news from projects and volunteers
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 couple of weeks ago I decided to fill an idle couple of hours on a rainy Sunday afternoon filming a video which we could send to the education projects supported by people and places volunteers. Quite a lot of volunteers have contributed to this initiative – we have videos of stories, demonstrations of simple Science experiments, even a walk round a farm to show children the animals. But so far we didn’t have a video of a volunteer actually…
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…
The pandemic is causing challenges for all of us – here’s an update from many of the programmes we work with about how they are trying to meet these challenges – from marathon cycle rides to emergency water supplies (imagine trying to wash your hands when there is no water!) Eswatini (Swaziland) The Neighbourhood Care Points in Eswatini are currently being used as feeding stations – the children go there every day for food which they take home to share…
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…
As the coronavirus pandemic took hold everything changed – all around the world businesses, schools and individuals turned to online communication. Could we do the same for international volunteering? As international travel ground to a halt and all the projects we support around the world were forced to close their doors, we began to think long and hard about whether and how we could continue to offer support to our local partners during the pandemic. people and places volunteer support…
We are so pleased to announce that we are working closely with Transworld – a division of Penguin Random House – what a perfect match – literacy is a priority in just about every programme we work with and now we are working with the best! This programme has been created in memory of Sophie Christopher…. Sophie’s passions reflected her belief in the power of literacy and literature to change lives. Good luck Zara with your work with our partners…
Good Work Foundation has sent us videos they have produced to educate their local communities about how to stay safe from the virus. They have asked us to share these videos with as many people as we can so that they can be used to inform and educate as many people as possible about the dangers of the virus and how to stay safe. The following is a message from Kate, founder of Good Work Foundation:
Our partners in Swaziland, All Out Africa, are working hard to distribute food and soap in the poorest communities where they work ….whilst the rains are normally welcome they are a challenge now! This just in…… ‘Despite terrible road conditions after recents storms, we made our delivery target to 24 families today that are run by either elderly grandparents or children as young as 14 years old. Their homes are run down and lacking basic needs, built in out of…