Below is some feedback we just received from a parent of one of our 16 year old volunteers who just returned from a two-week program volunteering at an orphanage in Quito, Ecuador:

I was about to write you to thank you. [My daughter] Dalia was absolutely bubbling when she got back. Her only regret was that she couldn’t have spent more time there (which is too bad because I would gladly have extended her stay).

She loved the country and the people, saw a lot of sites, managed to make friends and connections there (I think in the end she found a German girl volunteer from another organization who lived nearby and the two of them hung out a lot) and above all she really loved working with the kids at the orphanage and said they were very sweet and loving.

I think it was a great experience for her in terms of helping her develop independence and self-confidence and turning her on to other cultures and travel. Any trepidation that she or I had about doing it at such a young age was completely gone by the time she got into the trip, and even though the other volunteers were older they were friendly to her and helped her feel at home.

So it was a great experience all around and she may want to do it again next summer, maybe to the same place or maybe another country.

I wanted to thank you for all your help, especially for being flexible and helping me get the language classes set up and get money to her on short notice.

Anyway thanks again for everything.

Regards,
Lawrence