Samenvatting

Amaidi is an organization located in the south of India that focus on placing volunteers from, mainly Europe, in projects of Indian partners. Many volunteers come to India with wrong expectations about work, culture, accommodation and the contribution that they can make. That is why I have done research to find out what the expectations exactly are and to give an advice how volunteers can be better prepared in the future. The policy question was; 'How can Amaidi create realistic expectations in advance for the volunteers?' and the research question was; 'What are the expectations of the volunteers and are they similar to reality.' Sub questions were formulated to make the research area more specific. The research has been conducted by a survey under 15 volunteers between December 2010 and the beginning of February 2011. This survey asked about the expectations the volunteers had when they were still at home, when they arrived in India and spend some time working an interview followed. This interview asked about how the reality was and if that was similar as their expectations were. The results showed that volunteers expected a higher level of English in the schools and also in daily life. In schools it was more difficult to keep the attention of the children, overcome the language barrier and to use other teaching methods. Some expected to make a big difference and other were prepared on small progress. In reality it was more difficult to make a difference than was thought. Volunteers expected also to be needed or that the principals would be really happy with their help. In reality the 'need' or the happy principals were not there.
About a lot of subjects volunteers found it difficult to have a expectation. This because of the lack of information, but also because it is so far away from familiar situations. The volunteers prepared themselves by various channels with as most popular ones; surfing around the internet, information of Amaidi, Information of the sending organizations, travel books and information of former volunteers. There missed a lot of accommodation and project related information. But some volunteers admitted that the missing information were things that they did not ask for. How should Amaidi prepare the volunteers better in the future? They can do this by a good web presence. A good new website, using facebook and twitter frequently, remove not used or bad used social media, try out a weblog on the new website and post on online travel communities.
Next to web presence Amaidi should cooperate better with sending organizations and use the email better towards the volunteers.
There is a new logo that should be used together with the pay off; 'Volunteering for development.' Amaidi should also communicate its strong points; making the best match as possible, with a lot of freedom but for a small price.