Project Trust Gap Year www.projecttrust.org.uk

I sent my daughter off to do this and would seriously tell anyone thinking to go away with them to reconsider it is very much a charity for teenagers and young peoples who’s family are loaded.We raised and scrimped and saved £6,000 for her to go and did we see any of this money?.No she was given a tiny salary which didn’t even cover basic needs and I could not afford to keep sending her money just to feed herself!.I wanted to take her home due to this salary being so small but couldn’t afford flights back which YOU have to pay for yourself.She had a wonderful time but was depressed when she came home and not given enough support by them.They tell you to live and travel you will need about £500 or £1,000 at a push which is ridiculous.There are so many hidden costs.Was glad to have her home but she was sick from being malnourished from rubbish food which could have been prevented had they not been so stingy with their wages.

I was placed at a school for people with disabilities and while on Training they didn’t have the capacity to brief us on those special circumstances, since we were the only ones going to a social care project. At the project the hosts didn’t mention what kind of disabilities the children had and I took a flash light (which had different settings, one being stroboscopic) with me. One of those sweet souls had epilepsy and that could have ended very badly, luckily it didn’t. However, I felt very bad for even bringing this and felt so unprepared by the organisation and the hosts.

I was also harassed by one of the hosts and instead of helping me nevigate this terrible situation after I expressed that I wanted to leave and was not happy, they suggested I could gain new skills like resilience from that. After the situation got worse and I was verbally abused, they offered to get me out of the project early for an extra 150£. After raising so much money in advance, in such a threatening situation, they wanted even more from me.

I would like to advise anyone interested to go abroad with PT, to at least be aware that such situations can happen. The communication with Project Trust is not always granted, they did not always call at the agreed times and appointments got delayed by days. At the end of my journey I felt completely unsafe and let down by the organisation I trusted to take care of me during my experience.

Everything about the experience was completely disorganised. Staff have no interest in you once you are abroad and are completely focused on recruiting the next round of volunteers. Lots of hidden costs to be paid that make it completely inaccessible to anyone from a non-wealthy background. Any problems experienced while abroad are met with complete disinterest and staff are extremely deceitful in regards to decision making. Would recommend organising your own gap year as you will experience far more for the same money.

In-country support is non-existent - you'd do much better to organise your own placement or just travel instead. For £6k you would presume training in-country and assistance if things go wrong - but Project Trust staff are totally disinterested in problems.

My experience with project trust was pretty bad. They placed me with a girl who looked down on me because of where I was from. Although project trust purposely puts you with someone so that you learn from them I had a terrible time living with someone who thought she was better than me. Overall, they are not inclusive or welcoming of people from certain regions and look at you differently if you have a 'certain accent'. I was so upset and felt so homesick sometimes and they did nothing to help and I was just left to get on with it.3/10 recommend

When I was in South Africa our support in country guide was not present during departures back home.

When there were issues with our tickets, we were left in Johannesburg airport with noone to ask for support. 

Our parents were told we had missed our flight because we were late. This was not the case. When our parents asked okay, how are they going to get back? There was very little support and the only point emphasised to the parents were, you will have to pay us to book a ticket home rather than focusing on getting two teenagers home.

This was only resolved because the Botswanan in country support took pity on us and took us. Without her I don't know what we would have done. 

Especially as this was several years ago before everything was accessible online.

When this brought up during debriefing.  We were told that we were wrong and there was an in country support member accessible the whole time. 

Asked for a lot of money to participate which I realise now we could not afford.

On placement I was along with 30 other volunteers in place to take the role of native work force.

They ask for that much money, but they do not make any profit! they are a charity and they try to provide the best gap year to their volunteeres!

I would recomend them any day.

They are one of the only companies that have a selection course to make sure they can offer the best gap year possible and make sure you are ready and will enjoy the experience!