The places we support need volunteers with all kinds of skills – definitely not just professional skills – your hobbies and interests are just as valuable too!

Here are just a couple of volunteer skills we are looking for at the moment

Our partners in Morocco have recently opened a 6^th boarding house for girls, which means they have a new house-mother, Naima.  Naima speaks some English (quite well considering it’s her 4^th language!) but she is not as fluent in conversational English as the other house-mothers. She knows that all the other house-mothers linked up online with volunteers to practise their spoken English and she would love to have this opportunity herself.  We are looking for an e-volunteer who would spend one hour a week just to chat with Naima.  She doesn’t want formal English lessons, just the chance to talk with an English speaker for an hour once a week to build her confidence and vocabulary just by chatting. 

Our partners in The Gambia are about to launch a practical Performing Arts course.  This will be a skills-based experiential learning course which starts with a year at college learning practical skills and is followed by work placements and mentoring in the first years of employment.  Many tourists visit the Gambia and enjoy participating in cultural events involving singing, dancing and music.  The popularity of community-based heritage experiences for tourists means there will be a number of employment opportunities opening up in this field.  Local people already know African dances and music of course – but they have no formal qualifications and no experience of training others in their areas of expertise.  A draft curriculum has been written which will lead to a Diploma in Performing Arts – it includes themes such as Acting Principles and Techniques, Live Performance, Music in Theatre, Contemporary Dance Technique and Poetry and Storytelling.  They have asked us if we can find volunteers with expertise in one or more area of performing arts – dance, drama, music, theatre – who could be part of the validation and launch of the new course, providing support for local trainers in this new area of expertise for them.

If you feel you could help in either Morocco or The Gambia, or just want to find out more, please email dianne@travel-peopleandplaces.co.uk for a chat.  We would love to hear from you.

To find out more about e-volunteering in Morocco take a look here

To find out more about some of the programmes we support in The Gambia take a look here