Stories from abroad

Tanzania was incredible! Thank you so much for all your help, it was without doubt the most amazing experience I have yet to have. There wasn't a single moment of regret or doubt and there was always fun to be had and new people to meet. Please let me know of any trips you are planning throughout the year as I would be very interested and would definitely love to book with Antips again!


Cassie, Community Construction, Tanzania

I did my placement at a disability care centre centre – helping out with kids with disabilities (Autism, Cerebal Palsy, Down Syndrome) wherever I could – basically this included helping feeding, toileting, and playing with the kids, as well as helping with manual handling – carrying the heavier children because I apparently have impressive muscles! I felt a little under worked until the class teacher got sick and had to go to hospital for a week when I was suddenly much more needed!!!


Claire, Nursing, Vietnam

Work and life in Quito is, as usual, wonderful. At the school, we're getting even closer with the kids, and they've begun respecting us more as figures of (questionable!) authority in the classroom and not just fun friends outside of class. Some of the more motivated kids have been really catching on to what we've been teaching them recently, which is great to see. We've started giving simple English homework to the better/smaller classes, with good results.

The weekend before last, some of our group travelled about 2 hours south of Quito to Cotopaxi National Park, to climb 19,388ft (5,911m) high Volcán Cotopaxi. It's one of the world´s highest active volcanos, and it rises up from the flat, windblow scrubland of the National Park in a perfect cone shape. We drove up to 4,600m, through barren lava field, then lugged our equipment up to the climbers' refuge at 4,800m. There was a complete absence of plants and animals; just red-black volcanic soil, which became a mat of white as it began snowing. Ecuador was absolutely brilliant, amazing, rewarding, eye-opening... definitely the best travel I've done. Our group was really close and travelling around together on weekends was sooo much fun. Just an amazing experience all round.


Gabriel, Teaching, Ecuador

Chose to do a UniBreak placement for the chance to experience a country that is so vastly different to Australia and really see and compare how they work with how we work. And believe me the differences are off the scale. I knew that it would a great chance to not only improve and extend my skills as a Social Worker, I knew that it would a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop myself as a person and really broaden my perspective on life.


Kate, Social Work, India

There were many great aspects about my experience in Thailand, but I think probably the best part was seeing the 'real' Thailand through interacting with the Thai people on a deeper level than one otherwise would just being a tourist. Likewise, living off the tourist trail was fantastic because it gave me the chance to see the countryside without the 'gloss' that is applied to many parts of the country.


Katherine, Primary Education, Chiang Rai, Thailand

I really wanted to travel to Africa but I wanted to be able to contribute in a small way and wanted to live in a community – not just be a tourist. There is too much to say about the best part - watching babies being born in the clinic, living with a family that I got to know and love, meeting different people, learning about the food, culture, lifestyle differences.


Lucy, Teaching, Swedru Region, Ghana

To travel around a foreign country while doing volunteer work is one of the best ways one can experience that countries culture. Not only do you step out from the ‘tourist persona’ but you become one of the locals, living within a local community and experiencing all of the wonderful customs, cultures, foods, etc that one would never see while staying in a hotel or resort. Although you feel emotionally helpless at some stages, the ability to go and help other people who live less luxuriously than you do really makes you feel good and allows you to appreciate everything that you have.

Sabin, Medical Science, India

The best part of my experience was meeting all the amazing people. Not only the group of volunteers that will be friends for life but also the staff at mirror and all the kids. The looks on their faces when we played games with them or taught them something new was like nothing else. I definitely would recommend it as it is one of the best experiences of my life. The people you meet and the experiences you have are awesome. We had the opportunity to do things that we never could have done if we were tourists, for example not everybody gets to spend a week living with a family and walking to school every morning to teach with the students.

I was involved in teaching mostly. Every week was different which was good. Most weeks we went to a school and stayed there for the week and the amount of work we did varied from school to school. The week I spent at mirror I got a bit bored because I wasn't aware that there were things I could have been doing I only found out after been told at the end of the week that there was never any reason to be bored. But I think it was just a bit of a miscommunication. Other than that everything was really good, I felt extremely lucky that I got to go to different schools because every week was a new challenge. I definitely want to volunteer again and teach in a foreign country. If anything my experience in Thailand reconfirmed how much I wanted to teach and that I was definitely studying the right thing for me. Meeting a group who mostly were there for the right reasons and had similar attitudes and aspirations as myself. It was a lot more fun experiencing this with people who wanted to be there as much as I did.


Victoria, Primary Education, Chiang Rai, Thailand