Terms of Use

Users must be at least 18 years old and legally able to use this website in accordance with these Terms of Use.

Article 1. Capacity: use of the site

As its main function is to act as an intermediary between the User and the Partner Associations, the Site shall under no circumstances be held liable for donations and transactions made directly with the Partners. The User is therefore invited to consult the Specific Conditions of each Partner for any transaction taking place once on site.

Except in cases of fraud, for which it is for the User to provide proof, the User is responsible for their actions on the Site, and in particular for the use made of their username and password. The User also warrants the truthfulness and accuracy of the information concerning them provided on the Site. Any use of the Site that is fraudulent, or that breaches these General Conditions, shall justify refusing the User, at any time, access to the projects offered by Freepackers Care and/or its Partners, or to other features of the Site.

Article 2. Changing and cancelling the project

2.1 Cancellation conditions

If the participant cancels the humanitarian project, Freepackers must be notified in writing.

Cancellations will be handled case by case, as will any compensation or postponement, which depend on the conditions of each partner NGO and on the reasons for the cancellation.

Whatever the reason for cancellation, the deposit is under no circumstances refundable and covers the administrative costs already incurred.

Donations made to the Freepackers Care association are not refundable.

2.2 Changing the project

Any change to the programme requested by the participant must be set out in writing. By "change" Freepackers means any change of dates, project or destination after your registration has been confirmed. Any such change is subject to acceptance by Freepackers and/or by the Partner concerned.

Article 3. Financial conditions and methods of payment

3.1 Programme budgets

Unless expressly stated otherwise in the Specific Conditions, the budget of each programme shown on the Site is in Euros.

Changes to budgets, and the decision to apply those changes to projects already registered, are entirely the responsibility of the Partners.

As regards donations to the Freepackers Care association, each donor is free to choose the amount of the donation and the method of payment. The bank details of Freepackers Care will be provided with the appeal for donations, on request.

3.2 How to commit

To confirm their commitment, the User must pay a membership fee of 300 euros per person. The full programme budget must be paid no later than 12 weeks before the project starts.

Article 4. Project details

The purpose of this article is to set out details of the Projects for the User's information. It cannot be exhaustive and does not replace the Partners' Specific Conditions.

4.1 Formalities relating to air travel / travel / visas

a. Air travel

Travel is at the participant's own cost and initiative. Budgets do not include air travel costs or visa costs.

The terms on which air travel is carried out are governed by the Specific Conditions of the airlines or of the Partners. It is the User's responsibility to follow the instructions of the airlines and Partners, in particular as regards check-in deadlines. We advise checking in at least three hours before the scheduled departure time for international flights, and at least two and a half hours in advance for domestic flights. Please note that, for the return flight, whatever its type, it is often compulsory to confirm the return flight locally with the airline, no earlier than 72 hours before the scheduled date. It is therefore the User's responsibility to confirm their return flight. For open returns, we advise booking the return flight as early as possible. Where the city served under the contract has more than one airport, the name of the airport is given for guidance only and may be subject to change. The User's attention is drawn to the need to allow a sufficiently wide margin, taking possible delays into account, when booking a trip on the Site that includes a connection or a transit, in particular where this involves changing airport.

b. Formalities

The User is informed on the Site of the administrative and/or health formalities required to carry out the project. It is for the User to read them. Completing, and paying for, the police, customs and health formalities required for your humanitarian trip, including passport, national identity card, residence permit, parental authorisation, visa, medical certificate and vaccination record, is the User's responsibility. We draw your attention to the fact that the rules of some countries require passports to be valid for more than 6 months beyond the return date. Children aged 15 or over must also hold identity documents in their own name. The formalities set out on the Site are those applying to French nationals. If that is not your case, it is for the User to enquire about the formalities applying to their situation. If a ticket is lost or stolen, the User must make a specific declaration to the police and to the airline and buy another ticket from the issuing Partner.

c. Obtaining a visa

Freepackers Care will guide you through the visa application process and help you obtain all the information necessary to facilitate the acquisition of the required documents for each project. However, participants are solely responsible for these procedures, and Freepackers Care cannot be held liable in the event of changes in regulations or any official decision preventing the participant from traveling. Freepackers Care invites participants to consult the embassies and consulates of the destination countries to learn about the exact visa conditions.

4.2 Project conditions

Some activities offered by the Partners and set out in the description on the Site may be withdrawn, in particular for weather reasons, in cases of force majeure, for stays outside the tourist season, or where the number of participants required to run the activity is not reached. The cancellation of any activity for reasons of force majeure shall in no event be the responsibility of Freepackers or of the local Partner.

4.3 Travel insurance and cancellation insurance

a. Travel insurance / public liability

For any international project, Freepackers requires travel insurance to be taken out covering the risks of accident, illness and repatriation, and including public liability for damage to third parties.

For a volunteering project, you can take out Cap Volontariat insurance online with our partner CHAPKA, who offer a 5% discount through this link. If you take out other insurance, we will ask you to send us a copy of your certificate in English.

For full cover during studies or a placement abroad, you can take out Cap Student insurance online through this link. This insurance also includes public liability in the context of an activity abroad.

b. Cancellation insurance

Freepackers strongly recommends taking out cancellation insurance. Cancellation insurance is optional but is recommended at the time of booking. This insurance covers cancellation costs under certain exceptional circumstances such as illness, examinations, academic failure, hospitalization, or death of a family member. Details of the coverage will be sent to you by email by our partner.

Article 5. User services

5.1 Contact

The User may contact Freepackers by email during the membership and recruitment process to obtain assistance, information and clarification about the project. The personal data provided by the User to Freepackers is intended for Freepackers and its Partners, established inside or outside the European Union, for the purpose of Freepackers handling the User's request and, unless the User objects to Freepackers, of informing them of the Partners' specific conditions and communications. In this connection, Freepackers may send the User information helping them to know its projects better and to make better use of its Site.

Under the French Data Protection Act of 6 January 1978 as amended, the User has, at any time, a right of access to, alteration, correction and deletion of the data concerning them. They may exercise it by sending an email from the "Contact" section of the Site.

5.2 Assistance

a. On site

Special requests should be made directly to the representatives of the local Partner. If your request leads to no action on the part of the local Partner, please contact Freepackers, who will do everything possible to resolve the matter.

b. On your return

Any request for information or clarification, and any complaint, must be addressed to Freepackers, who collect them in the name and on behalf of the Partners, within 30 days following the end of the project, by sending an email from the "Contact" section of the Site. Complaints will be admitted only insofar as the difficulties they concern were reported to Freepackers or to the Partner during the project, so that an attempt could be made to remedy them and limit the loss suffered by the User. No complaint will be accepted in respect of loss, damage or theft of luggage, clothing or personal items kept under the User's own care during the project, except where fault on the part of the Partner is proven. Luggage checked in with an airline is insured only for the duration of the carriage.

Article 7. Liability and warranties

7.1 For use of the Site

No warranty is given to the User as regards:

i. the absence of faults, errors and bugs liable to affect browsing on the Site or the operation of any feature offered on the Site;
ii. the possibility of correcting those faults, errors or bugs;
iii. the absence of interruption or breakdown in the operation of the Site;
iv. the compatibility of the Site with any particular hardware or configuration.

Under no circumstances shall Freepackers be liable for direct or indirect and/or intangible damage, foreseeable or unforeseeable, arising from the total or partial inability to use the features of the Site. The hyperlinks on the Site directing the User to other websites exist solely to make the User's research easier. In any event, the User declares that they are aware of the characteristics and limits of the internet, in particular its technical performance, the response times for consulting, querying or transferring data and the risks relating to the security of communications.

7.2 For the Partners

The User acknowledges that, acting as an intermediary, Freepackers can under no circumstances be held liable in respect of the contracts the User enters into with one or more Partners.

Article 8. Intellectual property

The Site, its content and all the elements making it up are creations in which Freepackers and, where applicable, its Partners hold all intellectual property rights and/or exploitation rights, in particular under copyright, database right, trade mark law and design law. The Site, together with the software, databases, texts, information, analyses, images, photographs, graphics, logos, sounds and any other data contained on the Site remain the exclusive property of Freepackers and/or the Partners or, where applicable, of their respective owners with whom the latter have entered into usage agreements. The User is granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Site and the data it contains, in a private setting. The right so granted consists of (i) a right to consult online the data and information contained on the Site and (ii) a right of reproduction consisting of printing and/or saving the data and information consulted. This right of use is for strictly private use only. Any other use of the Site by the User, in particular commercial use, is prohibited. The User shall refrain in particular, without limitation, from reproducing and/or representing for any purpose other than private use, selling, distributing, broadcasting, translating, adapting, disseminating or communicating in whole or in part, in any form whatsoever, any element, information or data of the Site. The User shall also refrain from introducing, by any means, data liable to alter or damage the content or presentation of the Site. Any hyperlink to the Site, of whatever kind, requires the prior authorisation of Freepackers, acting in the name and on behalf of the holder of the right concerned, in paper or electronic form. The use of any software downloaded from the Site giving access to certain features is governed by the terms of the licence accompanying it. The User undertakes not to install, copy or use that software before having accepted the terms of that licence. For any software not accompanied by a licence, the User is granted a temporary, private, personal, non-transferable and non-exclusive right of use over that software in order, to the exclusion of any other use, to access the features that make the use of that software necessary. By installing or using the software, the User undertakes to comply with this condition.

Article 9. Protection of personal data

The information provided by the User on the Site is used to handle and carry out their requests. The Privacy Policy available on the Site sets out all the provisions relating to the protection of personal data. In the event of any conflict between these Conditions of Use and the Privacy Policy, the latter shall prevail. Other requests for information calling for an optional answer, or information relating to the User's interest in the offers that may be sent to them, are intended to help us know them better and to improve our communication. Unless the User objects, Freepackers may pass that optional information concerning the User to its Partners, including outside the European Union. The User expressly consents to that transfer. Freepackers may send the User, by any means (electronic, paper, SMS and so on), information helping them to know and make better use of the respective sites, and to benefit from the information published on the Partners' sites, in strict compliance with the French laws on confidence in the digital economy and on data protection as amended, subject to the User's prior consent or objection, in the cases set out in the Privacy Policy on the Site. Under the French Data Protection Act of 6 January 1978 as amended, the User has, at any time, a right of access to, alteration, correction and deletion of the data concerning them. They may exercise it by sending an email from the "Contact" section of the Site.

The User must have the legal capacity to use this Site in accordance with the General Conditions. The purpose of the Site is to assist the User in searching for projects relating to humanitarian travel.

As its main function is to act as an intermediary between the User and the Partners, the Site shall under no circumstances be held liable for donations and transactions made directly with the Partners. The User is therefore invited to consult the Specific Conditions of each Partner for any transaction taking place once on site.

a. The role of Freepackers

Freepackers is neither the direct operator of the projects nor responsible for the operational execution of activities on site, which falls under the responsibility of local partners.

b. Limitation of liability

The participant acknowledges and accepts that:

Freepackers cannot be held liable for personal accidents, injuries, illness, temporary or permanent incapacity, or death occurring during the stay.
Freepackers cannot be held liable for the loss, theft or damage of personal belongings (money, documents, equipment, luggage, electronic devices and so on).
Activities are carried out under the supervision and responsibility of the local host organisations.
The participant acknowledges that some programmes carry inherent risks relating in particular to local, health, weather and cultural conditions or to the activities practised, which they accept in full knowledge of the facts.

c. Responsibility of the local host organisations

The local host organisations are solely responsible for leading, supervising and ensuring the safety of the activities carried out on site, in accordance with the law applicable in the host country.

Any claim relating to an accident occurring in the course of locally supervised activities is primarily the responsibility of the host organisation concerned.

d. Compulsory travel insurance / public liability

e. Recommended cancellation insurance

f. The participant's personal responsibility

The participant undertakes to:

comply with the laws and regulations of the host country,
follow the safety instructions,
behave responsibly.

Any careless, dangerous or unlawful behaviour is the sole responsibility of the participant.

g. Acceptance

Registering for the programme constitutes full and complete acceptance of this clause, which forms an integral part of the Freepackers General Conditions of Sale.