I and my daughter spent 3 weeks volunteering for The Working with Children Project, set up through the Volunteering with India (VWI) Organization. Overall the experience was amazing and worthwhile, highly recommended for those interested in travel, the culture of India and making a difference.
When volunteering for The Working with Children Project, the volunteer’s main objectives are teaching English and Mathematics, although the work day also includes a dance time prior to lunch and arts and crafts/ life skills project in the afternoon. We were lucky to be with the two of us and found it useful to divide the boys and sometimes some girls into different groups in which we were able to adjust our teaching to better suit their needs.

We started our days with English, everyday repeating days of the week, We worked with basic attributes as the alphabet, marks, colors, months, seasons, fruit, vegetables, parts of the body, the parts of the house etc. We connected these topics with the other subjects, which included drawing and coloring fruit and vegetables, the parts of the body and house with the different types of rooms. I brought along with me balloons and we played a game with one balloon. I brought also some skipping-ropes with me, it was nice to see how they made their best efforts to jump. We all really enjoyed this and we had fun together!
Teaching can be cumbersome due to the wide variety of students, i.e. given their age and the various degrees of education. One suggestion, when possible, is to place the children into different groups depending on education level and creating lessons for each level. Another suggestion might be to bring materials from home if available or wanted, for example glue sticks, scissors, pencils, since classroom materials are limited. The children had only a pencil and a notebook. For the teacher there was a blackboard.
Most of all we tried to be there for the children- tried to make them smile and laugh – praising their work and effort, trying to help and encourage them to take a step “small” forward. We really enjoyed it and had fun together and we could share love.
The VWI organization was fabulous. They helped us to do volunteer works as easy as possible by arranging the transport to the school and back to the family of the guesthouse. The trips in the weekend were also organized perfectly by Sukret arrange. Totram was a fantastic driver in the busy traffic of Jaipur. After a couple of days I travelled relaxed in the tuc-tuc. He also knew the best place to drink Chai after the work in the school. Govind was very kind and helped me very good to translate my English in Hindi. They all were personable and friendly. It felt like a big family, especially when my daughter was ill and must go to the hospital. They helped me as much as possible. After a laborious start with the family later we have a good contact. So we could share life’s and we had real personal contact and the contact with the local people were really appreciated, Thank you Sukret, Govind, Totram, the family and last but not least the children of the school, Thank you very much for this great lovely experiences in your colorful exciting country. I take all of you with me in my heart. Now I walk in the garden of the good memories.

I volunteer as a teacher in a local shelter home which is for temporary orphanage for Indian boys who come right from the street child labor etc. It was fantastic being given the chance to help those boys. All the lessons English and Maths really basic, but I am sure that boys learned a lot from it. The focus was on the school work but there were lot of time to having fun playing games, dancing and doing sports in the garden. Overall it was a fantastic experience. The pick up service was really well. My accommodation was really good. The room was big and clean. The meals were always really delicious. All the members of the host family were really friendly people. The transportation service to and from the project was satisfying every day. The project staff members at VWI are really good. I decide to volunteer with VWI as I did some research on the internet. VWI have good feedback in goverseas.com website and in addition the price is reasonable. I would like to give 10 out of 9 to VWI for my overall experience & Satisfaction. I had really good time in Jaipur. Of course the work is challenging but it was totally worth. I hope to come back in future.

The arrival pick up service went really well. The accommodation was good, simple room but nice. The food was extremely good, enjoyed chapattis. The transportation service was really good. It is definitely an experience taking a tuk-tuk through the streets of Jaipur but you can really see a lot. Driver was really nice and most of the time on time. Project staff members were really nice and helpful. I decide to volunteer with VWI as I read about the program and I wanted to volunteer. I saw the opportunity to do it, so I decided to do it. I also like that we got to stay with an Indian family, it helps me to get to know the culture even better, I am also a teacher and I love working with kids. I would like to give 10 out of 9 to VWI for my overall experience & satisfaction. The kids make the program fun. I enjoyed my time with them.

I heard about VWI & their projects from an old school friend and I always wanted to visit India and learn more from their culture. I volunteered before with kids and I wanted to give more of my time to children in need. Especially to these kids in orphanage that have been through a lot of hard things. The project staff members, accommodation, food & family was very nice and helpful all the time. If you are looking forward to spend your time getting to know new culture and helping to give children an education this program is the best decision. I spend unforgettable time here and I am sad to leave all the kids here. I hope I will be able to come back Soon!