people and places – Page 3 – responsible volunteering – matching your skills to community needs

Volunteer Helen helps launch important new initiative in Cambodia

23 April, 2025 Dianne Ashman

Treak Creations is a social enterprise run by Salin, manager of Treak Community Centre (TCC), to support the work of the Centre and provide work for local women. Salin is a skilled seamstress and runs a well equipped sewing centre at TCC, making a variety of items to sell to local people and tourists. Recently they were able to acquire a site for a shop, located just 400 metres from Treak Community Centre, along the main road to Tonle Sap…

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Thank you, Zoe, for our wonderful new library!

23 April, 2025 Dianne Ashman

Zoe has volunteered at Mary’s Little Lambs (MLL) in The Gambia twice before, in December 2023 and May 2024, with a focus on helping improve literacy. Recognising that it would be so much easier to encourage a love of reading if the school had a proper library, she proposed going back for a third placement with the aim of establishing a library and teaching children and teachers how to use if effectively. The first thing was to arrange talks with…

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Meet some of the women supported by No Woman Left Behind in The Gambia and learn how you can help

23 April, 2025 Sallie Grayson

Here are some profiles of just a few of the women who have been supported by the No Woman left behind programme – at the end of the biogs you can learn about the support from the most recent volunteer Nicky and how you could help if you wish… Yama Jobe In 2022, Yama completed the twelve-month programme for Culinary Art (Cookery, Pastry & Food Processing) Level 1 at the Institute of Travel & Tourism of The Gambia (ITTOG). She…

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

10 January, 2025 Dianne Ashman

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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‘Morocco – the best of my volunteer placements!’

10 January, 2025 Dianne Ashman

In October Penny set off on her third volunteer placement with people and places – this time to Morocco. She was the first in-country volunteer they had been able to accept since the earthquake, and she arrived at the start of the school year, as the girls were settling into their new boarding house and enjoying returning to school in Asni. These are some extracts from the reports Penny wrote at the end of her placement. ‘I have done 2…

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people and places volunteers in Cambodia

10 January, 2025 Dianne Ashman

Cambodia is always a popular destination for our volunteers and our partners working at Treak Community Centre (TCC) are able to provide a welcoming and worthwhile volunteering experience for people with a wide range of skills. In the spring of 2024 we set up a group placement at TCC for 6 ladies from Kindness Adventures, an organisation from USA and Canada. They wanted a placement to make use of their practical and artistic skills, and were also able to provide…

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Well deserved recognition for our partners in The Gambia

10 January, 2025 Sallie Grayson

When we started people and places – 20 years ago – we decided that we wanted to work with people who were already doing amazing work in their communities. Our partners in The Gambia represent this perfectly. Their lifelong commitment to empowerment through tourism has been recognised again as winners of the African Travel 100 Global Leaders Award. Congratulations Dr Adama Bah and Sheik Tejan Nyang – we are blessed to work with you Adama Bah in this interview shares his…

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New faces for the people and places team

10 January, 2025 Sallie Grayson

We are excited to introduce two additions to the people and places team. Mariana Bah works with Sallie on the business management side of people and places, including accounting, marketing, organisational best practice, and on liaison with our local partners. She has been involved with people and places since the early days, working from 2009-2012 as volunteer coordinator in The Gambia. Some of you may spot that she has the same surname as our partner Adama in The Gambia – she is…

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The Year That Changed My Life – thanks to people and places!

30 September, 2024 Sallie Grayson

by volunteer Zoe File In July 2023, I walked away from a secure and much-loved job as a primary school teacher to pursue a long-cherished dream of working as a volunteer teacher overseas. For years this had been nothing more than a pipe-dream, but at the age of fifty-five it finally felt that the time was right. I was motivated by two things – the opportunity to cash in a small pension which would fund a year out of full-time…

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