My Nonprofit Reviews

American Jewish world service is the worst organization I've ever gone on a trip with. I attended their week long program in Nicaragua in January 2012 with a group of all college students. I did not really know how the organization worked before hand, but I came in with the idea that we would be helping a small community build a grain silo to help with their agriculture. What actually happened is we were kept in a heavily fortified compound with a armed guard. The only time we were allowed to leave is when we were taken to the community to dig trenches for 5 hours a day. Oh yeah last minute they decided we were better suited to dig trenches in hard-as-rock ground. I actually had no problem with doing this seeing that we were bringing running water to this village for the first time. The thing that really pissed me off is after these long mornings of hard work we went back to the compound and had to sit through lectures and activities for another 4 hours. They tried to force into our heads over and over again why we needed to volunteer more and become a citizen of the world. Honestly they were preaching to the wrong crowd. Clearly we were already on a service trip! The big problems arose when they found the alcohol I had bought. Now the drinking age in Nicaragua is 16 and having known this beforehand I planned to buy alcohol right when I got there, which me and my friend both did. Realizing we didn't have a lot of opportunity to drink we snuck a few here and there. Upon finding us pouring the liquor, our group leader made us all have a long discussion and told us that he would have to talk to their offices in NY. This is all occurring on Wednesday by the way. I hadn't read the rules or the contract before going so I didn't really know the repercussions of getting in trouble. The next day the group leader said we were going home for breaking the rules and the before you know it were in a taxi heading to the airport. So there we were on a flight home with only 2 days left in the whole trip. I get home and look over the rules only to find out our group leader had lied to our faces over and over again. They had no right to kick us out of the country and force us into signing documents. I could have easily stayed on my own till my flight Saturday as I have traveled a lot by myself and am not a minor. The organization treated us all like children, which we are not, and made a fool of itself. Being with them is almost like being in a Nazi work camp. NO ONE SHOULD DO A TRIP WITH THEM!!!!!

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