We’ve been working with Calabash since the very beginning of ‘people and places – responsible volunteering‘ in 2005 … this is why !

 

 

 

and here’s a link to their end-of-year newsletter, packed with positive stories of achievements and ongoing community development.

 

responsible volunteering – that’s what Calabash & people and places believe in … and that’s how we work! read more below …

• We are transparent about where your money goes, so you can see exactly how much is spend on community development.

• We monitor and evaluate our volunteering programmes closely and document the progress, so we make sure we are working towards a clearly defined goal. It’s a continual approach where volunteers follow up on previous volunteers’ work.

• Before we place a volunteer we get community consent.

• We don’t replace local jobs but ensure skills transfer.

• All programmes have sustainability as the goal. Your work will continue after you left and the aim is to build up local skills and knowledge to strengthen local capacity, which eventually makes external support unnecessary.

• Volunteers can expect a detailed outline about what they will do and receive background information about the project they’ll be working on.

• We provide 24/7 support for our volunteers and are well connected to local hospitals, embassies and can arrange any help needed.

and this from Eileen, a previous volunteer:

“Calabash will visit you on placement every week to ensure things are going OK – Paul and his staff are social entrepreneurs with a high level of integrity and a clear sense of direction – they are interesting and interested and are always there for you. All I can say is that every day of the month exceeded expectations”