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Category: articles by people and places

articles and press releases by people and places

It would be irresponsible – the very thing we strive not to be! – to fail to plan for the future.

It would be irresponsible – the very thing we strive not to be! – to fail to plan for the future.

Next year we will celebrate 20 years since we placed our first volunteer. – working with them to use their skills to help communities around the world build the future they want for themselves. A heartfelt thankyou to every volunteer who has helped us achieve that goal. When Harold, Kate and Sallie started people and places they chose to make people and places a social enterprise – run for the benefit of the projects we work with not shareholders. Our…

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Blast from the Past – International Volunteer Teachers Wanted – Open to All???

Blast from the Past – International Volunteer Teachers Wanted – Open to All???

This is an article I wrote for our blog and newsletter in 2019 but I believe it is just as relevant today. As an ex-teacher, I of course hope lots of people will volunteer to improve the educational opportunities for children around the world. However it is important that this is done responsibly and thoughtfully to make sure these volunteers don’t do more harm than good. The article was designed to give some guidelines – it was included in discussions…

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Blast from the past – Smoke and Mirrors

Blast from the past – Smoke and Mirrors

This was first published nearly 15 years ago – and (sadly) much of it still holds true – so as ever caveat emptor and please do ask for our advice even if you are thinking of volunteering with someone else! And the smoke just gets thicker as more and more sending organisations use the buzzwords in their marketing! “There’s been a huge increase in the number of chat rooms about responsible travel and volunteering. Even a perfunctory trawl through the…

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We’re travelling again – back to The Gambia!

We’re travelling again – back to The Gambia!

March 18th – it was two years to the day since I was last at Gatwick Airport.  On this day in 2020 I returned from a volunteer trip to Morocco, cut short as the borders closed and the pandemic took hold, lucky to get a rescue flight home, and Gatwick was dark and deserted.  Now travel is starting to open up again and I was back at Gatwick, with Sallie this time, boarding a flight to The Gambia for our…

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Our first in-country volunteers since March 2020 are arriving at their placements! “Every day here is a present…”

Our first in-country volunteers since March 2020 are arriving at their placements! “Every day here is a present…”

Our volunteers are on the move again!  Our first in-country volunteer, Eva, is in Morocco, teaching mindfulness and relaxation skills to girls and house-mothers from the Education for All boarding houses.  Eva says: Already one week has passed!!! And I’m even more excited than I was before coming here. Every day here is a present for me. Every day, not just a new experience, but many new experiences, and all of them wonderful, deep, fun, moving, special, enriching… Honestly I…

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What makes a good volunteer – the myths and the reality

What makes a good volunteer – the myths and the reality

Myth 1: To be a good volunteer you need to be a teacher It depends what you mean by teaching!  All skills-sharing involves an element of teaching – for example in the last few weeks I have taught a friend how to do a new knitting stitch, been taught by another friend how to fertilize my courgette plants so I get fruit rather than just flowers, and been taught by my brother how to top up the pressure on my…

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Our volunteers haven’t let the pandemic stop them supporting our work -thankyou

Our volunteers haven’t let the pandemic stop them supporting our work -thankyou

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…

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Keeping in touch by Video

Keeping in touch by Video

Want to say hello the project you worked with or hope to work with someday soon? They would love to hear from you and give you their news Take a look here – many of our volunteers have already sent messages to the people they worked with or hope to work with

International Teaching Volunteers Wanted – Open to All???

International Teaching Volunteers Wanted – Open to All???

This is an article I wrote recently for our blog. As an ex-teacher, I of course hope lots of people will volunteer to improve the educational opportunities for children around the world. However it is important that this is done responsibly and thoughtfully to make sure these volunteers don’t do more harm than good. The article is designed to give some guidelines – it was included in discussions by the panel looking at alternatives to orphanage volunteering at the 2019…

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people and places – major changes to the way we work with our projects abroad

people and places – major changes to the way we work with our projects abroad

This was first published way back when – sadly – it still holds true! Here at people and places we are constantly struggling to get enough volunteers for our programmes – there are other sending organisations that manage to attract thousands of volunteers every year – we don’t  and I now know we have got so much wrong – so here’s my proposal – I’m sending it off to our advisory board tonight:  1. We’re going to start talking about our projects – after all, how…

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