Kate and I know all our volunteers are special and we are very thankful for their support ……

BUT…..

….. we want to say a special thankyou to two volunteers who go above and beyond to help us in our work.

Firstly Dianne Ashman

Dianne is  volunteer programme advisor. She has many years of experience in education management, planning, training and monitoring.

Dianne’s first experience with people and places was in skill share volunteer work – in The Gambia and in India – where she worked with local teachers to help develop their own skills and abilities.

Then, in 2011, Dianne proposed a different volunteer role – that of working with local staff in education volunteer projects to build a picture of the projects’ needs.  Needless to say, we were  delighted and accepted her proposal with alacrity!

She started travelling for us to specifically assess school needs – she  now  travels the world as an important member of the team, visiting all of the projects. Her work ensures that we fully understand the needs, strengths and weaknesses of the projects we work with and that we provide volunteers with the information they need to make meaningful contributions through their volunteer work abroad.

Dianne also works with Kate in briefing volunteers.

Dianne was  instrumental in improving the way we measure the effectiveness of our programmes through the introduction of our project development plans – she is busy working on the review of these at the moment. That means she is reviewing every development plan in light of the feedback we have had through reports from volunteers and the projects – a huge task that she does with diligence and insight.

 

ALL this Dianne does as a self funding volunteer .

Thankyou Dianne

And thankyou Nigel Pegler.

Nigel is our tireless and good houmooured Volunteer Newletter Editor

Before Nigel took on this particular volunteer role, he travelled with people and places as a skill share volunteer in rural South Africa, where his practical skills were fundamental in setting up a bicycle project. Nigel has most recently volunteered in The Gambia – again putting his practical skills to use in working with local people.
Nigel is a very busy  site manager of both the high school and primary school. In his spare time!!!  he gives talks and presentations about his volunteer experiences.

As well as working on the newsletter, Nigel provides practical help and technical support for all our volunteer meetings and ‘road shows’ – and is planning to volunteer overseas again as soon as he can … and is already talking with Kate about his next skill share opportunity being in Peru.

Putting the newsletter together is time consuming and we are sure you will agree Nigel’s publications get better and better – the latest ( as I write) is the most popular ever – well done Nigel! read it here

Thankyou Nigel.

Dianne and Nigel have become invaluable mebers of the people and places team – they say noone is irreplaceable – but Kate and I are stuggling with that concept where Dianne and Nigel are concerned!