World Challenge

[SqueakyPop]

Has anyone's DC done World Challenge?

I went to a parents' presentation last night for DS to go to Uganda and Kenya in 2010.

It looks fantastic and really worthwhile, but ouch on the finances (although daily, it is a lot cheaper than most school trips).

How did they go about raising money?

How did they find it overall, and have they grown as a result of their experience?

My son went to Mexico with his school at the end of his year 11.

WC were very poor at contact and organising things at the school and the teacher allocated had really no interest apart from his free place on the trip, was not willing to help with fundraising etc at all.

The boys were really left to their own devices and some were more successful than others at fundraising - their was no sense of 'teamwork' about it as there should be.

As far as the actual trip was concerned, it was badly organised, only Spanish speaker in the group was DS, bookings at Hostels were not made in advance, the main trek was cancelled with no backup plan offered and then we had to argue about compensation with WC after the party got back.

Having said all that it was a fantastic experience for them, it improved his spanish no end and he still talks about seeing the Jungle for the first time and the temples.

Oh dear, that is not the impression WC gave us. They said the WC employee would come to school about once a month to check on their progress with fundraising and teambuilding. The school leader has been on 5 or 6 of them already. They will also do a trial run for 3 days in the Peak District.

I know taht it is up to the teams to do most of the planning themselves.

It's good that your DS still enjoyed it.

No they certainly talked the talk, the actual leader they got was not the same person who visted the school, but he was very good with a bunch of 16 year old boys and was able to assert his authority.

The prep. course they did was very easy by comparison to the time in MExico, it was on Dartmoor and much like the 10 Tors.

My dd wants to go on an expedition with Outlook Expeditions to Malawi at the end of Y11.
Any great money raising ideas very gratefully received.......

Well ours had a lot of success with a printed quiz, sold it for a pound each and gave donated prizes to the top three, raised over three hundrd pounds, a quiz night at the school also went down well, as did bagpacking at Waitrose near Christmas

DS has a business at school where he can make £30-50 a week. He should be able to raise half of his money this way, as long as he is disciplined.

We don't want him to get a job during the school year, but he would like to work at the local theme park in the Summer.

What on earth does your ds do to earn that much at school? Might give mine some ideas!

I do no recommend World Challenge. We paid a deposit of £250 and another amount over £1500 pounds and my daughter could not go.

I requested a full refund and did not get a single penny back because they told us the flights were already booked. What transpired was that trip was cancelled and they still refused to give me my money back.
It was daylight robbery. I intend to take this up with them again as a matter of principle I cannot afford to lose that hard earned cash and I will not stop until I get it back in full. I am posting this for future users of World Challenge. I am surprised schools use them as they have no morals.

As far as I can make out, very few pupils manage to raise enough money and the parents neatly always have to stump up most of the money.

Memyself, they do point out you won't get the money back, unfortunately.

Jeanne16 is right - it is parents in most cases who foot the bill, though I have heard of kids raising the money themselves.

I have had begging emails from parents I work with asking to sponsor such and such their child is doing to raise money for the trip, which does annoy me.

DD1 is glad she went and had a ball though.

I don't think any parents should sign up for this unless they're prepared to stump up the cost themselves. Why should anyone else be expected to fund your child's self-indulgent adventure? I've seen well heeled private school kids collecting pound coins from much poorer families at supermarket checkouts for "helping" them with their shopping - families who have probably never been abroad themselves. And all in the name of charity? A more responsible charity would raise funds to donate to local workers' building projects in those countries , not fly in rich kids from the other side of the world to experience an expensive slice of poverty.

World Challenge is a tour operator not a charity. My daughter's group helped decorate a local school in an Indian town. It wasn't served up as poverty tourism, more an opportunity to interact with members of a community. I agree it is missold though.

Most of the trip was spent on the trek with a couple of touristy things at the end. It was an expensive school trip but DD really loved it. I paid for it myself - I didn't have the gall to ask others for money. BTW I do sponsor people genuinely raising money for charity.

World challenge is not a charity and I would not sponsor anyone claiming it was.
It is however an opportunity to travel and experience new adventures. My DS is going on a world challenge. He is working part time alongside his A levels to help fund. We will fund the outstanding balance if there is one.
We are not a wealthy family, we are not well travelled. We saw this as an opportunity for our DS to experience a holiday we couldn't afford safely.
I'd much rather he save and go on a world challenge with trained adults than two weeks on a lads trip that involves lots of drinking.
As a family it is our preference, not everyone has to agree.