Dear Volunteer,
Our main focus as an international organization is to care for our development aid projects in South America and the local NGOs we represent. We screen and recruit volunteers, collect and review all necessary travel documents for your volunteer stay abroad, and, alongside you, we monitor our projects through a comprehensive reporting system.
We are happy to assist you in planning your stay abroad and are prepared to handle any additional arrangements as part of your deployment. If you want to book any tours or activities to complement your journey, such as hiking, trekking, visiting Machu Picchu, or engaging in paragliding and rafting in the Andes, we understand these may be a once-in-a-lifetime adventure for you. If you book these adventures through us, you not only fulfill your personal aspirations but also indirectly support our projects as outlined below.
Furthermore, your bookings assist us in reducing actual project costs, as well as administrative and logistical expenses. Additionally, your project stay and supplementary bookings help us identify and support new NGOs in South America!
If you want to read more about this, our role as an international organization within the framework of local grassroots organizations in South America, and how you directly and indirectly contribute, not only with your helping hand but also financially to sustain grassroots projects in South America, please click on the following link:
Why Do I Have To Pay For Volunteering?
Please bear in mind, though, that we need to be able to work with our projects and focus on the individual projects’ content and objectives, and support their goals. Our focus, therefore, is and must be to concentrate mainly on this if we want to move forward in development aid work.
We are pleased to assist with logistical planning in South America (pickup, transportation, accommodation, tours, and activities) and ensure everything runs smoothly upon your arrival. Our on-ground staff and coordinators in South America facilitate these arrangements. However, please understand that we do not arrange international flight bookings as our focus lies primarily on project-related matters.
Our commitment to the projects’ requirements, needs, and goals is evident in our mission statement, philosophy, and actual monitoring and reporting of project activities. Additionally, we believe most volunteers prefer to book their flights according to their individual schedules, especially as many choose to travel before and/or after their volunteering period.
In this regard, allow us to outline the following regarding
Program, Projects, Arrivals and Departures:
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All regular arrival dates and times are as follows:
Pickup every 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month. 8am to 4pm.
Any other arrangements will incur the fees outlined below.
PROGRAM AND PROGRAM START DATE
Your program start date marks the commencement of your stay abroad, typically corresponding with your official arrival. Unless otherwise specified, your program start date usually falls on the first or third Sunday of the month.
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PROJECT AND PROJECT START DATE
Your project start date typically falls between your program start date and end date. While most programs begin with a language course, your project start date usually occurs after completing the languagecourse. Some projects may offer concurrent language courses alongside project activities.
Example Booking (Individual Booking):
Your program might look like this: Upon arrival, you start with a two-week language course. On your first weekend, you may do a two-day hiking tour to Machu Picchu (or elsewhere, depending on the country). During the week, you may explore museums and do a mountain biking or rafting tour on your second free weekend. After your two-week language course, you then travel into the Amazon jungle where you start your time volunteering at your project site (project start date).
At the end of your volunteering period at the project site (project end date) you might want to embark on a five-day survival tour in the Amazon rainforest before you travel back to Cusco for another language course to enhance your skills further.
When you have finished your language courses, volunteering period, tours and activities, your programs ends (program end date).
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PROJECT COMBINATIONS
If you prefer to combine projects, please understand that we will charge an additional fee of €150, because we have to arrange and meticulously plan everything with our project partners, tour agencies and operators, public transport companies, language schools, hostels or hotels, homestay accommodations, airport or bus pick-up service providers, etc. Changing one date during your program period usually entails multiple phone calls and emails in order to rearrange your entire program.
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CHANGE OF DATES: ARRIVAL, PROGRAM AND PROJECT START DATES
Arrivals Before Program Start
Your arrival date can be earlier than the program start date, and your departure date can be later than the program end date.
To accommodate your early arrival, we can arrange the logistics for an additional fee. This fee covers the personalized planning involved.
- Change of Arrival Date:
You can change your arrival date prior to program start without affecting the program or project start date (typically the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month, unless otherwise specified). We can arrange this for a €50 fee.
*Only available up to 3 days before the official arrival date. Earlier arrival dates (more than 3 days before) will be considered an individual booking, incurring a €150 surcharge.
- Change of Program or Project Date:
If you wish to change your program or project date after completing the Volunteer Placement Registration Form (VPRF), a €150 fee will apply.
- Change of Departure Date (Late Departure and Drop-Off):
You are welcome to extend your stay and leave any day after your official program end date by arranging your own accommodation. If you choose to book a departure transfer with us after your program ends, there will be no additional fee beyond the standard drop-off charge.
Tours and Activities:
Can I book the tours and activities you list when I am in my destination country or do I have to book them in advance?
NB: It is your own responsibility to adhere to the schedule of your program. Please bear this in mind, too, when you embark on personal adventures in between two or more project or program periods, or go hiking, rafting, climbing, or mountain biking. South America can be an enormous stimulus for adventure sports and exciting tours, but we cannot encourage your thrill-seeking adventures and risk any program delays resulting thereafter. We understand that you want to travel, explore, and embark on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, but please understand that we also need to comply with our responsibilities as an organization within the realm of development aid work.
Our project partners need to be able to rely on us as much as they need to be able to rely on you when you work with them. We have carefully selected the tour agencies and operators we work with. Their prices might be a bit higher than those you might find with other local companies, but, believe us, finding the right, and above all, reliable, trustworthy, and safe network or infrastructure of local partners is a process that takes a lot of time and strenuous endeavor.
We have invested many years (10+ years) to make sure you will have a safe stay abroad and can rely on the service we offer you in your chosen country; in our eyes, the best value for money you will receive. We need to be able to rely on quality and safety rather than working with low-budget tour agencies or operators, because we want to make sure you can start your project on time and without becoming sick or being injured (of course, this can happen as it can happen everywhere and anytime, but we try everything we can to minimize this risk).
In case you need to change or interrupt your program/dates because you have put your schedule at risk due to booking something with a service provider that has not been vetted by us, it is at your own risk (when you get ill, for instance). We apply a changing fee of €150, because, at our end, it means the same administrative work in terms of planning the logistics for rescheduling your stay abroad.
If you attempt to economize on the wrong end, it is at your own responsibility and expense. When we handle the planning, we assume that risk on your behalf, relieving you of any worries.
PLEASE ALSO NOTE:
I) The options listed above are subject to the availability of transport, accommodations, or project slots.
II) We always recommend signing up for travel insurance covering cancellations, delays, etc., in case of illness or unforeseen circumstances. More information can be found here:
Language Courses and Tours within your Program:
We offer free language courses for all our programs (where possible) to ensure you are well-prepared for your project. The language courses aim to teach you the vocabulary needed for your work at your project site. If you have specific language-related queries about your project, please consult your Spanish teacher. Don’t hesitate to ask—they are eager to assist you. The Spanish course typically begins during the first week of your first project month and is usually designed as a group course. However, several variables may impact the course:
- Volunteers hail from various countries worldwide and attend the language schools we work with. We do not know when and how many language students and volunteers are coming into the language schools from elsewhere. Like at the project site, it is a constant coming and going of people.
- Some volunteers may already possess Spanish language skills or opt to enroll in additional courses at home, online with us, or in another country before they start their course in South America.
- Individual circumstances, such as prior travel or adventure activities before starting the program with us may affect our program. Also, illness or flight delays may occur.
These circumstances may result in program variations, as you may be unable to join a tour or language course as initially planned. While exceptions are rare (!), they are beyond anyone’s control. We and our partner language schools and tour operators endeavor to plan meticulously, but unforeseen circumstances may require your patience and flexibility.
We try to work with language schools and tour operators that keep group sizes small, because your adventure in nature will be much more profound and the learning experience in the classrooms more effective. Tours or language courses may need to be split because there may be too many people for the same tour or course. Tours may need to be rescheduled due to factors like inclement weather. Language courses may need to be rescheduled due to evolving language proficiency levels and insufficient participation for a particular course following upon thereafter. In such cases, dates of group tours may change or language courses may be split or converted to individual lessons to ensure optimal learning outcomes at every level.
In situations where group courses are replaced by individual lessons, you will receive approximately 12-14 hours of private tuition compared to the standard 20 hours of group tuition. The precise hours may vary depending on the pricing structure of the language schools in each country. From an educational standpoint, individual lessons offer superior benefits, as they cater directly to your needs, allowing for immediate correction and personalized attention. Again, all this is the absolute exception to the rule, but it can happen.
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Thank you for your understanding and cooperation!
Your NGO Taxi Team.
