World Challenge - first steps in 2019

[X0X0]

I posted yesterday, but in teenagers and no one has replied...

My dc has come home with a letter/brochure for a World Challenge trip

There is no clue on how long the trip is for, I think it's in 2021, and it's over 3.5k

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/teenagers/1183391-World-Challenge

I found this thread from some time ago, but does anyone have any more recent experiences?

Is there no information on their website, "weareworldchallenge" that will help you?

I'm looking for real peoples experiences not their marketing blurb

@X0X0 my daughter is going on WC in July 2020. It's a 3 week trip. They do a charitable project for a week then trekking for a week and the last week is holiday/sight seeing etc. They were given choices of the projects available and each group voted on them. They are encouraged to fund raise and obv up to the parents how much their child should raise. We expect dd to raise £1500.

Thanks @hillbilly

I'm just trying to see if it's worth it, whether we should spend the money, we could just about do it, but it would be tough

And not sure how much dc can realistically raise?

Dd has a Saturday job and they also do fundraising within their groups. Cake sales and the like. One of her friends is having to raise all the money. They have 18 months so it's doable.

I think the experience she will get makes it worth it.

My experience isn’t recent, from around the time of that thread you linked.

I did a world challenge expedition as a teenager, and it definitely wasn’t worth the money / time spent fundraising.

A key thing to check is group size - there was 17 in ours plus 3 adults. It was far too many people, the needs of quieter group members got ignored as the more dominant personalities picked the activities, food, and accommodation.

I also found the adults with us weren’t great. 2 were teachers from my 6th form, who were clearly there for a bit of a jolly. The leader sent by World Challenge had very poor leadership skills, and despite apparently lots of experience, it seemed no knowledge of how to lead a hiking expedition for a mixed ability group.

The charity project we were assigned also wasn’t a charity. We were told we were visiting a school, except it was the school holidays so there were no children. We were tasked with doing DIY and fixing / decorating the school. A complete waste of time given none of us had the skills to do a decent job. Plus the owner of the land the school was on charged us to camp there whilst we did the work. Clearly they were in it to get the money, not because our service was actually of any use to them.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend world challenge, but would suggest travelling independently with a group of trusted friends.

thanks for the replies, i'm not loving the idea at the moment tbh

my DC is 14, and I don't know what kind of job that they can do - I don't want to go down the fund raising (pub quizzes etc) as they are not a charity...!

I've been on a few, as a teacher. Certainly not a jolly, done in own time. I think it's great experience but doubt the charitable aspects. The students I lead were generally great at group choices, etc. Biggest problem by far was students who did not get fit beforehand.

@X0X0 dd is also 14 and works in a local cafe 4-5 hrs on a Saturday. I'm sure a lot depends on the group they are in and the leaders. I wish I'd had an opportunity like this at that age. Away from home, the other side of the world with friends - what's there not to like from a teen perspective 😂