning i go to MCS which is a school for mentally challenged students. It can be very hard here to grasp the children's attention and get them completely focused during some activities that we plan. However it is incredible to see the progress they make and gives me much joy to see them happy and achieving. In the afternoon i have been teaching computing to girls under the age of 15. This again is tough but its a joy to work with them as well as they listen well and always enjoy doing there work and achieving. My main highlight would have to be everything here i can not describe the joy i get from being here with words its an amazing experience.

The accommodations in Jaipur, India were very nice, with rooms with 2 to 3 beds and a bathroom for each room. Very clean and the staff who lived in the house were very friendly. I felt safe at all times during my stay. I really enjoyed living in a house with 15-25 people of all different backgrounds. Although I loved working with the people who attended the classes, volunteering in the children's class and women empowerment class was frustrating at times, as there was little organization or communication among the IDEX staff. I received almost no orientation, preparation, or even basic expectations for how and what to teach in the class. In general, the IDEX program is very unorganized and lacks communication.