Stories from the field – by volunteers. Elsewhere in this newsletter, you’ll be able to read Dianne’s full report from her own recent volunteer placement in Port Elizabeth. At people and places, we firmly believe that sharing volunteers’ reports, before and after placements, is vital in helping everyone to appreciate their own role in a project’s development and sustainability. PAULI joined the morning circle on my first day, had a tour of the centre at Hazyview and met (many) staff and arranged private chats with those I would mainly be working with.
During the first week I mainly observed and participated in what was happening at the centres whilst sorting out my programme of work. I went to the satellite centres on Tuesdays and Thursdays and was at Hazyview the rest of the week. I went with Mo on my first visit to Justicia and Abna came with me as a passenger on my first visit to Huntington. Hazyview – conservation session JACKYStaff are very present for the children at GWF. Jacky joins in at Hazyview and time off in Kruger. Working to make our support for volunteer projects worthwhile and sustainable. By Dianne Ashman. Filed in good and bad practice, people and places history and info | One of our core values at people and places is to make sure that the work our volunteers do is of real use to the communities where we work and forms part of an initiative that can and will be continued after the volunteer goes home. We are determined to avoid the kind of volunteering where someone goes into a community with an idea we think is good but which is in fact irrelevant to the way things work in that country, or which has already been done in a slightly different way by an earlier volunteer.
How on earth can we hope to achieve such a challenging aim? At the heart of our work is the support plan. The placement outline which each volunteer receives gives details of what their individual placement will comprise and is worked out by our local partner and the project in conjunction with people and places and the volunteer. Seventeen girls in Morocco – first in their families to go to university. By Sallie Grayson. Filed in project background, project news, responsible giving | Very few girls from the rural communities of the High Atlas Mountains get the opportunity of continuing their education beyond primary school. Secondary schools, mostly several kilometres away in larger towns, are not accessible to them because: Their parents can’t afford to pay for lodgings or transport near secondary schoolsTheir parents don’t have the confidence in existing facilities to entrust their daughters to be away from home.
“We got the exam results in yesterday for the ‘A’ Level equivalent and wanted to let you know that 17 girls have passed and are University-bound! “Six more will resit their exams so we expect we will have more who will pass. “We are of course all very proud of them. “Thank you for supporting us so these kind of results can happen.” To learn more about how you could volunteer on this programme take a look here To learn about how you could donate to this programme take a look here. Volunteering – the right people in the right places. By Kate Stefanko. Filed in good and bad practice, volunteer stories | I (Kate) just LOVE my job and I thought you’d like to read these snippets from 2 recent volunteers about how ‘people and places’ works closely with volunteers, right from the beginning – doing our utmost to put the right people in the right places: SOPHIE ‘I was very impressed (and grateful!) That when my original allocated project proposed a job role that didn’t quite align with my experience, People & Places organised for me to change to Treak.
This was a perfect fit and I’m glad I ended up there!’ Be careful what you share on social media-you might unknowingly break the law! By Dianne Ashman. Filed in good and bad practice, media | This is a cautionary tale. Sharing images of abuse, even when the goal is to question those images and promote best practice, could be a criminal offence in the letter of the law. Recently I (Dianne) was sent a video via social media by someone who works at one of the projects we support. The film showed shocking scenes of violence towards children. It was sent to me with the best of intentions by someone with whom I had have conversations about positive ways of disciplining children in a country where corporal punishment towards children (though not extreme violence) is still common practice.
This is what I learned. Immediately reply to the person who forwarded the image to you, expressing your shock at receiving it and your condemnation of the people who have created it. Videos and pictures showing this type of abuse are often made specifically for sharing on the Internet. Volunteering abroad made us friends for life. “gap years for grown ups” – the value of older volunteers. By Kate Stefanko. Filed in articles by people and places, people and places in the news, volunteering in the news | “Highly skilled people … are looking for career break activities” writes Matthew Jenkin in today’s Guardian newspaper. At ‘people and places‘, we know that each volunteer has valuable skills to share – whatever their age. The key is to put the right people in the right places, and that’s something we work hard to achieve.
As Sallie says in The Guardian article: “… older volunteers can bring huge value … they are generally more patient and better prepared for voluntary work, not only professionally but also culturally.” South Africa – school outing with volunteer Shan India – teacher training with volunteer Dianne. “gap years for grown ups” – the value of older volunteers.
LOVE this news successful volunteers' skills-share achievements primary school India. By kate. Filed in project news | “Now I am about to leave Chitardai, I just want to say how pleased I am both with the level of support given to the current volunteers by the teachers at Chitardai and with the quality of their teaching and focus on the job, both of which are much improved from when I was last here. current volunteers, Yvonne & Sue at the Mahal “I am also delighted with the evidence that input from volunteers has been both valued and continued after they have left.
Of course some resources brought by volunteers have not proved appropriate and have been left unused. Dianne & Arpita teaching together “I have also been told by a new teacher about teaching styles volunteers demonstrated being taught to him by a Chitardai teacher I and other volunteers worked with who has now left, and by a teacher from another school that he is still using resources I distributed at a teachers’ workshop in 2011. Dianne’s latest workshop with local teachers.