Volunteer Latin America review: The information that is given to people is very poor 7

You would have thought this site would investigate these complaints rather than posting them willy-nilly. It appears you can say what you want on here and it gets printed. It then leaves the accused in the difficult position of defending themselves if they are innocent. A flawed business model.

Thank you Ollie for alerting us about the comments left by ‘zzelda’ on the 10 January, 2015. Basically, ‘zzelda’ is trying to discredit this non profit organisation and unfortunately for us we have been drawn into the dispute. I can assure anyone that reads this web page that the original complaint and subsequent comments by ‘zzelda’ are false and misleading. It is the latter complaint that I want to focus on in this response.

Let me first tell you which organisation ‘zzelda’ is referring to. They are called Organization for Research and Conservation of Aquatic
Animals (ORCA) and are based in Peru.

I remember ‘zzelda’ (name withheld) contacting us in November 2014 requesting that we stop advertising their project because of the
dangers posed to volunteers and interns. We thoroughly investigated this claim but found nothing to suggest that this organisation was putting volunteers and interns in danger. Because we didn’t take any action this person has taken their crusade onto the internet. Stating that "he refused to speak to me about my findings citing that he was too busy" is utter nonsense. The final sentence is clearly intended to damage our credibility and is widely inaccurate.

Considering the serious nature of these allegations you would have thought we would have been bombarded by emails from disgruntled volunteers and interns. However, we have never received any negative feedback in association with this project. Quite the contrary, all the feedback we've received has always been positive. Please refer to the ‘Volunteer Reviews' section of our website and read the latest review from an international participant (https://emcptravels.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/orca-peru/) who found the project through VLA.

It appears to me that this is a blatant attempt to damage the reputation of ORCA and VLA because of a vendetta against the president and to a lesser degree, the board of directors. Following notification of these comments I contacted the president of ORCA and he has a good idea who is behind them. He confirmed that the complaint was based on false statements and humbly apologised for the trouble this has caused us.

The vice president who lives in Alaska, USA, will happily answer any questions you have about ORCA and the false allegations above. Please contact me at steve @ volunteerlatinamerica.com if you would like her email address or would like further information about the apparent assault on interns during an ORCA mission.

Thank you for taking the time to read my response to the comments left by ‘zzelda’. Stephen Knight (manager) - Volunteer Latin America.

This last post is very dubious and seems to be a blatant attempt to tarnish their good name. I will be alerting Volunteer Latin America first thing in the morning.

I have never used this service and quite frankly I never would. I am a former staff member of one of the non profit organization (name withheld) that uses VLA to recruit members. I have first hand witnessed as the president, sole board member, and "science director" (he is not a scientist by any stretch of the imagination) placed his interns at serious risk of bodily harm by sending them, unattended, to dangerous locations to conduct "surveys", whereupon they were attacked by persons armed with knives (a police report was filed). I have since interviewed many former volunteers and employees who related similar stories of negligence and unsafe behaviors on the part of the president. I also discovered that many interns have had to flee the base of operation after being subject to attempts at extortion and fraudulent accusations of theft. When I attempted to contact the representative of VLA, he refused to speak to me about my findings citing that he was "too busy". It appears to me that VLA is complicit in the negligence of the well being and safety of volunteers that it places through its website, and I quite frankly believe that they cherry pick their reviews, at least for this organization in particular.

Anyone slating this company is disgraceful. You say you've received a pack with not much information. Not likely. I sent a request for information paying the relevant fee to receive this. I the next day received a response to my request to say that since I was looking at a date too far in the future they wouldn’t like to make me a pack up of irrelevant/expired information and as such would either cancel my order and issue me a refund or alternatively produce me a pack but if I wasn’t happy with it issue me a full refund. I opted for the first option of cancelling my order and received an instant refund, however, once the information that I require is available in December I will without any hesitation contact Volunteer Latin America to produce an information pack for me. If you weren’t happy with the information you were provided you should have contacted them, they’re not mind readers. But then, my instinct is that you’re a FOR PROFIT organisation not happy that there are people out there who want to do good for nothing in return like yourselves...! Volunteer Latin America are legit and are majorly honest and helpful. Don’t pay hundreds/thoudsands of pounds/dollars to volunteer, use them and ensure what money you do pay is going towards the local charity not funding people’s salaries.

Thanks to the service of Volunteer Latin America I found the perfect volunteer/internship program in Peru. Since I studied Biology I was looking for a good opportunity to help and gain some experience in the field of Marine Biology, and I always wanted to go to South America, because I was also curious about the culture and the people living there. With the service of VLA it was very easy to find the perfect match. They create a personal guide for you with which you get a lot of information about many projects that fit your desires. So if you want to participate in more than one volunteer project, this is very helpful. In the end I applied for an internship with an organization based in Peru, South of Lima, called ORCA, which is dedicated to the conservation and rehabilitation of marine mammals, mainly South American sea lions, in Peruvian waters. The team was great and I had an amazing time there and also gained some new friends. It was one of the best things I did in my life so far, and I will continue to choose VLA for my upcoming experiences in Latin America. Whenever you have any questions about anything, they reply promptly within a few hours, which is a further important point of their great service.

This is complete nonsense and I suspect this complaint was submitted by a competitor to tarnish the good name of Volunteer Latin America. I used them to find volunteer opportunities in Central America and their service was excellent. They tailor their volunteer guides (voluntary work information packs) according to the needs or personal interests of the recipient. The complainant obviously didn't state any specific requirements on the order form as VLA can inform people about volunteer opportuntiies in any Latin America country. Anyway, I am drifting of track - I don't believe this is a genuine complaint. Check out over 29 pages of positive feedback on the VLA website for a better insight of their service.