I to I

Piste

Hi everyone, I'm considering going to Costa Rica this Summer for a few weeks with girls in my year to help with disadvantaged communities over there. The company the girls who are organising it have decided to go with is I to I, they organise travel for people going to do volunteer work abroad. I just want to know if anyone here has done anything with them before and if they know how good are they? Will they try to rip us off, will they do what they say etc?

aidan_walsh

tbh

Piste

Hmm well it's not really a holiday, but it is travel, mods can you move this plz?

Diarmsquid

Will they do it for you even if you're under 18?

Karoma

Moved to Volunteerism from AH, with open redirect. Please, think before dumping stuff in AH.

Peyton Manning

A bit late, but no, I to I do not cover your flights. Only accomodation and airport pickups.

Kinetic^

If anyone else has used i-to-i, I'd love to hear your experiences with them as I'm considering using them.

whupass

this is really funny, i was planning to come here to start a thread on I to I,

i'm in 4th year in newpark and a bunch of us were planning on doing something with i to i. i had seen the costa rica ones and want to do them all!

when i asked my parents though my mom said that they had been in court recently for abandoning two familys in a rain forest for two weeks recently, anyone know if this is true?? we had a person come in to talk to us about it and she said the flights are included.

dory

Just remember i to i is a travel company. Not a charity. You'll be paying someone a lot of money to make the arrangements for you. If you got in touch with an actual charity they might need your skills and you wouldn't be making some company richer.
If you google a particular place you might find information on organisations there and see if they need help.

As for the horror stories, I don't know if that particular one is true but I worked in Calcutta with a lot of people who'd been working in other parts of India with i to i. None of them had anything good to say about them.

Kinetic^

Hmmm, bit skeptical now. Will do more research into them.

dranoel

Here's an alternative. It is a charity afaik but I haven't used them yet. Their international program won't be available to April though.

http://www.vsiireland.org/

Steyr

Piste wrote:

I'm considering going to Costa Rica this Summer for a few weeks with girls in my year to help with disadvantaged communities over there.

What about looking after our own first?

Kinetic^

Steyr wrote:

What about looking after our own first?

:rolleyes: Our own get handouts from the government........the people he's referring to don't.

red one

I went to Costa Rica with I to I. You have to pay for your own flights. Being with I to I is good if something goes wrong, like some of the girls I met had their stuff robbed and the I to I people were very good sorting them out.

But unless you're very young or nervous about travelling I wouldn't give your money to I to I. You get very little for it and they don't make any contributions to the projects except for paying your food and accommodation. I had a problem with them afterwards because it said that an introductory Spanish lesson was included but we weren't given it. Anyway I complained on the feedback form when I returned home. They promised to look into it but I didn't hear from them again.

If you want to go to Costa Rica check out www.asvo.cr its the voluntary organisation that I to I deal with in Costa Rica. It only costs about $15 per day with ASVO and hundreds of euro with I to I for the same projects.

Benny_Cake

Went to Thailand almost four years ago with I-to-I.They simply weren't worth it.I had nearly no interaction with the organisation and the letter they gave me for my visa application was rejected by the Thai consulate!Had I organised things on my own I would have saved a small fortune with minimal extra hassle...Feedback I got from others was bad too,one person was sent to an elephant project in north-eastern Thailand,and arrived to find it was closed!Not a good organisation-would recommend getting in touch with a charity or something like that.

whupass

that sight doesn't work red one, but i'm interested in it, you have the real sight?

edanto

I'd say red one was talking about http://www.asvocr.com/

About I to I, a friend of mine went with them to India and had a really good trip -she was volunteering at an orphanage as well as having plenty of time and friends to travel with after.

Having said that, the stories above would give me pause - if I to I is more like a company than a regular charity, then maybe their biggest motivation is profit. You can find orgs that are more interested in social capital at www.volunteeringoptions.ie

whupass

the volunteeringoptions site says i-to-i makes you pay for travel, now i'm really confused, because the girl from i-to-i said it was included, erg

dory

edanto wrote:

if I to I is more like a company than a regular charity, then maybe their biggest motivation is profit.

i-to-i is 100% company 0% charity. As much as I don't like what they do, have to admit it's a great (money-making) idea for a company.

And Whuppass, unless things have changed drastically i-to-i don't pay for flights.

I'm planning on going to Costa Rica in November. After a few hours on the internet I found a placement with free room and board. I only have to pay for flights. They'll even pick me up from the airport! And a contribution to the project is voluntary. I haven't been accepted (yet anyway) but just shows what you can find online. Have to go there for at least 6 months though.
And I know if I just arrived there I could also find a pleacment. You really don't need a agency like that.

dory

whupass wrote:

the volunteeringoptions site says i-to-i makes you pay for travel, now i'm really confused, because the girl from i-to-i said it was included, erg

Just dawned on me there, maybe she meant travel from airport to placement is included? Cause that is, just not flights from Ireland.

whupass

she said that aswell, i won't be back in school for another few weeks but i'll see the teacher in charge of it on thursday and i'll suggest all these things, thanks for the help!!