Archive for the Press Release Category

It’s A Degree ‘Down Under’ for Chichester graduate Harvey Jupp

Harvey at school in Australia whist on his gap year with Lattitude Global Volunteering

Harvey Jupp, 20, thought he knew what he wanted from life when he left school, but a gap year placement with Lattitude Global Volunteering flipped the youngster’s life 180 degrees which now sees him set to embark on a life in Oz.

Back in 2009, Harvey was embarking on his final year of college. His UCAS application underway, he primarily wanted a break before going to University. Having gained a provisional place at Brighton University to study Product Design, Harvey set about looking for a project for his gap year.

Harvey applied to a placement with Lattitude Global Volunteering as working in Australia was something he’d always wanted to do. After an in-depth matching process he was placed as a teaching assistant in Kormilda college, Darwin, a school predominantly for Aboriginal children.

Here, Harvey explains how all his best-laid plans were literally turned ‘upside down’ after he left his heart in Australia:

“I had no intention to work with children as a career. The thought had never really crossed my mind. However, after spending 6 months working with Aboriginal children in Kormilda and discovering how brilliant they are, I am prepared to give up everything to get back to Australia and work with them for the rest of my life. A strong statement, I know, but it’s genuinely how I feel.”

“My placement at Kormilda ran from January-June 2011 and with every month I spent there, my feelings for the people, culture and country grew and grew.”

“When I got home in August I had to prepare myself for university. One day I found myself searching for accommodation on my laptop thinking ‘I can’t do this’. All my ambition to do a product design degree had left me completely because I had discovered something that I had a real passion for. It was this realisation that has changed my life and set me on a new path. I realised that working with Abooriginal kids is what I want to do for the rest of my life and I am fully determined and dedicated to make that happen.”

“The first seed of contemplation had been planted while I was still in Australia. I was asked the same question four times by four different staff members at Kormilda: ‘why are you going to do product design when you are so good with the kids?’. And for the first time after choosing the degree I couldn’t give an honest answer to justify it, nor explain why I had chosen it instead of something like a degree in teaching. It seemed obvious at that point that I was making a mistake and all I could say was ‘I don’t know.”

“So I contacted Kormilda telling them I wanted to return and they welcomed me back with a job. I contacted Charles Darwin university, submitted an application to study Aboriginal Law and Culture and within one week I got offered a place. I am due back in Darwin in January 2012.”

“I would not have achieved any of this without taking a placement through Lattitude Global Volunteering and, although I would have probably been happy doing my degree at Brighton, I would have continued to be completely unaware of how much better and different my life could be.”

“I strongly suggest that anyone reading this does a gap year too, because even though I can’t guarantee such a life-changing outcome I can guarantee that what you learn will be beyond anything you could imagine and you will have the best time of your life.”

Abbie’s top tips for stress free fundraising

Finding the funds for a gap year is always listed as a reason that puts prospective volunteers off, but that needn’t be the case. If you choose a structured gap year, with an organisation or charity, they can help you every step of the way.

Abbie Smith is taking a gap year placement to Japan with Lattitude Global Volunteering in March 2012. Below she discusses how her fundraising activities have helped her raise the funds needed for her gap year.

For me starting my fundraising early was really important. Many people think that you have to organise huge events to be a successful fundraiser, but this isn’t the case. I found that doing lots of smaller events meant that I had access to a much bigger pool of people and it also gave me the opportunity to ask for continued donations without feeling cheeky.

Although I have done numerous fundraising activities, without a doubt, my most successful fundraising activity has to be car boot sales. It was easy to find things that I didn’t need anymore to sell and having a stall gave me the opportunity to explain to people what I was raising money for. This often resulted in more generous prices for my goods.

I have had cake sales of my own home-baked cakes. By adding a small amount on-top of the value of the ingredients, I managed to get a good price for my cakes and my buyers went away happy.

Raffles are another good way to raise money. I asked around family, friends and local businesses for donations for prizes. I found everyone to be so supportive. Most people have unused/unwanted gifts that make perfect prizes and do more good raising money than in a box under the bed. Other prizes could be a night’s baby-sitting or washing someone’s car.

My Mum helped me arrange a 70’s themed party in our garden at home and family and friends paid a small fee to come and enjoy the night. This event was so much fun and went way better than I expected.

I’ve now reached my fund-raising goal, including a small bursary from Lattitude Global Volunteering. Now I just can’t wait to go away. I am hoping to gain a whole new outlook on life and experience a once in a life time opportunity. Visiting a different country with a whole new culture is going to be difficult and challenging yet hopefully very rewarding.

Abbie’s top tips for stress free fundraising:

• Start early – It’s never too soon to start planning. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll finish.

• Look in your local papers and directories for a list of where your local car boot sales are. It’s normally around £5 per car, so factor this in when pricing your goods.

• Get family and friends involved – The stress of planning events can be halved if it’s on more than your shoulders.

Lattitude Global Volunteering Launches Campaign For Real Volunteering

November 2011: Lattitude Global Volunteering will be celebrating 40 years of sending young people on meaningful, long-term placements in 2012. To mark this milestone, the charity today launches its ‘Campaign For Real Volunteering’.

Lattitude Global Volunteering has been around since the birth of the gap year industry; in fact the term ‘gap year’ came from its original name (GAP Activity Projects). The charity has become quite disheartened at how the positive concept of the gap year has now been overshadowed by the profiteering of tourism companies who have moved into the industry, so is vowing to fight back with real and meaningful overseas volunteer placements.

Nick Adie, UK marketing manager says: “Over the years many new organisations have begun offering voluntary placements overseas, from small companies to tourism giants. However, with this expansion there seems to be a drift from worthwhile and selfless volunteer placements to short term placements more concerned with what ‘fits in’ to a gap year, around travel or tourism plans.

“The dumbing down of placements and quick turnaround of volunteers is diluting the perceived benefits to the extent where gap years are quite uniformly criticised and mocked. Even more worrying is the seeming lack of responsibility towards the host communities that are supposedly benefitting from volunteer help. In many cases these short term placements can actually create a great deal more harm than good.”

The advice given by Lattitude Global Volunteering is to avoid these so called ‘voluntourism’ activities and think about the reason to volunteer in the first place. The charity states that there is nothing wrong with travelling, and many volunteers do travel after a long-term placement, but they do it with better knowledge and understanding of a different culture and people, greater confidence and better understanding.

Volunteering overseas is undoubtedly a fantastic thing. It offers young people the opportunity to experience a different life, to develop in skills and confidence and enjoy the world. All the while making a real and valid contribution to a host community. But only when it is done properly.

Lattitude Global Volunteering now has a specific area of its website dedicated solely to the campaign with hints and tips to help prospective volunteers navigate the gap year volunteering industry and help them choose an organisation that can provide a volunteering experience that is worthwhile as well as help with weighing up the costs to get the best value for your money and the chance for personal development.

For more information please see: www.lattitude.org.uk/real-volunteering

Michael Njunge Rides 400 Miles to Reach Fundraising Goal

October 2011: Ex Slough Grammar School student, Michael Njunge, today embarks on a challenge of a lifetime to raise money for Lattitude Global Volunteering.

Today Michael will leave on his bike from his home in Langley, Berkshire, and cycle to LegoLand, Windsor, where he worked the past three summers in food and drink and most recently as an attractions front-liner. He will embark on his 400-mile journey taking in three other Merlin theme parks around the country including Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures and Alton Towers, Staffordshire, before his ride comes to an end back home in Langley on the 30th.

Michael has a target of £800 to raise, which will help him reach his goal and allow him to take up his medical placement in Japan with Lattitude Global Volunteering in March 2012.

Talking of inspiration about his ride, Michael said: “I wanted to ride a long distance as something new and challenging. I’d done marathons before, but never a tour like this so I thought it was a good opportunity to try something new outside of my comfort zone and it was a good opportunity to fundraise.”

“The parks are the main Merlin attractions of the UK and so I thought people would know about them and as an ex-Merlin employee I thought it would be a good wrap-up to my ending employment with them.”

Lattitude Global Volunteering’s Marketing Manager, Nick Adie said: “We are always so excited when our volunteers choose to do something like this to aid their fundraising. We wish Michael the best of luck in his journey and we hope he reaches the target he’s set.”

Lattitude Global Volunteering Team Grows

June 2011: Lattitude Global Volunteering today announces team expansions across Europe and Africa. New area managers have been put in place in Europe, Malawi and South Africa to help strengthen Lattitude Global Volunteering’s prominence and support arriving volunteers. Also in the UK, on top of a brand new UK website (www.lattitude.org.uk) the marketing team is expanding to help support the growing number of events that Lattitude Global Volunteering will be supporting throughout 2011/2012.

Penny Sturgess has joined Lattitude Global Volunteering as Europe Director. Penny has had 13 years experience working in the voluntary sector delivering services and programmes to a wide cross-section of the public. She managed frontline services at RNID and RNIB and set up the UK’s first helpline for Deaf sign language users.   In 2007 she joined Global Action Plan for four years, delivering environmental behaviour change programmes to communities across the UK. In partnership with local authorities, housing associations, community groups and large companies she trained and supported volunteers to bring about change in their communities. She set up a UK-wide youth volunteering programme and ran a climate camp for young people from schools across China. She has undertaken various volunteering roles in the UK and worked with volunteers from many different backgrounds.

She says: “I am delighted to have this opportunity to work with Lattitude Global Volunteering across Europe. Volunteering in the UK and abroad is something I’ve been passionate about for many years and I am excited to be able to use my new role to promote this.”

Matt Mackaill has been named as Country Manager in South Africa. Matt brings a wealth of experience to his development role having studied for three years in West London, completing a joint honours Business and Sports degree. He then went on to take a year out to volunteer in Kampala, Uganda with a street children’s organisation called the Tigers Club, focusing on football and encouraging street children to get involved. Matt then returned to South Africa completing a PGCE (Post Grad Cert of Ed). He went on to work in a school for mentally and physically disabled children for eight years. Matt continues to work and volunteer with a number of youth groups and youth camps across South Africa.

He says: “I very much look forward to working with all the Lattitude Global Volunteering team over the coming year and am excited about this opportunity to develop the organisation’s position in South Africa.”

Matt Maroon has been recruited as the Malawi Country Manager and will be responsible for hosting volunteers in Malawi.

Matt is an American citizen and holds a bachelors degree in Political Science from the University of Dayton and a masters degree in Cultural and Applied Anthropology from the University of Cincinnati. Matt has been actively involved in youth service and development programmes for many years. Since 2006, Matt has been engaged within the education and health sectors in Malawi. He comes to Lattitude Global Volunteering with a great deal of inside knowledge having served as a volunteer teacher in a secondary school in Karonga and as the financial controller and interim director of a Malawi technical college. Matt is fluent in ChiTumbuka and also speaks ChiChewa.

He says: “I was working in Chilumba when the Lattitude Global Volunteering opportunity came along, so it was great timing. It’s great to be working in a progressive organisation with similar principles to my own. Malawi is a beautiful country and I’m keen to continue helping the country grow through the organisation’s volunteering programmes.”

Abby Hunt joins the UK marketing team as Marketing and Communications Coordinator following completion of her BA in English Literature and Drama from the University of East Anglia in 2010. Abby was working on a voluntary basis as a Promotions Officer for Lattitude Global Volunteering following her gap placement with Lattitude Global Volunteering in 2006/07.

Abby worked in a school in Northern India for four months, teaching English, Drama, Music and Art to children from three to 16 years old. Whilst on placement Abby also lived with an Indian family and helped look after the nine boarding children in the evenings.

Abby says: “I had the time of my life on my gap placement with Lattitude Global Volunteering and was so pleased when this opportunity in the marketing team came up. I’m so happy to be part of a growing team that is sending more young people on amazing gap years and having experiences that will change their lives like my experience changed mine.”

Swindon Student Seeks Business Help

Tom Stevenette to send laptops to Vanuatu

April 2011: Recently returned volunteer, Tom Stevenette, has launched a plea to businesses and individuals for donations of old or unused laptops to send to disadvantaged schools across the globe.

Vanuatu, a small island group in the south pacific, is where Tom spent six months with Lattitude Global Volunteering teaching at Isangel College and living in the local community on Tanna Island. Before setting out on his travels, Tom had worked to pay his fee and flights, but had also fundraised and managed to build an £1,000 fund to donate to the islanders.

Tom said: “I wanted to fundraise as much as I could so I would be able to find a good cause to donate money to while I was out there. The school I was at was well equipped, but I also spent some time at Ionaula secondary school that had no library bar a handful of dusty books which were donated 40+ years ago and no computers at all – I really wanted to help.”

Tom has purchased Microsoft Encarta, the CD based encyclopedia, to install on computers and is keen to purchase more audio books to increase the school library and aide with learning, also eliminating the problem of lack of sufficient internet on the island. Tom is keen to get in touch with any local companies or individuals who think they may be able to help.

Tom continued: “The crucial point is that the computers do not have to be up to date for high speed internet – anything will do providing it can run a CD. I have raised enough to cover the delivery to Vanuatu and the local Lattitude Global Volunteering representative has been so helpful with getting the ball rolling. Now I just need to connect with local businesses to achieve my goal and get the computers to them for the start of the new school year.”

Nick Adie, Marketing Manager, Lattitude Global Volunteering said: “Vanuatu is a unique global destination and we find that our volunteers who go there really immerse themselves in the islands culture. We are very pleased that Tom wishes to help the schools in the area he stayed and we will offer as much support as we can.”

Vanuatu is most recently famous due to its Yaohnanen tribe on the southern island of Tanna whose inhabitants worship and believe that Prince Phillip is a divine being. Vanuatu gained independence in 1980.

If you think you can help Tom in his quest to equip this school with laptops, please contact Lattitude Global Volunteering.