Frequently Asked Questions

Most of our volunteers come from the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. We’ve had volunteers from Spain and other countries.

Group discounts on program fees are available for those going under the supervision of one team leader. Please contact us for specific details and let us know the size of your group and when you plan to go. Your discount will depend on the number of people on your team, the season, and the available projects. We really want to help you go, but we want to make sure you will pay enough to have a great experience. Remember that all program fees are sent to the host country to take care of volunteers and help support the host partners a little bit.

When you volunteer, you give up your valuable time and take the risk to travel abroad to go and help out. That in and of itself is a tremendous sacrifice. On top of that, they ask you to PAY to work for free? That can sound absurd until one looks at it closely.

With Change Volunteers, you actually don’t pay to work for free. You pay absolutely nothing for the privilege of volunteering. We think the privilege to volunteer anywhere is priceless. We can’t put a price on it. We also believe no one should ever pay to work for free. It is not like a school where you pay tuition for the experience and knowledge you gain. All the fees you pay go to support you (your food, housing, supervision etc). Our programs are just as free as volunteering in your own home town. In your hometown, you provide your own food, housing, transportation etc when you volunteer. You need minimal orientation because you know the culture and the area. When you go abroad, the orphanage program, for example,  doesn’t provide you any preferential treatment that it cannot afford to provide local citizens who volunteer to do the same work. Just like most people volunteer in their home towns for free, local citizens of the host country also volunteer for free because they don’t need housing, pickup from the airport, food etc. They live in their homes and just show up to volunteer and do so completely free. The orphanages or communities treat volunteers from abroad just as though they were their local citizens since they can’t afford to spend money on volunteers. They are too poor to do that.

“If a community or orphanage were really in need of volunteers, then where would the money come from to pay for the volunteers’ accommodation, food, transportation and supervision?” The orphanages or communities that critically need help have no funds to cover volunteer associated costs. So frequently, volunteers help raise the funds needed for their own support while they volunteer. But high quality, safe, flexible volunteer opportunities don’t have to cost too much! We have brought it down to $14/day
In the U.S where Change Volunteers is based, if a volunteer wanted to come from anywhere (abroad or within the U.S) to volunteer and asked a U.S based nonprofit to pay for their flight, food, housing, transportation etc, the majority of them will say they don’t have the funding to provide that kind of service. Granted, a few may rarely do that. They may actually need  volunteer help but just don’t have the funding. Now, one can argue that U.S. nonprofits may not be as impoverished as the orphanages and communities our volunteers go to. In such a case, a person can ask, is it fair to expect these communities to pay volunteer related expenses? Probably not.

Having said that, in a perfect world, It will make tremendous sense if the communities you are volunteering at could show their appreciation to the volunteer by picking up the associated costs–yes, even though many much wealthier nonprofits in the U.S can’t do that. But the truth is that these communities are extremely poverty-stricken and may people don’t even have money to feed their families properly or to provide healthcare and education. You may be volunteering at an orphanage or another area in a poor community. Neither the orphanage nor the poor community area you work in is able to provide support to you. Take orphanages as an example. They are in need of both your volunteer help and financial help from other sources to survive. Volunteer associated costs are just something they cannot afford even though they desperately need volunteers.

Now, that means that if volunteers are to go without paying for their cost of living, some else must pay and not these orphanages or poor communities–they just can’t afford it.
It will be nice to have organizations like the U.N or some other grant giving organizations provide funds to pay for volunteer expenses. But we know that option is not available.
What we have learned is that we can make things affordable by planning well and cutting all wastage. In the past, we have offered a few free volunteer experiences (no program fees). The truth is that for every volunteer who got it free, somebody was paying for their expenses. It can’t just be free. Because of that, instead of focusing on trying to beg money from donors that are hard to find so that we can pay for volunteers to go and help out, we do everything possible to make sure that the volunteer costs are as cheap as can be so that many volunteers can afford it. Then we help the volunteers show them how to raise those funds. In fact we encourage volunteers not to pay program fees completely out of pocket but to fundraiser and get others involved. That way, we make sure everyone who wants to volunteer has a good chance to do so.

How do I know that Change Volunteers is a legitimate international volunteer placement organization?

Change Volunteers goes back to July 2005 when founder Dr. Ken Acha founded his first nonprofit organization called Shaping Destiny. SD is a U.S based nonprofit corporation that is a 501 c 3 tax-exempt organization that was founded to provide much needed help to orphans in Cameroon. Ken who now lives in the United States grew up in Cameroon and suffered tremendously being unable to get medical care, education and other basic necessities. He dropped out of grade school twice for lack of tuition, which was about $10. Cameroon schools charge such tuition. When he came to the United States, he felt he had to do something to help children who are suffering like he was. Because of that, he founded Shaping Destiny the same year he started his medical education. Shaping Destiny quickly grew and gained media exposure.
Today, Shaping Destiny serves 600 orphans in Cameroon and Haiti. From 2005 to early 2012, Dr. Ken through SD sent several volunteers to go and help orphans in Cameroon. But in January 2012, he decided it was best to have a separate entity responsible for helping provide low cost volunteer opportunities to volunteers all over the world. To respond to that, he founded Change Volunteers as a nonprofit partnership to provide highly affordable volunteer experiences to volunteers all over the world both at Shaping Destiny facilities and at other trustworthy community organizations worldwide that need the help of volunteers.

Shaping Destiny is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

Change Volunteers currently sends volunteers to Cameroon. But we are working to extend opportunities to other countries as well.

Shaping Destiny is incorporated in the U.S (in the State of Texas) and Shaping Destiny is a tax-exempt organization.

No, volunteers from allover the world can volunteer with Change Volunteers

If you bring someone else, you get a 10% discount on your program fees and each person you bring also gets a 5% discount on their program fees. There is no discount on the registration fee in that case.

Our in country partners review program fees yearly. If there are any changes to the fee schedule, it will affect only people who haven’t paid their registration fee to confirm their booking.

At this time, we are unable to provide financial assistance. We do everything to keep our costs low to encourage volunteers. We even have a lowest cost guarantee in place because we really do everything to keep costs low. We also provide fundraising assistance to all our volunteers.

Fees are not tax deductible.  Donations however are tax deductible.

Yes; when you have paid your registration fee, we will send you our program guide that is over 20 pages in length. There is a section on fundraising. We encourage our volunteers not to pay all of the program fees out of pocket but to fundraise. There are many people in the community who would help you go. In addition to that, it’s more fulfilling to the volunteers who have done that. They prove that they are able to volunteer not because they are rich and have thousands of dollars saved up but because they have a heart that moves them to work hard to fundraise. In that case, people who don’t have money couldn’t say they didn’t volunteer because they weren’t rich.

Yes – travel insurance is mandatory. But the good news it is not expensive at all. We will recommend an insurance company that we use. You will be able to purchase a policy through their website for very little.

No. In order to keep our costs low as possible, we don’t include travel insurance in our fees. We’ve discovered that volunteers can usually find it cheaply by getting their own. Because insurances prices change frequently, we encourage our volunteers to contact their volunteer consultant to recommend a good and reputable company that is giving the best rates at the time of their volunteer.

Most likely, yes. We recommend that you talk to you primary care doctor about your travel and he will administer any needed vaccinations. Even though our founder and Director (Dr. Ken) is a U.S trained physician, it is unethical or even against the law to offer certain types medical advise/care to people who are not doctor’s patients. However, Dr. Ken recommends that you visit the Center for Disease Control, CDC website to see what types of vaccinations you’ll probably need for Cameroon. But the final decision of which you will take rests with your doctor. http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/vaccinations.htm

You do. And this is not difficult at all. Once you have paid your registration fee to confirm your booking. We will assign you with a Volunteer travel consultant who will guide you through all that very easily.

Please if you do not year back from us in 48 hours or if you have any questions regarding your booking. Please call or email us. Check our contact page on our main website menu for our contact information.

Thanks for asking that question. Change Volunteers was formed to provide a trusted, affordable, flexible, safe, and life-changing alternative to the numerous volunteer placement organizations that charge thousands of dollars in fees to volunteer abroad. Please visit our page, Why Choose Change Volunteers?

We take this question as a complement. And thank you for asking. Change Volunteers was formed to provide affordable and life-transforming volunteer experiences as an alternative to high cost volunteer opportunities that are widely available. Our strategy to keep costs down comes from our minimalist view of volunteer experience. We believe that a truly life changing volunteer experience doesn’t come from spending too much money and providing them with spa treatment and luxury accommodations.  No, true life change and meaning to life comes from the relationships that we provide, the environment that we create for our volunteers to flourish and affect local communities. Because we have focused on that life change, we have eliminated any wasteful expenditure and kept only the basics that are essential. No, our volunteers don’t starve. They don’t suffer. They live as close to the local citizens as possible and so costs are low. We promise that dollar for dollar, experience for experience, we provide the best volunteer opportunities in the world! I think it has to do with why we do it too… If the founder of an organization leaves the opportunity to practice full-time medicine in the U.S and make hundreds of thousands of dollars to pursue his passion of helping volunteers help poor communities, it tells you how seriously that organization takes volunteering. When you choose Change Volunteers that also tells you the kind of partner you are choosing to change the world!

Please see the booking process and fill out the booking form or application.

Yes! We encourage group volunteering and can handle groups as large as 50 people. Please contact us with details about your group to receive group discounts.

Yes. And we will give you a 10% discount on program fees when you do that and give your friend 5% discount on program fees.

Yes! They can volunteer if they are accompanied on the trip by someone older than 18 years old who wishes to be responsible for putting an eye on him or her.

It depends what program you are interested in. Please see program requirements for the best answer to this question. In general, you need to be able to speak English and be able to do what it is you are trying to volunteer and do. Again, please see each program requirements for details.

Change Volunteers doesn’t handle donations. Our parent organization Shaping Destiny does through its orphans ministry website www.orphans360.org. If you want to donate, please go directly to that website.

This is possible but not guaranteed because we don’t have fixed dates for volunteers. Our volunteers come and go.

We don’t have deadlines. However we recommend that you apply as son as you know for two reasons. It may take several months for you to get a visa, get immunizations and fundraise. Also when you apply and pay your registration fee, we match you with a volunteer consultant who would help you all the way.

It depends on the country you are traveling from. Most likely you would. Please contact your volunteer consultant for help with this.

Yes, your Change Volunteers will give you a reference after you complete your volunteer trip. In addition to that, we are glad to serve as your referee.

These vary; please change the program page to answer this question. If you are not satisfied, please send us an email or call us.

No, the only language you need to know is English.

Yes! We have you covered with a lot of advise and help with fundraising. Please check our fundraising page for details. After you are assigned a travel volunteer consultant, he will go into greater detail and help you with fundraising needs.

Yes! We believe that it is important to complement volunteering with opportunities for sightseeing and tourism in the country that you go to volunteer. During the weekends, volunteers will be able to go sightseeing. Our in country partners are well equipped to help you get to the best tourist attraction sites in their local regions.