Browsed by
Tag: Gambia

“Reassuring, informative…part of a special club” – good reasons to come to our next volunteer meeting

“Reassuring, informative…part of a special club” – good reasons to come to our next volunteer meeting

Our November social is filling up – if you would like to come please let us know ASAP “I just wanted to drop you a line to thankyou for arranging the volunteer on line meetings. The first meeting I attended was before I volunteered with you and I found it so reassuring to be able to hear from previous volunteers and local partners before I travelled. A few months after my return I attended another meeting and it was great…

Read More Read More

Sallie volunteers for three weeks with our adult education and women’s empowerment programmes

Sallie volunteers for three weeks with our adult education and women’s empowerment programmes

I love my volunteer work for people and places – it is so rewarding to see the progress the programmes we work with make through working with our volunteers. BUT I love to volunteer directly with the projects too – time constraints mean I can’t do it as often as I’d wish but I managed to find three weeks earlier this year to work with the adult education and women’s empowerment projects we work with in The Gambia. My skills…

Read More Read More

Urgent request – we need a volunteer who can teach children to swim

Urgent request – we need a volunteer who can teach children to swim

This is one of our favourite photos on our website (taken in 2013). The little boy looking at the book is named Robert – he attended Mary’s Little Lambs School until he was 11 years old and those of you who have volunteered there may remember him – I know Yvonne (the volunteer reading the story to him) does. Recently we heard that Robert has tragically died, along with four of his friends. They drowned. Culturally children in The Gambia…

Read More Read More

Volunteer Paul explains the importance of doing your research for an ethical volunteer organisation

Volunteer Paul explains the importance of doing your research for an ethical volunteer organisation

My goal in coming to The Gambia was to contribute altruistically to a legitimate cause with a reliable organization. After years of long hours and stressful grafting as a chef and consultant in fast paced kitchens, I felt it was time to step aside for a little while and try to decompress. I’ve always had a keen interest in politics, international development, and travel. In recent years I’ve started volunteering in London and found it extremely rewarding. With those things…

Read More Read More

Women’s empowerment volunteer programme 12 months on

Women’s empowerment volunteer programme 12 months on

We are proud of the work done by our partners in the Gambia at ITTOG (Institute for Travel and Tourism in the Gambia), by the women of the No Woman Left Behind Association, and by our volunteers – this has led to really substantial progress in this women’s empowerment programme over the last 12 months. One year ago Sallie and I visited the Gambia and saw this programme in its early stages. Our partners had obtained funding to provide training…

Read More Read More

Calling all healthcare volunteers – new volunteering opportunities

Calling all healthcare volunteers – new volunteering opportunities

We are always keen to add more opportunities for healthcare volunteers to our list of projects we support. So, when I was visiting The Gambia in February, I was very interested to hear from our local partner that Bijilo Medical Center is looking for volunteers to work alongside local staff and help them develop their skills in a variety of areas of healthcare. Bijilo Medical Center (BMC) is a non governmental health facility with the goal of providing comprehensive and…

Read More Read More

How far you’ve come in 15 years! – happy birthday to the Institute of Tourism in the Gambia

How far you’ve come in 15 years! – happy birthday to the Institute of Tourism in the Gambia

written by Sallie When I first met Adama 20 years ago ITTOG (The Institute of Travel and Tourism of The Gambia), a college to train Gambians to enable them to access well paid jobs in the tourist industry, was his dream – to give Gambian youth the skills they needed to compete for jobs mostly held by non Gambians in the all important tourism industry -responsible tourism. ITTOG started simply using course content shared with them by Nottingham University. Then…

Read More Read More

Volunteers at work – in pictures

Volunteers at work – in pictures

Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers – those who have travelled and those who have worked from home as e-volunteers to support our volunteer programme since we have been able to travel post-Covid. Here are some great pictures of some of our volunteers at work during the last year. To learn more about all these projects follow these links to our project pages for in-country placements and for e-volunteer placements or email dianne@travel-peopleandplaces.co.uk

Women’s empowerment volunteer programme off to a great start

Women’s empowerment volunteer programme off to a great start

Earlier this year I wrote about the women’s empowerment programme we are working with in The Gambia Click on the image above to read my previous post The association has come so far in the last 6 months – here’s an update And hot off the press and very exciting – funding for the second year of the course to cover simple business skills is now guaranteed for 2023 (the funders withdrew this money in 2022 due to budget cuts)…

Read More Read More

“We want to stop the exploitation of other women and girls”

“We want to stop the exploitation of other women and girls”

Can you help mentor a self-help women’s group? We are looking for volunteers who can work with previously exploited young women. Resilience – confidence – assertiveness – mindfulness – creative and critical thinking- decision making and problem solving – these life skills are just as important as hard business skills. No Woman Left Behind (NWLB) grew out of a cookery training course run by our partners ITTOG – started to support previously exploited young women in the Gambia – they…

Read More Read More