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.”
Tags: charity, expanding charity, gap year, global volunteering, lattitude, Lattitude press release, staff members, volunteering, youth development
