By Sallie Grayson Programme director We are so thrilled and proud for our partner in The Gambia – Adama Bah – his honorary doctorate is so well deserved. I have known Adama for over 15 years – he is my friend, partner and most important of all – my mentor – much I have learnt about ethical and responsible volunteering – I have learnt from him – together we strive for the best and always challenge each other to do…
First of all – THANK YOU everyone for your good wishes while I’ve been away for a while … Next – I may have been away from ‘people and places’ desk, but I’m still keeping my finger on the pulse. Frequent calls with Sallie and Dianne … and … a lovely get-together in the summer with our wonderful local partners from The Gambia, Lisong and Adama … as well as their daughter Mariama and grandchildren. Adama and Lisong were visiting…
Our Young Professional adviser Luci Gardiner O’Brien has certainly been thrown in at the deep end – she is representing people and places on a panel discussing child protection issues at WTM London in November – Luci will be talking about something close to our heart – how volunteer travellers can work for children – working with projects that seek to keep children in families not in orphanages – for an example of our work take a look here
We often include articles in our newsletter written by volunteers describing a visit their experiences in schools abroad. This time we are taking the opposite point of view! Lisong is the founder and manager of Mary’s Little Lambs, a nursery and prep school in The Gambia. Joanne is a volunteer whose skills and experience have been matched to Mary’s Little Lambs, where she will be carrying out her volunteer placement in October. But this article does not describe Joanne’s visit…
Saint Lucia – what a stunning place to volunteer! And there are several rewarding projects we support there, requiring a range of different skills, which enables us us to match volunteers to projects where they are really needed. I was last in Saint Lucia in 2013, right at the start of our volunteer programme there, so a return visit was long overdue. I was delighted to go back and spend time with our local partner, Nova. Together we visited all…
Gill and Mandy have recently returned from their placements in Cambodia. This is what they told us. We were known as Teacher Mandy and Teacher Gill (although we are both nurses) and we led teaching Yoga to most classes in the library. We did this to a story – We are going on a bear hunt and Yoga actions complemented this story and encouraged active learning of English. Both children and staff enjoyed the experience as did we and we…
By Luci Gardner O’Brien Campaigning for responsible volunteering has, and always will be, a big part of people and places. We are committed to the implementation of responsible volunteering, be it through our own placements, or by simply getting the information out there! This is the main reason behind the launch of our Instagram page. Through our page we want to share, and create, an active discussion about HOW to volunteer responsibly. Lots of organisations have been campaigning, us included,…
The Kugler family have been supporting The Education Support Programme at AV Bukani for over 10 years – here are some extracts from their blog about their latest trip this year “One of the major factors impacting this year is an improvement in electronic communication. All the teachers and the community leaders communicate through WhatsApp and email on their phones. In past years, email was spotty and the basic phones were hard to use and limited to local calls; communication…
A short story of a moment in time, where Linky Nkuna used her finger to do maths in the sand, under a tree, and is now a part of digital learning revolution where the same finger is used to control an ipad, where maths is just one of the many educational programs she has access to. Learn more about our partners Good Works Foundation and how you can help this pioneering programme in South Africa here