Lattitude Global Volunteering, Australia

Where are the other reviews??? And if anyone knows of survivors groups on Facebook or Reddit………………….

I went to Malawi, Africa. Of course, aspects of the country and culture were beautiful, but the experience with Lattitude was nothing short of negligent and traumatic. We had one point of contact in the entire country, for about 25 volunteers from North to south. We raised so much money (and paid for all flights, transport, visas, accom etc) to provide the necessities for our arrivals, yet when we got to our placements we were totally abandoned. I raised approximately $15,000, and we didn’t even have mattresses or mosquito nets Or clean drinking water. We were told about the volunteer accommodations as having running water and electricity, but the toilets were all clogged or smashed to pieces, the bedrooms were graffiti’s, and the walls covered in fecal matter, and the furniture was all smashed. The water was from the local river, we had to boil it and wait for the sediment to sink. Three of us huddled and bunked in one room. Things got so bad it was like Lord of the flies. One girl got kicked out of the placement for getting viol3nt. We had traumatic experiences with the men and boys, Things I had forgotten about until finding an old journal and my mom’s house last year. People around us were dying from malaria, I even went to a local hospital from being sick for two weeks straight. I had to teach the history of central Africa, to Malawian students that were my age or older. I felt so guilty that I was their education that semester. I couldn’t even pronounce things correctly, they gave me one book in English that was falling apart to teach from. I was regularly having panic attacks, the other girls were fighting, and the other placements struggled as well. We all tried to shuffle and swap, but those with better placements would never give up their spot. I befriended local dogs by giving baths and removing ticks and sharing my food. They would walk me to the road and back, barking at groups of men. I really loved those dogs. I begged my mom to bring me home and she kept saying it couldn’t be that bad and to just see it through. We had no service at the school, were miles from any town, surrounded in jungle. Three teenage girls. The school had one truck that went into town, we were lucky to get rides, we hitchhiked, and we got abandoned as a group on the Zomba Plateau at night. The program abandoned us. They called us dramatic over the phone and said they wouldn’t deal with our teenage girl drama, to sort things out and grow up. We raised thousands of dollars and were thrown into the wilds. I-spent all of my money on chocolate on the weekends and would watch the same movie over and over on my iPad. Oh my gosh… I had a boyfriend at the time too, and I remember saying “I can’t come home, I don’t know when I’m coming home so I can’t do this”. We split up when I was there and I didn’t see him for years after. It got so bad I left. I was 17 and alone in Africa and I just left with my backpack. I remember telling the dean of the school I was placed in that my parents were divorcing and they were pulling me out. It was a lie, my parents hadn’t been together in years, I had no there one to pull me out, I just left, on my own. I hitchhiked around the country until I got to the airport. So I went to California from Malawi, and ended up in a psychiatric unit in Fremont. My parents don’t want to hear about time in Africa. I didn’t stay in touch with other volunteers, or any of the kids. My mentor, Mr. MbandaMbanda, passed shortly after I left. I’ve started wondering why lately I’ve been so drawn to the recent documentaries and docuseries about the wilderness camps and the TTI back in the states, and maybe something has clicked for me in finding this…

I would not recommend Lattitude. I was in rural Africa, and was provided no support. There were so many issues, but some included being sent of to our rural village and not showed where to buy food (we had no access to food for the first three days and had to eat fruit we could scavenge from local trees); our in country support would not return our calls throughout the whole trip (we had to contact our home country before we could ever get on to anyone); and they did not organise our visas so we couldn't leave the country on time; they also provided no support for cultural adjustments and exposure to extreme poverty. Their approach to development is unethical and I would not endorse their version of volun-tourism. Their whole approach was negligent.

Do NOT travel with Lattitude!!!


I loved my placement - don't get me wrong - but Lattitude is a total rip off. I gave them thousands of dollars and for what? NONE of the money goes to your placement. I didn't go to the orientation. I paid for my own flights. I paid for my visa and I paid for my passport... so what did the thousands of dollars go towards?

The staff were rude and not at all supportive. Don't bother.

Absolute and utter bullshit. Find another gap year program, my friends.

Fiji is a beautiful country with such beautiful people and landscapes, but honestly this program is terrible.

They have zero support for their volunteers. I was there when the big Cyclone hit and the way in which they dealt with it was horrible and negligent. An example was that I was yelled and pulled out of the van onto the street and threatened to be left on a Fijian street in a town I didn't even know for having a panic attack by people who WORKED for Lattitude due to the aftermath of the whole cyclone being very stressful. I got treated to so poorly I left the program and have suffered from negative personal effects in the aftermath. And that is only one example of what had happened to me in my short time with the program.

I highly recommend that you do not go with the program, and find another one instead. My experience was so horrible and not worth the money at all. Worst support system ever and the company seemed very fake and falsely advertise in my opinion.

The experience I gained through volunteering with Lattitude Global Volunteering during 2014 has been an invaluable and enduring experience where I was able to successfully foster and build upon lifelong friendships and bonds, whilst similarly learning the cultures and customs of the Ni-Van people of Pentecost island. I met some of the most amazing and joyous people during my stay, and am still in regular contact with my host family and the surrounding villages.

In saying this, some attention should be drawn to the lack of transparency and knowledge of where exactly much of the money contributed to my volunteering experience was going. To elaborate on this point, some of the headings describing the costs involved in my placement are somewhat vague and perhaps are in need of more explanation. Such headings include the 'latitude placement fee,' which consists of a substantial payment of around $4200 with little to no explanation of where such a large sum of money would be going.

In saying this, I am sure such a payment would naturally serve a number of purposes in planning and organising a volunteering placement along with the hiring of staff to assist in the volunteering experience and behind the scenes. However, I believe that such matters should be elaborated on, giving a more clear and coherent description of what areas are being supported by the money of volunteers. I would also like to make a suggestion that more funds be channelled directly into the communities that the volunteers are placed within, as the mere presence of volunteers and the prospect of better education is often not enough to ensure the building up of remote communities like the one I was placed within, with the burden falling to host families to feed and keep volunteers during their placement.

With this being said, the charity, culture and sheer joy of the Ni-Van people has touched me personally and inspired me to follow my aspirations to become a cultural anthropologist.