children - Goodtrippers

New teaching summer camp launched in India

If you’ve always wanted to take a career break or add another experience to your gap year, it’s time to plan ahead for summer 2015 and two potentially life-changing weeks…

Volunteering organisation PoD has just announced details of a new summer camp working with children in India. The two-week placement is a great opportunity for first-time volunteers to join a supported and structured programme running activity sessions for local children in the city of Udaipur in the north of the country.

The aim of the project is to provide additional support to local staff and to improve the level of education of the local children in order to help them break the cycle of poverty. Udaipur is one of the most underdeveloped states with below average income and literacy rates in comparison to the rest of India, with less than 50% of females being able to read and write.

The work and what to expect

The volunteer team will run educational activities and games in schools and children’s homes. Volunteers will also have the opportunity to experience Indian culture through Hindi lessons, cooking sessions, optional yoga classes and henna workshops. The placement includes trips to famous Indian landmarks including the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, temples and palaces.

Accommodation

Volunteers will live in an apartment with each room having its own bathroom. The accommodation is simple but clean and has a TV room, dining room, kitchen, resources and lesson planning area and has Wi-Fi.

Recommended for… Those who enjoy working with children and experiencing the local culture in India

Be aware that… You should be realistic about how much you can achieve in two weeks, but your contribution is an essential part of the on-going project and support for the local community.

The two week placement starts on 12 July 2015 and costs £895. For full details including booking visit the project profile on www.podvolunteer.org

PoD is a specialist non-profit volunteering organisation with over 10 years’ experience arranging volunteer placements overseas who are committed to a responsible volunteering approach which they have carefully defined to guide us in the way they work. See more about their responsible volunteer policy here.

Get involved with creative arts in Nepal

Do you love arts and crafts? Or enjoy getting kids involved in dance, music and drama? Then you could be the perfect candidate for a new volunteering project in Nepal.

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Creative Arts, Nepal, run by the charity PoD, is looking for volunteers with skills in drawing, painting, music, drama, dance, creative writing, pottery, puppetry, story-telling, anything your creative mind can offer! Volunteers will be teaching young children at the Street Children’s Centre in the Himalayan city of Pokhara, running creative classes to break from the norm of rote learning. The creative classes help broaden the children’s imagination, improve self-confidence, open up new ways of learning, and most of all, add an element of fun!

Schools and children’s centres in Nepal rarely have the budget to fund arts-related classes meaning additional support from charities and their volunteers is greatly welcomed.

The work

Volunteers work for around five hours a day, five days a week, at the centre and are encouraged to come prepared with their own lesson plans and activity ideas for children of all ages. Approximately two to five other volunteers will be working with PoD in Pokhara at the same time, and everyone will receive support from PoD volunteer manager and resident Chrissie. Volunteers receive a Nepali language lesson during their first week, with placements lasting from two to 16 weeks.

Accommodation

Volunteers stay in the beautiful Himalayan lakeside city of Pokhara, surrounded by mountains. Accommodation is at a family-run guesthouse – basic but clean and comfortable, with your own en-suite room. Owner Bindu and her family always provide a very warm welcome for guests.

PoD has been working in Nepal since 2007 with two members of staff who are based in Pokhara. The Street Children’s Centre rescues children from a life on the street. The children here could have run away from home, been abandoned by their families or have grown up on the streets as orphans. The centre is home to around 15 orphaned and disadvantaged children between two and 15 years old. The orphanage uses its limited resources to provide the children with accommodation, food, education and support. The child care centres allow low to middle income families to work while their children are at a day care centre in a safe and secure environment.

For more information about the project, including fees, dates and how to book, visit Creative Arts, Nepal.

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Teach in Ghana – an educational experience

Guest blogger Ellie Cambridge, of NGO Frontier, profiles a volunteering opportunity with Ghana’s new generation…

Ghana is a land of contrasts featuring vast areas of land brimming with animals and birds, a stunning coastline, mountainous terrain and the highest waterfall in West Africa – fancy volunteering there? The people are renowned for welcoming visitors, and with education hugely important to local communities, you’re bound to discover a warm welcome if you join this teaching project.

Education provides Ghanaian children the opportunity to move away from less well paid trades and into something that could give them a better future. Many schools in Ghana rely heavily on the help of volunteers. Frontier’s Ghana Teaching Project gives volunteers the opportunity to help underprivileged children do something special with their lives.

The work

While earning a TEFL certificate, volunteers will teach English to the pupils of a local school, mark their work, prepare homework, develop lesson plans and help organise extracurricular activities, such as sports clubs. Much of the teaching work that volunteers do requires creativity and a flexible approach in order to make learning fun and memorable for the children. In order to prepare for the teaching, volunteers are encouraged to sign-up to a training weekend to get their TEFL certificate off to an excellent start.

Accommodation

Volunteers stay in a homestay which provides ample opportunity to really get to know the Ghanaian culture and lifestyle by living with a local family. Volunteers are provided with three delicious meals a day, eating traditional Ghanaian dishes. The homestay is part attached to the community school where volunteers teach (your daily alarm may be the children singing as they arrive for school!).

Recommended for… Anyone who wants to make a substantial difference to Ghanaian children’s lives, have a passion for teaching and are willing to get heavily involved in community life.

Be aware that… While clean and comfortable with everything that volunteers need, the accommodation is fairly basic. The food will be nutritiously well-balanced and filling, but may not be exactly what you are used to, so it is always good to be prepared for this difference.

‘Good’ credentials:

The project provides constant and dedicated education for children that otherwise may not receive it
By building English language skills, volunteers directly contribute to the development of Ghanaian business and the economy by increasing children’s communication skills, influencing their career choices later in life

About the author: Ellie Cambridge works for Frontier, an NGO dedicated to safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem integrity, and building sustainable livelihoods for marginalised communities in the world’s poorest countries. Find our more about Frontier’s volunteer projects and ethical adventure trails and gap year planning.

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New education project calls volunteers to Peru

Non-profit organisation PoD Volunteer (www.podvolunteer.org) has announced a new education project in Peru and is now calling on willing volunteers to join and support their work.

The partnership, with a local community education initiative, is in the Peruvian town of Huaraz in the Ancash region and will provide educational and emotional support to children from low income families. If you want to join them in Peru, here’s a flavour of what you could be experiencing…

Activity

The project encourages a holistic approach to education combining homework tuition, emotional well-being classes, recreational activities and daily nutritious meals in a family orientated environment. The community school was established in 2006 to support a low income area where many children were struggling to achieve in the school system. The school runs two daily sessions to compliment the state school system;

9am – 12pm: Secondary school students attend the community education project, they then spend the afternoon at state school

3pm – 6pm: Primary school students attend the project following their morning classes at state school. This is a big help also to many single parents who would not be home to look after their children in the afternoon.

The objective is to provide the children within extra support in their studies. Volunteers act as mentors offering help with homework, education on health and wellbeing and emotional support for students from difficult backgrounds.

Volunteers are involved with a number of tasks which can include:

Helping with homework; Spanish, English, Maths and other subjects
One-on-one tuition with children who are struggling
Informal lessons
Creative activities; music, arts and crafts
Active games and sports
Help on the nutrition awareness program, healthy living and hygiene education
Building and maintenance at the school

If you have any specific skills or interests then the community education project are always eager to involve this in the volunteer work. Especially if you have experience in social work, psychology, art, environmental sustainability, literacy and numeracy intervention, health education, fundraising, or languages and translation.

Accommodation

Volunteers stay in a basic but comfortable volunteer apartment, located in the centre of Huaraz and about 10 minutes’ walk from the community school. The apartment has a fully equipped kitchen where volunteers can cook.  Bedrooms are shared with shared bathrooms.

Recommended for… Anyone with an interest in education, community development and working with young people and volunteers who want to immerse themselves in Peruvian culture.

Be aware that… The language barrier can be tough, we recommend volunteers try to pick up a few phrases before you travel and consider lessons when in Peru. You will find you pick up many phrases naturally whilst volunteering! Also, accommodation is not private – bedrooms and bathrooms are shared with other volunteers on the project.

Good credentials

Help fight poverty and child labour in Peru by providing educational and emotional support to children and adolescents from low income families.

Build self-esteem through helping plan and execute personal and emotional development workshops, crafts, and sports.
Support an ongoing local community initiative which has been operating in the region for seven years.

For more information on the role, what’s included and the project price visit PoD Volunteer – Peru, Community Education

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Volunteering in a Peruvian orphanage

Contact: Traveller Not Tourist, Arequipa, Peru / www.travellernottourist.com / T: 0051 99 88 83 669 / E: travellernottourist@gmail.com

Guest blogger Renee Dodds shares her experience of volunteering with orphans in Peru

Traveller Not Tourist is a small organization set up by a lovely young couple who were determined to give visitors to Peru the opportunity to travel responsibly and help the local community. As the name suggests, Traveller Not Tourist is all about helping people have a positive impact on the community and environment rather than mere ‘tourism’ without thought or care.

I discovered the organization while doing a web search for free or low-cost volunteering. My husband and I had decided we wanted to volunteer overseas, but were a bit disheartened by the exorbitant fees being charged by many organizations, with no guarantee that the money paid would be used for the local community. Traveller Not Tourist appealed to us for this reason, they only charge a small administration fee ($100 USD at the time of writing this).

I expected to hang out with some cute kids and feel like I was doing some good in the world when I signed up, but I wasn’t prepared for such an emotional and intense experience. There were days when the work was exhausting, or I would be overcome with sadness for the situation these kids were in, or I was just plain sick of nappies! But the smiles and hugs from the children every day when you open the door and they pile into your arms is the most precious thing on earth. And watching the babies learn to clap and crawl and knowing you helped them in their development is just incredible.

Our time at the orphanage was life-changing and memories of the children will stay with me forever. On our last night with them they performed a concert to say goodbye, and each gave us handmade letters they had written to say how much they would miss us.

Traveller Not Tourist know how much the volunteers bond with the children, so they send a newsletter out with updates and photos of the kids, it makes my day every time I get one!

Work: They have two projects available to volunteer for, an orphanage and a school – the one we were placed with was the Casa Hogar Luz Alba Orphanage. The orphanage is a home for children who, for a whole range of reasons, are unable to live with their parents. There were 23 children aged two months to 10 years there at the time we volunteered, including four babies under eight months old.

Volunteers do ‘half days’, either morning or afternoon, so you have the rest of the day off to yourself (we used the time to do an intensive Spanish language course). Volunteers are there to give the few orphanage staff a much needed break (they are all local full time volunteers who live at the orphanage). So you will be asked to play with the children, provide some general care (bathing/eating etc), clean the living spaces and wash clothes. I was generally asked to spend most of my time in the tiny nursery caring for the four babies so it helps to have some experience changing nappies and caring for very young babies.

They ask for a minimum volunteer commitment of one month, but they also offer a ‘volunteer for a day’ program, where travellers just passing through can offer their services for a day or two.

Accommodation: Traveller Not Tourist has a self-contained volunteer house with rooms available at very low cost to accommodate volunteers. It is around the same price as local backpackers but luxurious in comparison, with a big loungeroom, hot water, great kitchen! It’s really lovely to live with all the other volunteers in a communal space and you will make some great friends.

Recommended for… Anyone who loves working with children

Be aware that… The orphanage staff don’t necessarily speak English and you need to communicate with them regarding the children so make sure you have some basic phrases in place before you start.

It’s not all cuddling babies and playing peek-a-boo, it can actually be extremely physically demanding work, there was no washing machine when we were there and the babies were mostly in cloth nappies, so large chunks of the day were spent on hands and knees scrubbing clothes. My knuckles were red raw by the time I left.

The orphanage staff ask for all tattoos to be covered and piercings taken out or hidden and for dress to be conservative.

‘Good’ credentials:

Traveller Not Tourist are a tiny, grassroots organization and have a very simple formula of only asking for volunteer time, not large payments of cash, so there is no need to worry about where your money is going. It’s all very transparent, you donate time and see the immediate benefit.
This is no token volunteerism – volunteers make a huge difference in these children’s lives and the orphanage relies on their help. The orphanage gets no funding from government, so has no way of obtaining much needed support.
These children so badly need the attention that the few, overworked women at the orphanage just don’t have time to give them.

Date of visit: April 2008

About the author: Renee Dodds is a freelance writer and public relations professional living in Perth, Australia. (Photos courtesy of Renee Dodds)

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Boats, Elephants and Community Work in Kerala, India

Fort Kochi, Kerala, India

Through i to i Volunteering

www.i-to-i.com

E: enquiries@i-to-itravel.com / T: +44(0)1892 886123

(Review by Rachel Watson)

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The Boats, Elephants and Community Work two-week tour does exactly what it says on the tin – it’s a jam packed two weeks in South India’s beautiful Kerala, with boat trips, elephant interaction and eight days of community volunteering with delightful children in a special needs school.

You’ll be met at the airport and transferred to the homestay accommodation which will be your base for the two weeks. First up it’s a full orientation and “get to know each other” session with the rest of the group and co-ordinator Rakhi, a local lady who knows everything there is to know about Kerala and will bend over backwards to help you enjoy your time in her home state. Then it’s time to get stuck into the itinerary – starting with a full tour of Fort Kochi, taking in St Francis’ church, the Presidential palace, ornate Jewish synagogue and traditional Chinese fishing nets. The nets are still in full working order, and you can stand by and watch the fishermen at work. If you’re lucky (like I was) they will invite you to lend a hand, and you can help reel in a catch – mine was sent off to market to be sold!

The journey to school is made by bus – it’s a hot and cramped 20 minute trip by bus (a crazy experience not to be missed in India!) then a lovely ten minute stroll along the sea front, past the fishing nets (and once during my stay, a Bollywood film set) and through the front gates to school. The first time you make the journey (and more if you need it) you’ll be accompanied by a member of Rakhi’s team, and introduced to the teachers. The school is based at a convent and run by dedicated, hardworking and loving sisters who will make you feel very welcome at their school, and the children are beautiful – very fun loving, playful and trusting, and willing to work (and play) hard at any games, lessons or songs you introduce.

The weekends are no time for relaxing after a busy time at school – there’s a traditional Kerala arts show to enjoy, and trips to the famous Backwaters, an elephant village and the stunning Arirapally Waterfalls. I was most excited by the elephant trip, as I’ve always loved the majestic animals and was looking forward to getting up close with them. I wasn’t disappointed – invited by the mahouts to help with the bath I waded into the river to help scrub the elephants and was able to chat to the mahouts about their lives, and stroke the animals as much as I liked. We then headed straight off to the awe-inspiring waterfalls – you can get so close to them, and enjoy cooling off in smaller pools as well. Our trip also included lunch at a fantastic restaurant, with an infinity pool and fabulous views – the perfect end to an amazing day.

The trip includes two fantastic backwater cruises. The Kerala Backwaters are one of the natural wonders of the world, and – cruising through the lush green plants and trees, waving at local children running alongside your boat – it’s not hard to see why. Our first day on the Backwaters was spent on two different boats – a larger one with a sun deck for relaxing, and a much smaller boat, which was able to cruise down the smaller, less populated backwaters and take in even more of this gorgeous part of the world.

The second Backwater trip is an overnight stay on a houseboat, and was for me the perfect end to a perfect two weeks. My group – by now firm friends – spent a fantastic night cruising through the riverside villages, exotic birdlife and stunning scenery. We drank, laughed and reminisced about the fantastic, chock full two weeks we’ll remember for a lifetime.

Work: You’ll be spending eight days volunteering in a special needs school run by the sisters of the convent the school is based in. The children age from around 7-years upwards, and there are also adult students who participate in life skills classes and help the nuns with the smaller children. Activities are varied and very much down to the individual – you’ll need to use your initiative and get stuck in, there’s no place for wallflowers so come prepared with ideas for songs, games, lessons and activities you can do with the students. If you’ve got a particular skill or interest, use it!

Accommodation: It’s homestay accommodation here, staying in volunteer quarters of a family home. Rooms are based on twin share, and there’s a western-style toilet and warm water shower. Facilities include a microwave, kettle, toaster, fridge and television, and there’s a hand wash laundry service available for a (very) small fee. I couldn’t have asked for more.

Food: All meals are included and most of them are home cooked by the homestay family’s cook. Meals are amazing – traditional South Indian fare (fish curries are a speciality) but different tastes and requirements can be catered for easily – just ask.

Recommended for… People who want to do and see the best Kerala has to offer in a short period of time, while giving something back with volunteer work alongside the “touristy” activities. Also great for solo travellers, as you’re part of a group of like-minded people.

Be aware that… This is a fully supported trip with a planned itinerary in place for you. I loved that I could leave the organisation to someone else and know everything was planned for me to get the most out of my two weeks’ annual leave – but if you’re the sort of person who prefers more independent, “do it yourself” trips, it may not be to your taste.

Remember too, that if you don’t get stuck in right away at school, you could leave feeling that you’ve not achieved as much as you (or the kids) would like. Preparation is key – hit the ground running with ideas and a plan for what you want to do in your short time (I planned “In The Jungle” and “Under The Sea” arts and crafts projects – one for each week – and also swotted up on the kids in my class by reading through the journal left by previous volunteers).

‘Good’ credentials

All the accommodation, food, trips and in country staff are locally sourced – boosting the local economy and providing jobs
The children at the school benefit from one-on-one attention from volunteers, and the extra pairs of hands allow the permanent staff more time to concentrate on physiotherapy and speech therapy sessions for children who need them

Date of Visit: January 2011

About the author: Rachel Watson caught the travel bug during her gap year in 2002, and has no plans to stop exploring! She works in Customer Operations and blogs about her travel experiences in her spare time. Visit Rachel’s blog at http://dancing-like-no-ones-watching.blogspot.co.uk/ or follow her on Twitter @RacheyRoo183

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