Volunteer Placement Organization: Cross Cultural Solutions

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Hmmm…I don’t see anything on Google news, and the Cross Cultural Solutions web page still has programs in India.

Where did you hear this information? Do you have any links to confirm it?

Some people get very angry that an organization would charge money to volunteer. I think it’s fine to choose not to use that organization, and to go ahead and arrange your own volunteer work independently using a site such as this one. In fact, that’s part of the point of the Volunteer Logue. But when you pay you are basically paying for a service - and non-profit doesn’t mean “free”.

Most of us don’t have unlimited time to orient foreigners with good intentions who don’t speak our language to help us do our jobs … why should we expect others to?

Is Cross-Cultural Solutions a scam? I have signed up to go to India for 11 weeks in the fall, and its costing $5000. I know this is probably a rip-off compared to other organizations, but I just want to know from someone who is familiar with CCS: is it a legitimate organization that does indeed set up volunteer work with communities in India? Is there anything they lie about on their website?

I am in the process of studying Cross Cultural Solutions and would like to sign up to do this project. I, too, would like to know if there is anyone out there who has done this and could give me honest feedback. I’m very excited about doing it and I totally understand the reason for the fees charged (although it is pretty high). But just trusting the brochure that CCS sends out seems a bit naive.

Matthew; i dont see how that is a scam. Its over 2400 for the 1st 2 weeks to go then a little over $200 a week for every week after that. thats about 5k.

I volunteered in Costa Rica and Tanzania with Cross-Cultural Solutions and both experiences were the best of my life. CCS is extremely well organized and their staff is amazing. I never would have been able to have set up such an amazing volunteer work on my own. They have amazing relationships with the places that the volunteers work. I also volunteered with other groups and their is no comparison.

am interested also in org and any comments on the russia experience,

I volunteered in Brazil with Cross-Cultural Solutions in May 2007 for 2 weeks and even though it sounds silly because it was such a short time, it was a really rewarding experience. I had some Portuguese and Spanish language background already, so that was really helpful, but there were others there who didn’t speak Portuguese and they also loved it.

I taught English to adults at a local NGO. The students were lower-middle class adults who wanted to learn basic conversational English to improve their job opportunities, particularly in tourism and customer service. I really learned a lot from the experience. Even though I don’t want to be a teacher as a career, I now know I can do it and that just sharing my knowledge of English with people can make a difference.

I highly recommend the CCS program because it’s a great way to learn about the culture as well as be of service. But if you want to speak with other volunteers who have gone on their programs they just started a community site for the volunteers — community.crossculturalsolutions.org.

Good luck with your decision!

Similar to others on this site, I\’m considering using CCS to volunteer next spring in South America. While I have no issue with paying a higher premium for a company to take care of the logistics (not much time on my hands as an attorney), my concern is the age-group that CCS caters to. I am 30 years old and while I am looking forward to doing some overseas volunteering, I would prefer not to be working with volunteers that are in their lower 20\’s. I think it\’s great to have programs that are geared towards college students and younger people, but I would prefer to travel with people who have similar interests. Any info would be great. I\’m attending an information session near UPENN (hence my concern of the age group) next week, but figured the more info I can gather, the better.

i want to enroll with CCS organization but there was no option for Botswana(country.)
i want to volunteer for Costa Rica in January 2009. i tried to contact them to no avail. any one can assist me? im in Africa.

We are in our late 30s with 3 children ranging from 8 downwards. We are keen to get involved but have to wait a couple of years as the children are too young (& we don’t have the support at home).

We were curious as to the validity of the org & the programs so it’s great to read some info from people who have actually done it!

Keen to see if there have been many families to complete a voluteer program and how it went…

I volunteered for CCS with my young son (aged last Christmas (Dec 2007) when we spent 3 weeks in Rabat, Morocco. It was indeed very expensive but I can honestly report that we were totally supported both before, during and on our return from the trip. It was a worthwhile experience and I totally recommend it to anyone. The staff at CCS were excellent, answered all my questions and made sure I had everything I needed. I really did feel that I was able to make a significant contribution to the programme and, yes I know it sounds corny, I was able to impact the lives of the people there in a positive way. They are indeed genuine, hardworking and, in my experience have the ineterests of both volunteers and recipients at the heart of their organization.

@Simmone - I recently participated in a Cross Cultural Solutions trip to Costa Rica (Cartago) with my wife and 2 boys, 7 and 9. What an experience! CCS did a fantastic job making us feel comfortable and created a family like environment.

Like any organization, the local leadership is key too and Jose Hernandez is a remarkable person (as was every other staff member!). He went out of his way to give my kids (and the other family there with us who had 4 girls ranging in age from 7 - 16) an opportunity to participate and feel included in discussions (or even better to NOT participate when they couldn’t sit still for something).

Traveling with a family is stressful enough so having a company like CCS there to back you up in case someone is sick or if something is not right at your volunteer placement - is the only way to go. Sure it costs a bit more, but the cost makes the trip more likely to be an experience your kids will talk about for the rest of their lives!

We kept a blog of our experience, which we still go back to to remember different parts of our experience (you’ll have to go back a little in the blog as it includes vacation time in there too), it is here: http://veilleuxworld.blogspot.com/2008_06_09_archive.html (use the Blog archive feature to the right to jump around).

Hope that helps with your decision making process! I’m willing to share more if you need it, just let me know.