Attempted to arrange a medical elective as a part of my medical degree. Was not able to meet documentation requirements for 3 months-missing multiple deadlines. terrible communication. Definitely not to be trusted - I had to forgo an international medical elective due to wasting my time with them. They will not even process a refund.

I had decided in my gap year in 2009 I would spend 2 weeks in Romania working on archaeology sites before starting university. When I arrived in Romania noone was there to meet me, my luggage had been lost and very few people speak English in Romania and none of the signs are in English so I was stuck in a quandry. Luckily, a genetleman approached me near the luggage carosel and asked if I had lost my luggage as he had lost his too, he spoke English and Romanian and took me to the lost luggage section and translated for me so I could explain to the airport staff and where they could send my luggage when they found it. I was then left alone at the airport for about an hour before anyone arrived to collect me, apparently traffic was bad. I spent the evening at one of Project Abroad's employees family home and then had to travel to where I was to stay for the remainder of my trip the next day. My luugage still hadn't arrived by the next day but we set off to the train station, just before I boarded the employee who I stayed with found out the airport had found my luggage and managed to get it to me just before my train left. Even though the company had promised that I would be accompanied throughout my whole trip I was put on the train alone and told to look out for a specific stop where I would be met. The train journey was meant to last 5 hours but it turned into 7hrs due to delays. All announcments were done in Rommainian and it was only by pure chance that I sat next to a couple who spoke English and Romanian explained to me what was going on. Because I didn't know anyone on the train or speak the native langguage I couldn't leave my seat to find out where the bathroom was or get any food for the whole of the train journey.When I rang the employee I was staying with for a bit more help about the stop where I was to get off he simply said that I should say the stop's name in a questioning manner and if the person I spoke to said 'dah' then it meant it was my stop to get off at. When I eventually arrived I was met by a woman and she walked me to the coach station where I had a two hour coach ride (again unaccompanied) and got talking to a lovely native Romanian woman who spoke English who couldn't believe I had been allowed to travel alone this whole time as the country could be so dangerous. When I eventually got off the coach I was told the car that would be picking me up was running late and that I would have to wait alone in a town I didn't know. Luckily, the lady I had been sat with offered to wait with me so I would be safe. I then had an hour car journey and eventually arrived in the place I would be staying. was shown the room I would be sharing with 3 other girls and it was very very small.I was to sleep in the top bunk of a bed that didn't have a safety rail with a concrete floor for me to fall on and a matress that didn't proprrly fit the bed. The next day noone who was part of the Projects Abroad team asked if I was ok after everything that happened and it was incrediably hot so I hadn't really acclimatized. I was sent up to the dig site. That was the final straw and I told them that I would not be staying and would require someone to get me back to the airport. When I got home I was incredibly shaken up by the whole experience. The complaints email I sent got a very poor response in which I was told that the money I had paid had actually mainly gone into helping the country rather than paying for my safety . I would not recommend this company to anyone, I was not looked after and was made to feel abandoned and vunerable.

I went to teach in Peru with projects abroad in July 2011. When we arrived there was no one to great us and the contact numbers they gave us were un-responded, when they finally arrived to collects us, we received no help to our with lost baggage situation. We were driven to our host family and left with no indication of what would be happening and when we would start work, and again the phone numbers were not in use! I was placed in an all-boys school (which I later found out by a local to be a notorious school for crime) in a rule Peruvian town, as a young female I was left in charge of 30 16 and 18yr old who started fight, shouted offense words at me, took photos of me and in one particular class I had a boy start a fire. The schools discipline method was to whip the boys if they were sent out of class, which put me in a horrible position! I also worked in a special needs school which was amazing, but I found out through them, that the large percentage of our money that we pay Projects Abroad does that is meant to go to our work places is in actual fact a ridiculously small amount considering how much we pay! In our first week there we attended the so called ‘training groups’ that are out on by Projects Abroad, we arrived late as we had to find our own way to the center, with no help or guidance, only to be shouted at for being late and being humiliated by being forced to singing Robbie William ‘I’m loving Angles Again’ because we were late!! There was no regular contact with projects abroad while I was in the school, During my time there I got quite ill, and nobody from Projects Abroad came to help me, I was lucky that the lady who works at the special needs school, kindly brought me to the doctors and translated for me. On finishing my time in Peru No one came to check how things had gone, de-brief us on our work place, organize our home trip nothing!! I would never recommend Projects Abroad to anybody, and on reflection of my time in Peru I was very lucky that I had a lovely host family to support me as Projects Abroad did not and in my opinion failed to live up to their promises and company ethos!! Absolutely appalling!!

I spent two months in Mandeville at a Children's home in Mandeville. I was really excited to work with children, the greater was my disappointment when I realized what work was gonna be like! The staff members at the placement (except one of them) were not interested in working togehter with the volunteers. One lady was very agressive and yelled at volunteers for a lot of things no one ever told us not to do. There was no structure at all but that was not the problem, all of us had a very hard time because every time we wanted to change a dirty diaper we had to look for diapers and wipes for about ten minutes till we found them. They moved them on a daily basis and kept them in different drawers every time. I often had to clean at least 4 hours old dry poop from a babie's butt when i arrived in the morning and that's almost impossible to do if you dont have any wipes! I almost felt like they are hiding the wipes from us on purpose. one time i had a baby with a dirty diaper on my arm and i was walking around to look for wipes. after a few minutes i found them in the bathroom (why would they keep them there and not next to the changing table where we need them??), when i took them 3 staff members yelled at me: \"hey what are you doing with these..?\" I just kept walking and said im gonna change the diaper!!! duh why would they ask me that?? but that was the smallest problem. the one lady was so agressive, one day she beat up one of the volunteers because he wanted to comfort a crying baby! she hit him in the head and bruised and scratched his arms! when the guy went to his supervisor to tell her what happened she acted like it was his own fault and said they cant do anything about it! Then the director responsible for the children's home decided that they dont want to have any new volunteers because we are crazy and not good for the children! the lady who beat up the volunteers also regularly beat the children (which is illegal in jamaica!!!) and she got away with beating up a volunteer, what kind of organization would be ok with that? they are just after the money, they dont care about the safety of the volunteers! what also disappointed me was that my supervisor did not support us at all! everytime someone had a problem or felt uncomfortable at work she made it look like its the volunteers fault and that we are bad and lazy people! i once told her that i want to feel comfortable at my placement and i dont want to be yelled at for things i can not know! im not jamaican and ive never worked at a childrens home before so of course i dont always know what to do or how im supposed to do things! she never once said that yelling is not the right way to talk to someone, all she said was that its my own fault and that im not interested enough! I couldnt believe it but when i heard what happened to the guy and many of the other volunteers i knew that its not about me and i dont have to take it personal, the supervisor is just a cold, heartless person and doesnt care about volunteers! other than that projects abroad is very expensive compared to other organizations! but i thought its not that bad because they use the money for a good cause but that's not true at all! the host families that let the volunteers live with them dont get a lot of money, and when i talked to the staff members they said they have to work 12 - 24 hours every day and hardly get any pay! sometime they didnt get wipes for the babies for more than a week so obviously the money is not spent on the children either! we had to buy our own lunch (unless some cookies or a bun fill u up) and we had to pay half of the taxi money to the work place and back! the flight is not included in the price either so that means that most of the money u pay goes to the management or the people who work in the administration! its a shame! the worst is that they dont pay their staff members well, which means that only very uneducated people are going to apply. they could at least hire more people so the staff members wouldnt be so stressed and wouldnt have to take their anger and frustration out on the poor children! most of the children have been abused already so why would you let violent people take care of them?? and they act like they are doing something good for orphans??? I think thats all i need to say! if i didnt like jamaica and my host family so much i would have quit after one week!

I am very disappointed with this organization.
This is definitely no value for money. It is extremely expensive, considering the fact that there are similar programmes who charge way less money, like Youth in Action (which even is free) of the EU, or United Nations volunteer, or SCI long-term volunteering.
I was shocked about the fact how little of the money actually went to the hosting organization and family abroad. Not surprising though, since this is a profit company with many offices and staff all over Europe, they really should focus more on staff /benefits for the people in developing countries, which other organizations do! I think project abroad should really be ashamed of themselves!

I spent 1 month in Argentina with Projects Abroad and it was awful. I was there approaching Christmas trying to do a teaching project. Turns out it is the Summer Holidays so no kids turned up. The care project is also interrupted as is the sports project. This was known before I arrived yet I wasn't informed. Also Argentina is a country for under 21's - not older people. Lots of parties and little project work. Staff are often unhelpful and it is badly organised. They suggest that you travel and do other things. I completed a project in Bolivia as well and that was much better organised however the Argentina one was awful.

Your money isn't really spent that well either. None of it goes towards the actual project itself. It mainly pays staff at the Projects Abroad Office. These are overstaffed with social managers and other unhelpful people.

The host families are really nice - but it is quite cheap to arrive in Cordoba or in Sucre and to organise it for yourself. Also teaching projects are easy for you to independently organise.

So if you are thinking of going to Projects Abroad in Argentina I wouldn't.