Chandigarh... not so poor?

I just wanted to clarify something: someone listening to us complain about our disgraceful accommodation mentioned "What did you expect? India is a 3rd world country?" On the contrary, these are just a couple of photos of the houses around our neighbourhood. Just to prove a point I uploaded these to show that India is not all rubble and with the amount of money we are paying (which I have been told is a lot) there is no reason for us to be living in slum like conditions.

The difference of Philosophy

I believe in AIESEC like a great organization that is a plataform for develop your potential.

I believe in my Local Comittee like a part of an Organization that helps you to be better and try to make this world better.

I believe in their Philosophy as well... But what I can't believe is that AIESEC Chandigarh is part of this organization and is making people so dissapointed about it.

When you are part of something...you are the mirror of that.

Anything you do, will be like if all the people of that thing, is doing it. When somebody becomes AIESEC'er, is because you have the skills to be an AIESEC'er.

You can't just came in, go to some meetings, maybe travel to some congress and then don't do anything for the organization or the external members and keep saying that you are an AIESEC'er. In my personal point of view I'm learning from all the shit that this people is making to the interns.

Just let's put the Situation>>

I Came from a country where is not easy to leave your job, leave your house, and pay more than 3 thousand dollars in tramits, visa, airplane, medical insurance, and more stuffs. You came to Chandigarh India, thinking that you will find people with your same values. People like you.

People that join to AIESEC because they have the same profile like you. But then you realize that nobody cares that you came.

They use u like a toy or like a puppet, that they can show to their friends like a price for been a good boy, and had good records.

You are treated like a zoo monkey, showing to the people like something extraordinary, living in a small cage, with the most minimal needs and sometimes in a cold place near of the snakes, rats and other dangerous things.

You are just another number. They don't care about you.

They are just care about the results in their records for been called the "#1 Local Committee of 2009 in the AIESEC Network of 1100 LCs from over 107 countries."

According with what they post in their website>> http://www.aiesecchandigarh.org/work-aboard-program/

Integration – AIESEC members in your host chapter provide support and assistance in getting setup while providing opportunities for cultural and social activities.

We don't feel Integrated and we don't feel that this LC gave us support in almost anything, except 2 or 3 people that are the only ones that cares EP's...when there are 27 members in the EB.

Lies, lies, lies....That is all what we have seen from them.

I also Have a blog. I'm also writting about my intership...

But why I don't invite people to Chandigarh and I ignore all their request to bring more people?...because I don't want they pass for all of this.

I Preffer to be loyal to My LC, but only to them, and try to avoid this issues in my LC.

why I don't write about AIESEC Chandigarh?...because I don't want to remember them.

So why we are doing this? Because we try many times to talk with them, explain the situation, asking for help, or at least a little bit of support. And they just ignore you.

We are doing this looking for a way of fix this situation, we try to do it in a good way, in a Friendly way, but they don't care about it, maybe in this way they will listen to us and do something, and if is possible, change the way that this LC treats their interns, because many people will return to their countries dissapointed of what should be their life's experience.

From Unhappy AIESEC Chandigarh Intern # 5

UPDATE

Yesterday I found out that AIESEC Chandigarh is aiming to bring 600 interns to India for the year 2010. I also found out that they have committees for every single aspect of AIESEC such as Finance, External Relations, Incoming Exchange, Outgoing Exchange, etc BUT (and its a very big BUT) they have not 1 single person that deals with any of the interns once they arrive here. Clearly because they do not care!!!

This supports my introduction. They only care about the quantity of interns that they bring here and not the quality of the interns stay!!!

If you are reading this blog inform anyone who is thinking about coming to India through AIESEC Chandigarh to have a serious think about if they want to be a statistic?


From Unhappy AIESEC Chandigarh Intern # 1

Five houses

The first bad thing that I saw didn’t happen to me, it happened to some other trainees. They were closing one flat they had to give back to the landlord and the interns would be shifted to a new place. They were told it would happen in the next 2 weeks, but no precise date. One day they come home and find an empty house. AIESECers let themselves in, pack everyone’s stuff and take to the new place. I was told later there were a lot of things missing, and they didn’t know if it was lost or stolen…
In the beginning I was staying in my company’s guest house. After a while I started having some trouble with neighbors, that couldn’t understand why a girl was arriving home after 8pm… The company suggested that I moved to another place to avoid any confrontation with them. I said it was fine and that I was going to start looking for a place. My company calls AIESEC and tells them they have to help me do it. They of course say yes. The place they had planned for me was of course horrible, and I never wanted to move to that place. AIESEC insist that I have to move in the same day. I call company and they say I only have to move if I feel comfortable. Next day I get the same call, saying that I had to move the same day. What he hell is this? It’s of course AIESEC’s behavior of saying yes to all the companies and not considering their interns at all… Eventually I was more stressed with AIESEC’s threatening and I did move out to the bad place. AIESEC promised me it would be only for a week, that they would help me find a new place. That of course never happened and I lived in 37 until it was closed down, another 4 months
37 had some main issues… we had mold on the walls, broken toilet, no water in the kitchen, gas leaking, a balcony that was falling apart and dropping rocks in our heads… Just to start it with. AIESECers have been informed of this of course, in many occasions, by different forms. Most of the time they would say “no problem, we’ll fix it all by next week”. Of course it didn’t happen. Eventually, after many confrontations, The LCP, Vikram Jain, said it would be easier to find us a new house than to fix that one. That was supposed to happen within a month, but it took them 3 months to find a new place.



Toilet, Balcony falling apart and kitchen tap that never worked (so we would keep bottles with water next to it)

Meanwhile, the trainee house in Panchkula had some different issues. Since it was summer time, there was a high number of trainees in town, and they simply kept dropping people there, even with the complains that the place was over crowded. They answer was it’s only for 6 weeks!”. That house, which could take comfortably 6 to 8 people, had somehow to be home for 14.
Coming back to Chandigarh: we started hearing rumors that there was a new place, but even though we asked to check the apartment before they take it, the best they said they could do was to show a house in the same building, because an AIESECer happened to have a flat there. They would keep saying: you have to give us money, then we’ll have the keys of the new place and you can move in the next day, Of course it wasn’t as they said it would be right? One day I get a call: Ok, I’ll send someone to pick you up in 2 hours, to move to the new place, pack your things. Certainly it was short notice, but I didn’t complain because I was dying to see get out of the bad house. I somehow manage to put all my things together, and wait. I waited for hours, kept calling and eventually they stopped picking up. I send a text message: “Do you think I’m a clown for you to make such jokes with me?”. Then I get the phone call “who do you think you are to talk to me like this. I’m managing the things to move you out and I won’t tolerate such behavior” and hang up. Why do I have to tolerate all this then?
It was two weeks later that we actually move out of 37. We were called, at 9pm to be informed that we would have to move out the next day at 8 am. Without many options, we pack our bags and wake up early, just to wait the AIESECers for 2 hours. When they arrived, they didn’t know what to do with us. They had to submit the keys of our place to the landlord, but they didn’t have the keys to the new place yet. Of course there was a fight right then and there, and we had to hear opposite statements such as “trust us, everything is going to be ok!”, “thank you for handling the situation so well for so long, we know it wasn’t easy” and my favorite “You know, I hope that when I have my internship I’ll go through a situation as bad as yours, because this is the kind of things that makes us stronger”. After another hour discussing, they picked us up and took us to different home stays for 3 days, till they had the new apartment’s keys.
They took us to the new place at 7pm, and we came to know that the place didn’t even have the light bulbs yet. After 1 hour an electrician came and installed these things, along with these guys, AIESECers left and said that everything (beds, chairs, table, stove…) would be delivered in the upcoming hour. We waited for long and by midnight we called pissed off because we didn’t even have beds… then they were delivered at 2 am… well, this house was way better than the previous one, but we still had problems… broken tap in the kitchen, broken flush in the toilet, a whole In one of the rooms that was meant for an AC, but since we didn’t have it was just exposing us to the street. And I can’t forget to say that we didn’t have gas for 3 weeks and that kitchen stuff like plates, mugs, forks and knives ended up being provided by my company, because they felt sorry that we didn’t have it there.
We stayed in this place for 3 months, until we were informed that we would have to move out to a new place in two days, this date happened to be New Year’s Eve. It had to be then because they told the landlord they would give the key back in December, and the people leaving in our new place would move out only on the 30th. AIESECers came here by 6pm to take our things and…. Surprise, surprise! The new place still had the previous people in, apparently they didn’t have a place to go, so they decided to stay there a couple more days. The next day we move in to find a filthy house, that had even rotten food inside the fridge and the old clothes people had left behind inside the wardrobes. After cleaning, the place is finally nice. Of course, that the no gas situation was there for 20 days, and no internet for a whole month… But now the house at least is not an issue for me, Well, I’m living in my 5th house in 10 months now.

From Unhappy AIESEC Chandigarh Intern # 4

A Life Changing Experience?

What is AIESEC? “the international platform for young people to explore and develop their leadership potential.", they say. "AIESEC helps people become change agents and have a positive impact on society". "AIESEC bridges gaps between cultures and provides amazing internships in 107 countries!"

Hey AIESEC, let me introduce to you AIESEC Chandigarh!


I don't know where to start really. Instead of writing all of my complaints in paragraph form (which I don't think I have enough space for) , I'll just write a quick world jumble, if you will, to describe my experience with AIESEC CHandigarh during my 2 months internship last summer.

Here goes: No airport pickup, no bus terminal pickup, locked up in room for 5 hours with no info or food after a 15 hour flight,no trainee house for the first two weeks, internship didn't start on time ( 2 weeks late), job description not fulfilled, stayed later in a house with 8 people while it was clear it has only space for 4 or 5, no toilet seat for the first week, no washing machine, took A big ammount of money from me as insurance 3000 R which i almost didn't get back even though i was Dt, took the same ammount from MTs but described it as rent, kicked me out of my house a week before i was supposed to leave because they didn't want to pay money for my rent because i was a DT. Phewwww, that's about it!... I think.

Now to be fair, i still managed to have a great time,and an experience that will cherish for a long time, but that's because of the amazing country and great people i meet there. The work of AIESEC Chandigarh can be described as abysmal at most.

Which brings me to my question to every AIESECer out there: Are we losing sight of what we are about?

From Unhappy AIESEC Chandigarh Intern # 3

AIESEC CHANDIGARH = Terrible Housing Situation!

AIESEC Chandigarh has a stated aim of becoming the best LC in the world. Because of the way this is measured, they are looking to bring as many interns to their LC as possible, and have brought about 350 interns last year. It seems to us, however, that the excessive focus on bringing in more interns has led them to lose focus on the quality of the interns’ stay.

Our main problem was the housing situation. While we expected India to be a challenging place to live and work in, we never expected to be mistreated in the way we have experienced here. In the end, some of us found the situation unbearable and we felt forced to start looking for another place to stay. Others, who are staying for shorter periods of time, do not have that option, and have to put up with AIESEC Chandigarh's management. These are the main complaints we have about our housing situation so far:

- During the summer houses had been overcrowded(May-November= This is specifically true for one of the houses, where one floor housed 9 interns in two bedrooms and a living room.

- Basic amenities are missing. There is no possibility for hot water, there is no washing machine and we lack closet space and other basic furniture. Previously, up to 18 people were sharing a single WI-FI network. Few times we were without any internet connection for many weeks, even though we paid for it. During the same period, we were also lacking gas in the kitchen, which made cooking at home impossible.

- We are being overcharged. Every person has been paying Rs. 3,000 for one month(plus internet and electricity), which for the previous months has added up to more than the rent AIESEC Chandigarh is paying to the landlord. While they assure us that this money is being spent for investing in housing or to cover for periods when they have fewer interns, we have still not seen any documentation of this fact, even though we have asked for it on several occasions. During our search for another place to stay we have discovered that the price the landlord is demanding for our unfurnished apartment is the same as many others are asking for fully furnished places in the same neighbourhood.

- The management of the house has been horrific. Mr. Baldeep, an AIESEC alumnus who was previously in charge of all the AIESEC intern houses, listened to our complaints and concerns, but did nothing. A simple thing, such as replacing a broken toilet seat, took over a month to accomplish. Few months ago, Mr. Baldeep resigned, and came to our house in the middle of the night, while the trainees were sleeping, to take back “his” things, such as the internet router, gas cylinders and... the light bulb. After his resignation, we have been promised a new and better management system, but we have not seen any changes. What's more, Mr. Baldeep is still being given responsibilities by AIESEC Chandigarh.

- Our rights as tenants have been disregarded. Several examples could be listed here. Some months ago, five people from one of the trainee houses were forced to move to the empty second floor for four days because the landlord wanted to use the rooms they stayed in for a wedding. The concerned interns were first told on the morning of the day they had to move. At the end of October, a meeting was held to discuss the housing situation with the leaders of AIESEC Chandigarh, including Vikram Jain, LC President, Deepvansh Khurana, LC VP, and Shalika Sharma, also LC VP. We talked about our interest in moving out of the house and said we would give them notice. A few days later Vikram turned on us saying we had already said we were moving out and followed by informing us that they were “evacuating” the first floor, effectively kicking us out with only one week’s notice. Those interested in moving out were now forced to look for a place to live with no help from the LC whatsoever. One intern, who had never planned to move out, was thus forced to move to another intern house, with notice from. It should be agreed that interns are not suppose to deal with such situation to put them at such unease in a foreign country by their guest LC. This kind of treatment is totally unacceptable.

- Deposits have not been returned to us as per our contracts. Those of us who were put in the position that we were forced to move out, have received their full security deposits back after 6 weeks. However, many people who were finishing their interships, did not get their deposits back and just went back home because they did not want to fight with AIESEC Chandigarh


- Registration with the Foreign Regional Registration Office has not been completed for many interns. This registration is mandatory for the interns staying for more than six months, and is therefore of great importance to many interns, since their stay here otherwise would be illegal.

The above should cover most of the complaints we have about the situation we have been dealing with for the last months. We would like to repeat that while we are dealing with our situation as best as we can, we want to make absolutely certain that interns in the future do not face these kinds of problems. Any action that could be taken by both LCs and MCs to improve the situation and management we believe should be seriously considered.
While all of the interns here are enjoying the stay and are grateful to AIESEC for the opportunity to complete these internships, there is no denying that our experiences with the Chandigarh LC have done nothing to uphold the good name of AIESEC. We feel that we owe the organization less and less, which is very unfortunate indeed, especially for the hard-working LCs of our native countries, who have done nothing wrong in this situation.


Yours sincerly,

A concerned group of interns

My small room

Ok this my room I got when I arrived - we were two people living in this cell for two almost two months.. both of us paying 3000 rupees.. :) There wasnt enough space to open my luggage.. had to put it outside! It was 3 x 2.5 meters plus small bathroom.. on the backyard of someones house..

From Unhappy AIESEC Chandigarh Intern # 2

Disappointed

I left my country knowing I gona work in Chandigarh and have my accommodation in Panckula, the childrens home. And that everything was planned as per my taste. Well I get here and I'm moved from place to place, Ambala to Chandigarh and back like thrice. Them finally i get settled in Ambala which is 1 hour away from Chandigarh. I take it all. Not forgetting the weather and that is was my first time in winter. So after my two weeks, the drama starts. we are forced to go to the Global Village when we were extremelly tired. We get there and in two days its' done , so we leave for Ambala but as soon as we arrive we are told that we should pack up and that we are going back to the school where the Global village was. We had no idea this plan was being made when we were there. We pack up and leave the next day. We arrive at the school and accommodation and meals were not thought of like we are gona starve and live on the streets. The director offers us his office as accommodation. I don't know if anyone has ever experienced living in the school with only a guard in it. We complain because we are 3 people in one bed. They organize a school store for us. I wass so in AIESEC chandigarh for having decided to invite us here and we leave the comfort of home for the comfort of the store....WOW!!! the things we go through.

did i mention that the picture i have attached up is situated in the school, has no bath room and the nearest bathroom is 100 meters away and we were three girls. the windows were broken and it was the current kitchen for non-staff members which turned into the intern house...it was near to the gate and the guard slept like 500 yards away so who would protect us?coz we live in the middle of the city. i wonder what kind of picture EPs who have just been introduced to AIESEC get and are having their first experience as this;what will they think about the organisation? its so sad that we can portray something like this to them because we will lose out on a lot of potential just because of AIESEC Chandigarh. we should work upon it.

From anonymous

INTRODUCTION

After being extremely dissatisfied with how I was treated by AIESEC Chandigarh I started to talk to other interns and realized most other interns felt exactly the same way.

One night sitting in our intern house with no electricity, water or gas, a conversation began on how we wanted to stop this happening to future interns. In the past many attempts have been made by other equally dissatisfied interns but yet AIESEC Chandigarh still became the number 1 LC in the world for 2009. Extremely frustrated by this, I asked another intern why there was so many unhappy interns but yet nothing has changed??? The intern replied-

“There are 3 types of people: those who say they are going to do something but never do, those who follow others but won’t actually initiate action themselves and those who say they are going to do something and ACTUALLY do it!”

I hope to be the latter by starting this blog (and do give complete credit to another intern for the idea :) In starting it though, I am extremely realistic when I say I don’t think I can COMPLETELY stop the mistreatment of all AIESEC Chandigarh Interns but I do hope that this blog will at least contribute towards AIESEC Chandigarh not becoming the number 1 LC for 2010!!!

Please help me in my attempt and share your stories- please feel free to share your name OR keep it anonymous (what I will be doing initially or until I finish my internship) and PLEASE share this blog with as many other interns whom you know that are also unhappy with their experience!!!

Lastly I want to make it VERY clear- I am not saying I regret coming to India, nor am I disrespecting AIESEC as a whole. I greatly respect what they do and think they are a wonderful organization that positively contributes to helping so many different people, in so many locations all over the world. What I am saying is that I think AIESEC Chandigarh only cares about the QUANTITY of interns that they bring here and have complete disregard for the QUALITY of the interns stay! For example, AIESEC Chandigarh often never respond to interns as they are too "busy" at functions and events celebrating their title of best LC in the world, eating lavish meals and singing AIESEC Chandigarh chants, applauding themselves for the numbers and figures they have achieved. Meanwhile many interns are begging for a clean place to stay, beds, blankets, water and gas, whilst still paying ridiculous amounts of fees. It makes you sick right! Let’s do something about it this time!!!

Yours truly,

Unhappy AIESEC Chandigarh Intern # 1