I-to-I held a competition in conjunction with The Grauniad two years ago. On the unexplored inside pages of the Education section, you simply had to phone up to win a chance of teaching English in Sri Lanka - all expenses paid. I won!!!!! I got into close phone contact with the I-to-I staff and they were quite a helpful bunch. They sent me reams of information and it was very easy to pick a suitable weekend to take the 40 hour TEFL certificate. It was very easy to follow and pick up the essentials of basic EFL skills - the mark of a good teacher. I also went to a country orientation talk, which was quite interesting and a good chance to socialise. I-to-I organise placements in several countries, including India, Sri Lanka, Russia, Costa Rica and Bolivia. You can work in a professional capacity (say if you are a journalist or an administrator) as well as an EFL teacher. In Sri Lanka, you can work on a turtle sanctuary. There are fees for all of the programmes as well as for the placement. However, once you are there your on-site accomodation and food is free - the quality depends on the location! There is also a co-ordinator based in the country of your placement. Our one was a twenty-something Hindu emigre from the Sind region of Pakistan, who was a garment manufacturer (although I never saw him do any work!)and western-educated. He was very helpful and always arranged for us to have a good weekend in Colombo or Unawatuna (although his travelling experience of Sri Lanka seemed to be limited to Colombo, Galle and Nuwara Eliya!). He also had good links and contacts with the placements.
There is the option of going on a week long tour, costing around £125. It is a nice way to see Sri Lanka before your placement, although it is not the proper backpacker way (I did that later!) and there were some quibbles over whether this tour was included in my prize.
The TEFL placements were split between teaching at SANASA credit unions where you would be teaching the staff or at SOS orphanages. I think my placement was probably the most lavish as I ended up at the SANASa education campus, where they had built quite lavish halls of residence. However, I think conditions were good everywhere and the hosts were very welcoming and appreciative.
As for the Turtle placement, I met a guy who took that and it did not seem as satisfactory with the owner acting in a very exploitative manner towards the Sri Lankan staff (although not the volunteer) and not investing in the sanctuary for many years.
All in all, I-to-I seems to be an up and coming agency with good links and programmes in various countries. What's more they seem to be able to tailor placements to suit peoples needs.
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Advantages: Enjoyable placement, loved working with kids Disadvantages: Disorganised, overpriced, left to your own, some projects dont exist, some false information
lizziebs 12.04.2006 (12.04.2006)
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Review of I-to-I
Advantages: glossy brochure with nice, inspiring pictures, beautiful countries Disadvantages: not interested in you after you book and hand over the cash
SamFord 13.11.2006 (13.11.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of I-to-I
Advantages: glossy brochure with nice, inspiring pictures, beautiful countries Disadvantages: not interested in you after you book and hand over the cash
SamFord 13.11.2006 (13.11.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of I-to-I
Feb 14th, 2001
very helpful by (67%):
helpful by (33%):
