Threats from affiliated AIESEC Chandigarh Members...

ONCE AGAIN I NEED TO HIGHLIGHT...

I loved India, I loved the people, I loved the culture, I loved my experience BUT I was unhappy with my internship through AIESEC Chandigarh. I think that most of the interns who contributed to this blog would also agree with this point. I have nothing bad to say about India as a country so I hope the message is NEVER misconstrued! I thoroughly enjoyed my experience there and everyone who knows me, knows it was one of the best times of my life!

If you ACTUALLY read through the blog properly you will see that we are all extremely open minded people who were just trying to improve the conditions for future interns. Therefore now that I have left India it is VERY disappointing to know that we all fought REALLY hard to make a positive difference, and now I hear that conditions have not improved at all. Due to the fact I am still receiving emails from interns, I feel that it is my duty to share their stories on this blog. I have also started receiving emails from other interns from different LC's around India, hence why I have changed the blogs name to the 'AIESEC India Experience!'

I must remind everyone that I met some AMAZING people whilst in India, who I truely believe will be lifelong friends :) Unfortunately I have met a minority of people who are not so kind. It's very devastating, but I have been receiving threats from some affiliated AIESEC Chandigarh members due to this blog. I believe in freedom of speech and therefore will not delete this blog in the hope that it continues to help other interns. Although I am quite alarmed by these threats!

Although many things have been said to me that have not been possible to record, below I have posted a message that was recently sent to me. I have published it in the hope that the threats will stop when the person realizes that everyone in the world can read what they have said.

(THIS MESSAGE IS NOT A REFLECTION OF EVERYONE IN AIESEC CHANDIGARH!)

Thanks for your support.

Yours truly,

Unhappy AIESEC Chandigarh Intern

"take it easy girl come on you had one of ur best times in india and you say shit about it!"

"dont contact me or come to india you moreon you are a selfish bitch who does not know what right and wrong some place gives you the best time of ur life and then you say shit about that place to the whole world what r u ask urself and dont worry about me ill be more creepy to you if u show me ur dirty face again"

"now u gono get a messege everyday from me to remind you how much bitch you"

"u think you too coool now see that"

"fuck those interns in ur ass"

"sayyyyyyyyyyyyy somethinggggggggggg now u bitchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"hh"

Complaint Letter #6 about AIESEC Kolkata!

My AIESEC internship in Kolkata was almost non-existent and was nothing close to what had been promised to me in the JD and by members of AIESEC Kolkata before I arrived. The first problem was that AIESEC Kolkata took 12 days before finally taking me to the organisation. In these 12 days, AIESEC kept promising to come but then just would not turn up and gave various excuses for this. Once I was finally taken to the organisation I learnt that I was to work only one and a half hours a day, instead of the 40 hours a week that had been specified on the TN form. The job in the school turned out to be just like babysitting as we weren't expected to do anything imparticular. Before going to India I had communicated a lot with my manager Tanuj who ensured that the job would be teaching English and other core curricular subjects at the school. Many interns were matched to this organisation so there were 4-5 of us at a time in the classroom where we weren't really needed. After about two weeks of working there we contacted a teacher at the school who said we were no longer needed there at all. After this AIESEC failed to find us other suitable internships as the ones they offered were either too far away or inappropriate for the time we had remaining in India. I ended up travelling and then returning to Kolkata to work at Mother Teresa's House, both great experiences but not what I had come to India to do. Due to this internship and the poor reception of AIESEC Kolkata I have lost quite a lot of faith in AIESEC itself.

New Zealand Intern

Complaint Letter #5 about AIESEC Kolkata!

My name is K.G.K. and I am the AIESECer from local committee of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia. I underwent an exchange as a development traineeship in Kolkata, India for 5 weeks from 19^th of November until 25^th of Disember 2000. But, there was something wrong occurred when I was doing my exchange. Here, I would like to complaint about AIESEC Kolkata in term of their treatment towards me and my friend for the whole of my exchanging period. Here are the lists of the complaint:

1. There was no one from AIESEC fetched me in Kolkata airport (Netaji Subash Chandra Bose International Airport) in 19^th of November 2009 for the first time for me landed in Kolkata. AIESEC Kolkata only sent a taxi driver who held an A4 paper which it was written by my name. Plus, AIESEC Kolkata didn’t pay to the driver as me had to pay for myself about Rs 550. I was a victim of cheating because the normal price from the airport to my apartment only Rs 350.

2. In case of my assignment as a DT, I have to work under an NGO called Margam. According to the acceptance letter from AIESEC Kolkata, I have to start my assignment from 20^th of November 2009 until 1^st of January 2010. But, since I reached Kolkata for the first time in 19^th of Nevember 2009, I had to wait for 12 days to start my assignment because there was no one from AIESEC Kolkata comes to fetch me to bring me to the Margam office for the first briefing of my assignment. My friends also had the same situations which are Katie and Natalie from New Zealand and Leisha from Australia. We work under Margam.

3. According to the acceptance letter, my assignment is to be a teacher where the NGO will provide for me a personal work space and working time from 9 to 5. But it was instead. There was no personal work space for me, I only need to work from 6:30 pm until 8 pm every week day and my role is was not like a teacher, I was more like a baby sitter.

4. My assignment in Margam School only last for 13 days (2^nd of December 2009 until 15^th of December 2009). Since that day, we were unemployed in Kolkata. It was because the teacher from the school said me and my friend need to stop our job in their school because they already have a formal teacher to teach the formal lesson compare our role in their school only as a volunteer teacher. For this case, there was no action from AIESEC Kolkata.

5. In case of my apartment accommodation, it was totally terrible. The condition was really bad. There was no bedroom basic stuff for me just like pillow, bed and wardrobe. I had 2 washrooms in my apartment but only 1 can be used. 1 of the pipe in the washroom was broken where only the cold water can spill out. So, there was no hot water when I took my daily shower as at the same time it was winter in India. I was freezing. I lived in an apartment with 2 homes. For the first time I reach there, the numbers of interns were 8 including me. But, the number keeps rising every single week where AIESEC Kolkata keeps receiving a few interns and put them in my home. Before I back, the number of interns reached 17 people.

Regards,

Intern from Malaysia

Complaint Letter #4 about AIESEC Kolkata!

My complaints start from the very beginning of my India life, that is, a driver sent by the local AIESEC to pick me and another girl who came with me, cheated us by overcharge. In all we paid 550 Rs for the drive from airport to New Alipur which actually is due to the local AIESEC (Common sense I picked up in the later life in India told me that 550 is so big a scam that I just cannot bear it).

Second, just the minute I stepped into the apartment I was told that my project, Navdhara, had already been suspended. However, the local AIESEC never told me that. I cannot help myself bearing a guesswork in my mind that the local AIESEC used a fake TN form, as a bait,(I’d like to call it like that), to attract EPs in order to get more realized matches, which is used to scale their work performance. Not a long time later, my guesswork seems proved by concrete evidence---more and more Chinese EPs came with their dreaming projects only existing in the past. They are doing “trafficking”, aren’t they? Furthermore, the local AIESEC did little about this situation. Every time they came to our apartment they used the same template to tackle our inquiry about jobs, that is: “Em…I promise you…. but you have to wait….”(I wonder if those people are trained to shuffle off their responsibilities.) But as time passed, nothing happened. Many jobless had no choice but walk around the city to kill their time.

Third, is the living environment. We did not have the basic living utilities and maintenance. For example, incredibly, we did not have beds! If sleeping on the ground was still tolerable by regarding it as exotic experience, then unforgivable are things like: broken stove, broken water heater, broken lights, broken toilets. We are not savages who can live without light, toilet and baths!

I hope someone will take my complaints seriously and give me a satisfactory reply!

Sincerely,

AIESEC China Member

Complaint Letter #3 about AIESEC Kolkata!

First, the accommodation in Kolkata for us is really unacceptable. There were always problems with the toilet, water supply and the door lock. In addition to that, there was no bed in the room so that all the trainees had no choice but to sleep with a mattress on the floor. At the same time, AIESEC Kolkata kept sending new trainees to our flat. They even didn’t care if there were enough room or mattress for us. Because of that, some trainees had to share the mattress and some trainees were sleeping in the living room.

On the other hand, the local AIESEC also didn’t care about trainees’ health. For example, there was a girl from South Korea who once had very serious disease because of the local food or something else. She almost died on her way to hospital. After that, she spent several days in the hospital as Intensive Care Unit but there was nobody from AIESEC Kolkata going to see and take care of her, which made me really angry.

Then, what is the most unbelievable thing that AIESEC Kolkata has done is they are cheating on us. Most of their DT programs have already finished for a long time and they still post these TNs on the AIESEC website. As a result of that, a lot of DTs came to Kolkata and finally found that the project they were supposed to work on never existed. It is same for MTs, too. In my TN job description, it said that there would be a PWC-Global Enterprise Project and we would be trained by people from PWC and finally get the certificate from them. But the truth is there was no Global enterprise project, no training from PWC and of course, no certificate. All of that was a big lie which was used by AIESEC Kolkata to attract more EPs and increase their so-called NUMBERS.

I used to work in Incoming Exchange Department in my LC for one and half years and we never did any of those horrible things to our EPs. What I can say is that in Kolkata, there is no AIESEC spirit at all. I don’t think they really understand the culture of AIESEC and why people join AIESEC. What they care is always numbers, which cannot give any benefit to their members and all the EPs. And if no one can stop them from doing such stupid things in the future, they will just ruin the good reputation and image of whole AIESEC, which costs other AIESECers almost 60 years to build.

I do hope someone in AIESEC International can understand what is happening to AIESEC in India and do something to change it. And if there is anything what I can do to help, please feel free to contact me. Leave a comment at the bottom of this and I will try to get in touch with you.

Regards,

AIESEC China EP

Complaint Letter #2 about AIESEC Kolkata!

My name is D.D.Z., an AIESEC EP from LC SYSU in China. From last January to this February, I was doing a Development Traineeship in Kolkata, India with the TN ID of TN-In-IN-CA-2009-2078 and my EP ID of EP-IN-CN-SY-2009-20. This letter is to express my dissatisfaction and complaint about AIESEC Kolkata.

Firstly, AIESEC Kolkata did a very bad reception. I strongly condemn your attitude. My TN manager didn't ask anyone to pick me up at the airport and refused to tell me the particular address of the trainee house.

Secondly, I think the living condition in Kolkata is terrible. I didn't ask to live in a five star hotel, but I need a clean and tidy place, and I need hot water!!! The train house in New Alipore could not satisfy our basic living requirement.

Finally, I went to Kolkata for one month, but I didn't got any job!!!!! That's why I told other Chinese EP AIESEC Kolkata cheated us! The job on my AN form was about fund raising and working in the NGO. But the real job they gave us was not the same as the job on the AN form!

I think AIESEC Kolkata made me feel upset and I won't believe AIESEC India anymore.

It's not just AIESEC Chandigarh thats the problem! Complaints from Kolkata Interns:

Complaint Letter #1 about AIESEC Kolkata

My co-operation with AIESEC Kolkata has been strongly disappointing from the very beginning and I want to place an official complaint. For a long time together with other Eps we tried to change the situation but without any response from Aiesec Kolkata. we hope that together we can change something or at least warn future EPs about Kolkata and prevent them from coming here.

It started from the very beginning when I read the TN profile. Back then, I did not realize that what all the letter contained were lies. In fact all the TN profiles from AIESEC Kolkata were the same. While applying, I was sure that I applied for a job at PriceWaterHouseCoopers(PWC). Later, when the company called me for an interview, it turned out that I had actually applied for a job at hotel, not PW as stated in the TN profile. I was so surprised, because nothing about working at a hotel was mentioned in the TN. The company itself explained what their job entailed and as co-operation with them was really good; I decided to come. AIESEC did not help at all on that field.

As soon as I was accepted at the beginning of October, I waited for official documents from the company and AIESEC so that I can apply for a visa. AIESEC Kolkata assured me that it should not take longer than a week. In the meantime they asked me to pay 50 dollars for further procedures. I denied.

Then it was only worse because AIESEC has been lying to me and the company. Every week I was hearing a different excuse as to why the documents have not yet arrived which occurred continuously for 2 months. Later, even the company tried to help me and contacted AIESEC personally (actually Shreyansh Batia who was responsible for communication with EPs). Shreyansh assured the company that he had sent the documents on the 4th of November, and that they should arrive shortly. Weeks passed and I still did not receive them. Thousands of excuses were made, for example, "fault of courier". I finally got the documents on 22nd of November with the date of shipment 19th of November. So everything that I had been told before was just a lie. I was writing to AIESEC every day with no response. AIESEC Kolkata answered on average one out of five emails. They did not even answer phone calls from the company.

Unfortunately my problems were not over. No one picked me up from the airport even though I had sent the exact details of my flight. It was only because I knew another EP (thanks to the company) that I managed to somehow find the address. Also, no one took me to the job or offered any other help or support.

The house they've placed all the EPs in is another story. It is hard to even call it a house. There are two apartments - two rooms each and two bathrooms. Only one bathroom works. Sometimes we don't have water and when we have it is cold. We live here with 15 people all together now, but every day people are coming. We sleep on the floor on very thin mattresses, two people on one. But we have no more
mattresses with people still coming. No one is informing us about new arrivals so we cannot prepare for them. There is not a fridge or kitchen at all. No furniture also and no equipment. We sit on the floor on newspapers. There is no way to cook so we eat out. Its dirty and crowded. We don't have any shelves, so we keep everything in our luggage. Sometimes we don't even have electricity. We together and separately complained about this situation, but AIESEC Kolkata did nothing. Sometimes they promise something but never keep it. The only thing they remember is to collect money for rent. Then they will come,but to take EP to work - never.

There was not a single thing that Aiesec Kolkata did right. They never said sorry. I hope at least we can change it for future.

Regards,
  
 
  
Unhappy Kolkata Intern

AIESEC Chandigarh- Sincerity or publicity?

There is no doubt that the word is out about AIESEC Chandigarh! Since we have installed a counter on this blog it has had over 700 visitors in 3 days. Not to mention that the visitors are from all around the world. Almost every continent in fact! Are we happy we have reached this many people? Yes. But the reasons why need to be VERY clearly clarified-

1)Is it because we are a minority of evil interns? NO! Most interns are here because they want to make a positive impact on the world. Clearly people don't move to India for a great pay rate, they move here to make a difference. AIESEC Chandigarh has accused us of being a minority of interns who are ruining our experience here by starting this blog. I beg to differ- WHY?

Because we are enjoying it here. We love India, we love travelling, we love spending time with the other interns, we love the experience... we just don't love AIESEC Chandigarh. Did I wake up one morning and say to myself "I want to bring down an organization for no reason?" NO!!! I came here to make a positive impact and that's what I intend to do! I am not wasting hours of my precious time updating this because I am an evil, malicious person. I am doing it to help (repeat HELP) prevent future interns from having a terrible experience.

2) Is it just a minority of interns? NO! AIESEC Chandigarh argued that they were unaware of the 10 unhappy interns and stated there are at least 300 happy ones. The harsh reality is the other night we came up with a list of 15 interns (not including the 10 of us that were in the room) who had their internships broken and that’s only the people we knew. I can’t even imagine how many more interns there are out there. Can you imagine saving up all your money, flying all the way to India and not having an internship? Unimaginable!

3) Is it because we had a negative pre-misconception about AIESEC Chandigarh? NO! Most interns are AIESEC members in their own country. Therefore why on earth would they go on an internship with an organization that they had a negative view on? The rest of the interns are not AIESEC members in their own countries and therefore come here with no opinion formed yet and come here with an open mind. Therefore there is no one left to have a negative pre-misconception!?!

Just in case, to make things completely fair, we have changed the blog’s name to “The AIESEC Chandigarh Experience” and by all means- if any intern that is reading this had a wonderful experience with AIESEC Chandigarh leave an email address in the comments box and I will happily post that too! The unfortunate reality though is the more people that read this, the more people we talk to, the more publicity we get the more negative things we here about AIESEC Chandigarh.

In fact I was even in a business meeting the other day with a lady who did not want to include me in a project as she heard that I was affiliated with AIESEC Chandigarh. And no, I did not say anything bad about them in response but sooner or later it can’t all be called a “coincidence!” Speaking of coincidences it seems rather convenient that AIESEC Chandigarh is bending over backwards trying to make us happy now. Which brings me to my next question- is it sincerity or publicity?

Either way all we care about is gaining positive results for future interns so let’s hope that at the very least we can find a way to achieve that. All the current interns came together last week in our free time to make a list of outcomes we would like to see happen in the future to improve internships through AIESEC Chandigarh. Will keep everyone updated with how it all goes.

Unhappy AIESEC Chandigarh (extremely happy with everything else) Intern # 1

AIESEC Chandigarh- Have you lost your mind BABY?

After having several complications with my internship (which is a complete other blog entry in itself) I came up with a solution of moving to another intern house. This was pre-organized a couple of weeks earlier and I was all set to move into the house on the 20th of this month BUT in typical AIESEC Chandigarh style I was told that I cannot move into that house because an intern with 2 babies (repeat 2 BABIES) was taking my room.

This was not a shock to me as a few days ago the interns received a text message saying "AIESEC Chandigarh is the first LC in the whole world to have an intern that has even brought her children. Not 1 baby but two!" There is probably a reason for why no other LC has done it before. Because it is completely ridiculous! For starters an internship is a development traineeship for 1 person, NOT an entire family. And what is even more outrageous is that they did not even ask the other interns who would be living with this family if is it alright with them!?!

AIESEC cannot even accommodate the very few interns they have here at the moment so now they decide they want to bring BABIES into the equation. As previously mentioned we often go without gas, without water, living in unhygienic accommodation because AIESEC refuses to help maintain the intern houses. How is a child going to survive in these unsanitary conditions? How could they actually allow this match to occur? It is one thing to ruin our lives with their lies and empty promises but to now try to ruin the lives of 2 innocent children is just UNBELIEVABLE!

Once again thanks AIESEC Chandigarh for supporting my quantity over quality argument. We know that you don't care about the quality of our internship but now trying to get your numbers up by bringing families are just sick!!! What is even more outrageous is what would happen when the mother is at work? The interns would all be at home from their broken internships and would have new roles as babysitters. Anyone you is contemplating signing up for an internship with AIESEC Chandigarh I hope you know how to babysit!

Unhappy AIESEC Intern # 1

Dear blog,

It's been already two weeks that we're writing here. We published stories of unhappy trainees, housing issues, legal problems, overpaying etc. But there are still stories to come, people are writing down their experience in this amazing country but yet challenging LC AIESEC CHANDIGARH.
It's not that we're not enjoying the city, which is most probably one of the best cities in India, if not the best. Or as if we're not enjoying India. But...there are those stories, that you already read about, and there are new stories every day.
Take this as an example, one of the trainee houses is having no gas for almost a week now. AIESEC Chandigarh people are too busy to deliver it. Yeah, it's an organization with many members...but yet those members care about something else, becoming number one LC in the world again, bringing 600 new interns to town, increasing, growing... in numbers, not in quality. Is this what AIESEC is about?
Anyway, their answer about the gas is "tomorrow", so let's see if tomorrow comes.
Usually "tomorrow" comes when THEY need you. They need you to participate in some event, to do stuff for AIESEC Chandigarh, to represent AIESEC Chandigarh. But if you need something, they barely answer calls. So, let's see if tomorrow comes with or without gas.
Anyway, there is a good side of this issue, that the trainees live without hot food for a week inspired us to start new column of this blog, which you always will find under the "dear blog" tag. Just daily (un)happenings in life of AIESEC Chandigarh trainees.

AIESEC Chandigarh. Most disappointing experience!

AIESEC has been the most disappointing experience of my entire life. I was so eager to be part of it when i first heard about it but the disappointment level has reached its maximum and I am not at all interested nor will ever suggest anybody to be part of it.
I have been trying to get into it since more than a year now but their response has been absolutely disgusting. I went on to International site and contacted them about the info. , an automatic response comes which wants you to contact your local office but the officers of my state (CHANDIGARH,India) are the dumbest and stupidest I have ever seen. They don't reply to emails, phones or messages or any sort of communication link developed by human race. Its absolutely sick when persons email is given on site and he does not even revert or i should say check that account.

I think AIESEC more than anything should start sending them abroad to learn how to email back . They don't even answer their cell phones , will anybody tell them Incoming calls are free and you don't have to pay a buck to listen. And when they do, they ask you to wait for couple of days for their call when they can fix a meeting but that never happens and when you call again they again don't answer.

I work as Free Lance with Sports Managements handling Media relation sand work with best of Sport persons , journalists and people but I have never been treated like this. This has been absolute harassment, Now in My Final year of Mass Comm. I will certainly make sure I write a big article on this and publish in the Top Newspapers and magazine sof my nation as of how you guys treat somebody .

All the members only make sure that their friends and relatives become part of the organisation when recruitment starts , and they don't even inform or can simply tell the date to somebody like me who has no cousins or friends in the organisation.

The experience of trying into get this organisation has really made me learn a lot, once again from core of my heart I would like Thank you all for your great negligence and ignorance...I will certainly remember it in the days and years to come.

Thank you.

Regards, Ujjwal Bhalla

AIESEC CHANDIGARH- Lied about my registration

Registration is supposed to be done within 14 days of arrival in India. During my second week here I started getting worried and called the person who was responsible for me saying he had to take me there to get registered. He told me not to worry, that we had plenty of time.
Of course, time flies by and when I was already a couple of days late he came with some paper for me to fill and he said. Just lie about your arriving date, it will be ok. 100% ethics, no? Anyway, he took my papers and kept with him. And then he was always busy, busy, busy. Then eventually he said. “You see, since you’re late you have to pay a fee to the registration office” I am late? They are late come on!!! I said I wouldn’t pay because it wasn’t my fault. The discussion reaches the executive board of AIESEC and they say that they wouldn’t pay it either, that it was one member’s fault and he would have to pay it himself. The guy came to me and said he would take some time to get the money. Months passed and eventually I was freaking out, because I was illegal in the country. I decided it would be better if I gave the money myself. I gave him the money and waited.

One day I woke up and realized I was already 7 months illegal in this country and call that person. I asked if he had done it and he promised to do it the same week. Next week he said he had been busy… I was so angry by then that I asked my papers there, and decided to go on my own.

Arriving at the office, of course there was a problem. To make this story short: for being this late, I almost got deported. After a lot of talk, a lot of apologizes and asking if there could be any other way out of it, they let me stay and registered me… But not thanks to AIESEC

From Unhappy AIESEC Intern # 6

People on Facebook who are unhappy with AIESEC Chandigarh

PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW and read the discussions-

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=81590290882&v=info

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