Vantaggi
The projects have a great history and awesome partners, if field staff were given freedom to do so, the projects would have the opportunity to become sustainable.
Svantaggi
Senior management. The culture/values of GVI changed in the short time I was there. The values used to be about the great projects, and turned into being about earning cash (which we never saw) and lots of false promises. The culture was a churning machine. Their projects have long term goals (apparently) but no ACTUAL path of development to get there, so GVI keeps their volunteer churning machine going. They'd keep a project in a popular touristy place to attract volunteers than have them somewhere less known, where people and resources are needed. They closed their Kenya base apparently due to lack of volunteers but since I was told it had been running for 10 years, the projects should have been sustainable years ago, so like what?! These change in values are why I'd not recommend people to GVI. You gotta have high values and a great culture to get past the rock bottom salaries and zero benefits. Senior management is also getting too out of touch with their audience since it's been the same guys (yes, always men) running the show for the past 15 years.