Traveling to a foreign country as a teen, a solo traveler or a young woman can be a scary thought. Luckily for Callie, she chose to volunteer abroad with IVHQ and had the experience of a lifetime that she still looks back on fondly a few years later!
Here’s her story.
When I was 16, I volunteered with IVHQ on the Childcare Project in Arusha, Tanzania teaching English in schools.
It was such an incredible experience for me and it’s still one of my favorite trips to this day. Over the last three years I’ve been full time traveling and still haven’t found anything to top volunteering in Tanzania and I’ve been thinking about going back!
I would highly recommend this program to anyone! I’m actually looking into some different IVHQ programs now, just because I had such an amazing time and cannot wait to be back!
An affordable and budget-friendly way to travel
I didn’t really know how much to budget for spending money during my time in Tanzania. With accommodation and most meals covered by the program fee, I didn’t need a lot.
The program fee is super affordable. You can choose from a variety of projects and durations from only $24/day. I budgeted $400 a week extra for activities or dinners out with other volunteers but actually needed way less than that. It ended up being really cheap there and I was able to do a lot of the excursions that I wanted for about $200 a week.
The accommodation provided was such a great way to meet new people.I thought it was so cool to be in a house filled with people that were all like-minded, wanting to do good in this world. There were beautiful people in a beautiful place and it was really cool to be a part of. I met some incredible friends that I’ve gone and traveled with since.
I felt so safe traveling as a solo female with IVHQ
Safety was something I was very conscious about and the team at IVHQ and locally in Tanzania did an amazing job making me feel safe. Especially as I was quite young at the time of my trip. With all the travel arrangements sorted and the meals and accommodation covered it meant that I didn’t need to leave unsupervised if I didn’t want to.
Although I did decide that I wanted to go out on my own and have some adventures, I felt quite safe to do so. I met a lot of the locals and learnt a lot from them too. I found that their level of gratitude and appreciation for life made me reevaluate my own priorities and put things in perspective. It made me realize how much more gratitude I needed to incorporate into my own life.
Exploring Tanzania in my free time!
It wasn’t just the volunteer work itself that made this trip memorable but the variety of activities you can do outside of your volunteer hours is worth it.
During my time in Tanzania, I made the most of the free time available and did a lot of the extra activities provided by IVHQ as add ons. I went on a safari which was one of the best experiences of my life! I also popped over to Kenya and went to see the elephants and giraffes.
Basically, anything they recommend or offer as an add-on I would go do!
It was a really incredible experience, and I highly recommend it! If you’re about to go on your own volunteer experience, I bet you’re going to have an amazing time! Good luck! Have so much fun! And maybe I’ll see you there!
