We are planning our next volunteer social in the next few weeks – it will be virtual and you will be able to meet previous volunteers, co-volunteers, our local partners from around the world and, of course, the people and places team – what a great way to pass a few hours this “lockdown” winter. We need your help to decide when and how we should do it – We would be really grateful if you would take just a…
A number of people have contacted us suggesting they would like to travel with us as soon as possible. This is fantastic news, and we so want that too, BUT…current travel restrictions, (both for leaving the UK an other countries and entering the countries where our partner projects are located), make volunteering on site impractical at the present time. In addition, as our partner projects are in developing countries where health care facilities may not be the same as in…
We, at people and places highly value recognition from such prestigious awards as the WTM World Responsible Tourism Award. This year the judges decided to commend organisations and destinations which are taking responsibility and addressing the many challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. We are particularly proud to have won The Innovation Award because people and places was conceived to innovate for better practice in the volunteer travel. We won the award for the work we are doing to develop support and encourage e-volunteering – a…
We cannot deny that 2020 has been a challenging year for our volunteer programme – we have not been able to send volunteers to the programmes we work with for 9 months – and even an optimist cannot see us being able to do so until spring 2021 at best – a year after our last volunteers returned home after their placements. A year where all of the programmes we work with are struggling to survive – some doing better…
“Covid-19 did not remove the need for volunteer support, it stopped delivery.”……………… Harold Goodwin Professor Emeritus …………….Well we are very proud to announce – it may have slowed us down a little but it hasn’t stopped us! We have been working away for months with our partners and we can now announce the launch of a new site. www.e-volunteer.co.uk e-volunteering is a way for you to volunteer from home – it will suit volunteers who want to use their skills…
Volunteer Zara has a placement planned – she is going to go to Treak Community Centre in Cambodia ̶̶ she works in the publishing industry and she is going to use her skills to help develop a literacy strategy at the school at Treak. Her plans were to travel this year, but of course the pandemic has intervened. So Zara is using her skills on an e-volunteer project until she is able to travel. As part of her work in…
Here is another example of the story videos volunteers have been recording (click on the title to view an example) to send to the education programmes supported by people and places. Local teachers are sharing stories volunteers have read and then discussing them with the children – great for literacy and English! If you could spare an hour to do this (even less if you already know how to make a video!) please contact dianne@travel-peopleandplaces.co.uk
Welcome Fiona Adamson to the people and places team Fiona has volunteered to work with Sallie and Dianne on the new people and places e-volunteering initiative. So those of you who volunteer from home for one of the programmes we are working with remotely will probably come into contact with her in the coming months. Fiona first approached us when she was exploring the idea of volunteering her skills to one of the programmes we work with…she was matched to…
Recently we were asked why we demand DBS /police checks and references for volunteers who are offering to work online with us – (not in situ) – for the organisations with which we work. Good question and here’s our reply Our first priority is the safety of the communities and volunteers we work with. We have a duty to do all we can to ensure that the children, young people and any at risk adults that we work with are…
We have been very busy here at people and places developing ways we can continue to support the projects we work with and more importantly – how we help our volunteers contribute during the pandemic. Our work is about putting the right people in the right places to support the programmes we work with – we match volunteers with skills and experience to previously agreed need. This is normally achieved by sending volunteers to work with the projects we work…