Blog

The start of a new year always gives people time to reflect on the previous year and make resolutions about the coming one. At Lattitude Global Volunteering we’re always amazed at the work our volunteers do, however, some of them go one step further and take on bigger challenges. If you’re looking for inspiration for 2013, please read on about the great work that four of our return volunteers are doing in Tanzania, South Africa, Malawi and Ghana.

 

Matt Crowcombe

SOS Africa (sosafrica.com)

SOS Africa was founded in January 2003 by Matt Crowcombe and Henry Matthews. Matt had been on a placement with Lattitude Global Volunteering at the International School of South Africa in Mafikeng where Henry was a teacher. Henry made Matt aware of the widespread poverty and poor standard of education of African children that existed throughout the local townships. Henry also introduced Matt to Thabo, a young township child who attended Henry’s church.

Shortly after this life-changing moment, Matt returned to the UK at the end of his gap year, founded the SOS Africa Charity in the UK and started fundraising to support the African children with the sole aim of providing education and care to the underprivileged children of South Africa. At the same time, Henry established an SOS Africa office in Mafikeng, South Africa. Together they ensured that SOS Africa would empower Africa’s future generations through education. Here Matt talks about his reasons for taking his gap year one step further and turning it in to a career as a charity founder.

“There are various reasons why individuals go on gap years. Some want to take a year out to have a memorable experience. Others will want to make a genuine difference to the societies in which they are placed. For me, I became very attached to South Africa and my placement area and wanted to invest my time to assist its development.

“During my placement I spent time in the local townships where I was able to see first hand the poverty that haunts South African society. I came to realise that the provision of education would be the only way to address this imbalance. My placement gave me this unique opportunity to experience and assist another culture in a safe environment. It also educated me about what a difference an individual can make when given this opportunity.

“The mix of different cultures makes South Africa a very diverse and interesting country. I realised that my skills would be much better used to help empower underprivileged children in South Africa. My gap year placement provided me with the ideal opportunity to make important connections and begin developing the foundations of the SOS Africa Charity.

“I continue volunteering because SOS Africa is a grass-roots organisation which allows me to see the direct impact of my work. It is also my job to communicate this direct impact to the charity’s supporters. Volunteering is an extremely satisfying experience particularly when you to see the fruits of your labour.

“It started in 2003, when with help from my family, we sent Thabo to school and provided him with an education. SOS Africa has gone from strength to strength since and because the scale of the task is so great I am motivated to keep developing SOS Africa to help more and more children through the provision of education.”

 

Anna Burton

READ International (readinternational.org.uk)

Anna travelled to Tanzania in February 2005 with youth development charity Lattitude Global Volunteering. She spent five months volunteering in two primary schools in Kilombero. Anna’s shock at the lack of basic teaching materials led her to a decision to look for a way to help on her return to the UK.

Anna now works for READ International, a UK based charity that enables surplus or ‘out-of-date’ textbooks to be sent to East Africa where the book-to-student ratio is often only 9:1.

Here, Anna talks about how her placement made her want to work in the charity sector, and her quest to work specifically with a charity that solves the problems she encountered while teaching in Tanzania.

“It sounds like such a cliché but volunteering in Tanzania made me realise working for a charity was all I wanted to do! At 18 I found myself teaching English in rural primary schools with very few textbooks, often as little as 10 books between 80 students. On top of this, I was shocked the students only received a few hours of English lessons each week even though they were expected to move on to secondary schools where all of their subjects would be taught in English not Swahili. I wondered how students were supposed to learn enough English to pass their entrance exams let alone study without books, pens or paper.

“I arrived back in the UK feeling quite disillusioned with the way we take things, like access to books, for granted and realised if I wanted it to be different for students in Tanzania I needed to try to do something about it! Rather than sit at home feeling powerless I started looking into ways to support development overseas and working for a charity seemed like a logical first step.

“Following university, I volunteered with a grassroots NGO in India, become a trustee for the Young Achievers Trust, and chaired a development education charity called Development in Action. My time as a volunteer allowed me to manage volunteers, design and lead training, develop new programmes, deliver an awards programme, and work with both paid members of staff and trustee boards; experiences that undoubtedly helped me secure my current role as Head of Programmes at READ International. During the day I worked for UK-based charities but it was the additional experience I gained volunteering that helped me progress in the sector and ultimately end up being paid to work back in Africa.

“I was lucky enough to travel back to Tanzania last April with READ International to see our programmes in Action. It had been over seven years since my placement so landing in Dar es Salaam was an emotional moment; I will never forget the impact that volunteering in Tanzania has had upon my career and I feel really lucky to be running programmes that make a real difference to Tanzanian students and teachers.

“On top of that, when I recruit new volunteers or members of staff here at READ International, I’m always impressed by those who have continued to volunteer. An overseas placement is the perfect introduction as it exposes to you a different culture and way of working but you can build on those experiences back in the UK and bring all that you’ve learnt to other organisations or individuals. Working in the charity sector is hard work but ultimately very rewarding, as you really are able to make a difference.”

 

Jennifer McMillan

Zikomo (Zikomo.org.uk)

Zikomo is an organisation set up by Kate Chedburn and Jenifer McMillan in 2008. The aim of Zikomo is to sponsor Malawian children from Ruo Primary School into secondary education.

Jennifer travelled to Malawi, with youth development charity Lattitude Global Volunteering. She spent over seven and a half months teaching at Ruo Full Primary School. Upon their departure, Kate and Jennifer committed to sponsoring as many pupils as they could to go on to secondary education. They started getting sponsors as soon as they returned home and Zikomo.org.uk was born. Here Jennifer talks about her placement, volunteering as a whole and how working for charities gives her a sense of fulfillment.

“I still describe Ruo as my second home, I really felt at peace there. The community was so supportive of us and helped us to learn the language, cook their traditional food and learn their culture. I was in awe of the people there, many of them have very little but were always willing to share with each other. I never heard anyone moan about something they didn’t have.

“At school I saw how pupils progressed and as I got to know the pupils backgrounds, I worried about the future for some of them. The majority of the pupils would never have been able to go to secondary school without our sponsors. Leaving at the end of my placement was the single most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do. I knew I had to do something.

“I was familiar with volunteering as I’d been a volunteer of some sort since I was 12. While at school one of my teachers took a year out and went to Malawi, as a school we raised a lot of money and sent supplies over. Her story inspired me to do the same, and so when I decided to leave university after my second year I decided it was my turn to go to Malawi and going with Lattitude gave me the opportunity to experience Malawian culture up close and volunteer at the same time.

“I have always wanted to work for a charity, I currently work for Alzheimer Scotland and run Zikomo in my spare time. I enjoy the positivity that comes from working in the charity sector and would recommend that anyone who has gone on placement to continue to help in any way. I benefit hugely as an individual as it maintains my connection with the community. I speak to the head teacher of the school very regularly. I couldn’t have left Malawi without continuing to help in some way.

“The first 14 pupils have just completed secondary school in July, we are currently waiting for their results. I’m confident that by setting up Zikomo and allowing these children to go on to secondary education, we’ve made a difference to their lives.”

 

Fiona Buckmaster

Support Ghana (www.supportghana.org)

Fiona’s interest in Ghana started long before her 2012 placement with Lattitude Global Volunteering. Her fascination began when she was running a Fairtrade group in her local area to raise awareness of Fairtrade issues with primary school age children.

On discovering that Ghana was the biggest global producer of Fairtrade goods, Fiona was sold on finding out more and even visiting the country. However, her placement went far beyond teaching her about a culture and ended up connecting her to the community of Akim Achiase for the foreseeable future

Here, Fiona explains why she has felt compelled to set up a charity to raise money to build new classrooms and make Victory Assemblies of God International School (VAGIS) the school it deserves to be.

“I think most people would agree that, as clichéd as it sounds, volunteering in somewhere like Ghana really changes your perspective. I don’t think many people could come home and not be affected by their experience.

“For me, teaching science at VAGIS was massively eye-opening. The children there are so wonderful and there are some really bright pupils, but they just aren’t getting the opportunities they need, and overcrowding at the school is a big part of that. Every classroom in the school hosts more than one class group, and there can be huge numbers of children squashed into each room.

“Returning home to the UK was really hard for me, so I found setting up ‘Support Ghana’ and fundraising for my Ghanaian friends at VAGIS a great way to help me keep my memories alive and my mind focused on Ghana. It’s amazing how a relatively small amount of money, in UK terms, can translate to making a massive difference in countries such as Ghana and to the staff and Children at VAGIS.

“As a very new charity, I’m delighted that our initial project is underway. We’re hoping to build a new block of classrooms for the young nursery and kindergarten pupils, so that they can hopefully have a better learning environment. This block will also have a school office, so that the headmaster of the school, who has been suffering on and off from malaria for many years now, can sit down when he does his work. We’re hoping to complete this project during 2013 and I can’t wait to see the results of our fundraising.

“Going to Ghana changed me, it was the best thing I’ve ever done, and setting up and running ‘Support Ghana’ has allowed me to give something back to the people there who were so kind to me.”