Victory for student over her ‘shambolic’ Madagascar trip
A STUDENT who paid £1,200 to Frontier, a travel company that specialises in placing volunteers abroad, has won back almost all her money after starting a legal action over what she describes as a ‘shambolic’ experience that ruined her placement at the Nosy Be Hospital in Madagascar.
Keira Heslin-Davies, a fourth year medical student in London, says that her arrival surprised staff. She said: ‘No one at the hospital was expecting me or really seemed to know who Frontier was.’ No work had been planned for her. She protested by email to Frontier and says the final straw came when she found a fresh volunteer was due to arrive. ‘They expected me to guide her round the hospital. I received no guidance. A person from Frontier just took me to the hospital and said: “Off you go.’’’
When she declined to guide the new volunteer, Frontier scrapped her placement and, she says, she was given 20 minutes to pack and leave. She moved into a hotel and began her legal action after returning to London. The case went to arbitration and she was awarded £1,135. Keira has donated the money to the Madagascar hospital and has also started an internet JustGiving page which has already attracted hundreds of pounds in donations. Frontier was invited to comment but had not done so by this page’s deadline.
I reported in March last year how a 20-year-old student had paid £695 for a six-week volunteer placement at a children’s summer camp in Beijing. But on arrival, she was sent to a town more than 1,000 miles from the Chinese capital, which involved a 33-hour train journey.
She then had to fly home early because the camp closed and she was expected to fend for herself.