Terms and Conditions of Service

1. Terms of Use

Please read our terms and conditions of service carefully before submitting your online booking form or using this site. When you check the box that ‘I have read and agree to the legal terms and conditions’ in the online application form, you are deemed to have read and agreed with the following terms and conditions. If you do not agree to these terms of use, please do not use the site.

The materials in this site are provided “as is” and without warranties of any kind either expressed or implied. To the fullest extent permissible and subject and pursuant to applicable law, Change Volunteers disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

Change Volunteers is not liable for any errors or mistakes made by partner organizations. All disputes are governed by the law of the state of Texas and would be carried out in a court of law in Austin, Texas.

This site is presented solely for the purpose of promoting Change Volunteers’ services. This site is controlled and operated by Change Volunteers from its offices in Austin, TX,  United States. Change Volunteers makes no representation that materials in the site are appropriate or available in other locations. Those who choose to access this site from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local law are applicable.

Change Volunteers reserves the right to use feedback and images provided by volunteers for website materials such as testimonials or for promotion of it’s services in other forms of media.

Change Volunteers does not warrant or make any representations regarding the correctness, accuracy, reliability, or otherwise of the materials in this site or the result of their use.

Change Volunteers and its partner organizations reserve the right to remove the volunteer from the program if the volunteer is deemed to be disruptive or in any way interferes with the fulfillment of it’s purposes of serving the poor through great volunteering.

2. Risks

Travel abroad is inherently risky. The volunteer acknowledges and accepts responsibility of these risks and the risks associated with living and working in a developing country.
By choosing to volunteer with Change Volunteers, the volunteer acknowledges that they know and accept the fact that volunteering abroad can often be hazardous and involve risks of foreseen and unforeseen personal injury to the volunteer. The volunteer completely accepts these risks.
To the maximum extent of the law, Change Volunteers (and all of its directors, shareholders, employees, managers, host country partner organizations and host families are not liable, for any loss or harm to the volunteer (or their associates) suffers as a result of their volunteer experience.
This includes but is not limited to

– Bodily or personal injury;
– psychological or emotional injury;
– Death;
– Illness or disease;
– Damage to or loss of property;
– Hostage situations; or
– War or terrorism.
– Natural disasters

3. Travel

The volunteer will be exclusively responsible for arranging and paying for their own travel. This includes all airfares, transport costs to and from the host country, and any transport costs needed within the host country. The volunteer is responsible for carrying all necessary documents when traveling abroad. Change Volunteers may advise the volunteer on required travel documentation, however, the volunteer will still be responsible for carrying everything they need. Change Volunteers will not be responsible for any supporting documents needed for the volunteer’s travel or for any other purposes.

4. Indemnity

The volunteer agrees to indemnify Change Volunteers against any and all liability which Change Volunteers incurs arising directly or indirectly out of, or in connection (in any way) with, the volunteer’s travel to, living in and providing services in the volunteer’s nominated country.

The volunteer agrees to indemnify and hold Change Volunteers harmless from and against any and all liabilities, losses, claims, and damages which Change Volunteers  incurs arising directly or indirectly out of, or in connection (in any way) with the volunteer’s travel to, living in and providing services in the volunteers chosen country. The volunteer agrees that Change Volunteers is not liable for any actions or omissions of any partner organization.

To the full extent permissible at law, all representations, terms, warranties, guarantees, or conditions whether implied by statute, common law or custom of the trade or otherwise, including, but not limited to, implied warranties and guarantees, are excluded.

Notwithstanding anything else contained in any agreement, the liability of Change Volunteers to the volunteer shall not in aggregate exceed the amount of the registration fee paid by the volunteer.

Change Volunteers has no liability for any lack of performance, unavailability or failure of the services or its website, or for any failure of Change Volunteers to comply with these terms and conditions, where the same arises from any cause reasonably beyond the control of Change Volunteers.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas and the United States.

4. Conduct, Drug and Alcohol Use

The volunteer must abide by the rules put in place by Change Volunteers’ partner organization, volunteer placement institution and host family in regards to alcohol consumption. Drug use, unless prescribed by a physician, is strictly prohibited and will result in instant termination from the program without refund. The volunteer promises to comply with the partner organization’s code of conduct.

5. Refunds, Changes, and Cancellation Policy

Compared to similar corporations that provide comparable comprehensive volunteer service opportunities, Change Volunteers’ program fees are significantly less than the fees charged by other such companies. Because of our low fees, Change Volunteers operates on a much smaller profit margin. As such, Change Volunteers is unable to provide and does not provide a refund policy except as follows:

If family, personal, academic or other circumstances make it difficult for you to travel at the time you had planned, you can defer your placement for free or for a small cost. Please call us to discuss your situation.

Changes, cancellations or part-cancellations must be requested in writing. The charge for amendments ranges from $65 to $125 plus the amount charged to Change Volunteers by third parties. We will provide you a quote before proceeding if the charges are higher. Cancellation charges depend on how far in advance of your stated departure date we have been informed in writing.  Your stated departure date refers to the earliest of either: the “preferred departure date” entered on your original application form or any subsequently agreed upon date.  If only a month and a year are specified on the application form, the “preferred departure date” is the 1st of the month specified:

• Notice of 3 months or more – $100
• Notice of 2-3 months – One third of total program fee
• Notice of 1-2 months – Two thirds of total program fee
• Notice of less than 1 month – No refund

Please note that the above cancellation charges apply whether an application is made more than three months before the stated departure date or less than three months before the stated departure date. Deposits paid less than three months before the stated departure date, defined as above, are non-refundable.

6. Fees and Payment Schedule

Program fees and all other fees are non-refundable except as described in the refund, changes, and cancellation policy above.  Program fees paid through Change Volunteers by means of online payment, bank or wire transfer will need to have transaction costs paid by the volunteer.

All program fee revisions will be made via the Change Volunteers website with ten days advanced notice given before they take effect. Program fee revisions are not applicable to volunteers who have already paid their registration fee before the revisions take effect.

Marau When are payments due?

All tuition and fees are due  at the dates described below.

Failure to make this payment can result in a loss of volunteer placement with no refund of registration fee.

Where a program is interrupted or cancelled during a placement/rotation, due to circumstances beyond Change Volunteers’ control, the program fee is non-refundable.

7. Insurance

Travel insurance is mandatory for all volunteers and may be included in some Change Volunteers travel packages. However, the volunteer will be responsible for making sure that they have insurance prior to traveling to the host country. It will also be the volunteer’s responsibility to determine the type, extent and levels of any insurance coverage that they want for their trip. However, it must cover their entire travel period.

8. Privacy Policy

At Change Volunteers, we are committed to protecting your privacy as a visitor to our site. We will not sell, disseminate, disclose, trade, transmit, transfer, share, lease or rent any personally identifiable information to any third party not specifically authorized by you to receive your information except as we have disclosed to you in this terms and conditions of service.

9. Online Payments

All online payments are processed through a secure third party site that does not provide Change Volunteers with sensitive information such as credit card details.