VSO: Case studies
Read more about our volunteers' experiences of living and working in a developing country, what it's like to work with a VSO volunteers from the point of view of our partners and how our work has changed the lives of people around the world.
Men can volunteer too...
Many staff from around the world commented on last weeks article by Richard Hawkes about his recent trip to Zimbabwe. Among the partners he visited was FACT – FAMILY AIDS CARING TRUST. We describe here how FACT is pioneering work with male volunteers, which is unusual in the Southern Africa culture...
Ramona Maye
Management IT Adviser - Tanzania
Improving income opportunities for poor people is a crucial aspect of VSO’s secure livelihoods work. That might involve developing people’s marketing skills so that their small businesses can thrive, or equipping students with IT skills so that they can become more employable. Former IBM management consultant and VSO volunteer Ramona Maye is currently doing both in Dodoma, Tanzania.
Janis Cushnie
Literacy Advisor - Guyana
VSO volunteer Janis Cushnie is working as a Literacy Advisor for the Department of Education in Guyana. Here she describes how she has used a new literacy programme to tackle low levels of reading in primary schools and how this successful initiative has positively influenced 600 other teachers in the region.
Purna Shrestha
Education Programme Manager - Nepal
Last week Purna Shrestha was in the UK to speak at the NUT annual event for World Teachers Day, alongside Christine Blower, NUT Acting General Secretary. Purna is Education Programme Manager in VSO Nepal and has been instrumental in the success of the 'Valuing Teachers' education advocacy in Nepal in the last four years.
Alefiya Rajkotwala
Management adviser - Rwanda
VSO Business Partnership (VBP) enables companies to combine employee secondments overseas with Corporate Social Responsibility objectives. Employees spend up to a year volunteering in a developing country, sharing skills where they’re needed most. Global consulting firm Accenture was a founding member of VBP back in 1999. In 2005, employee Alefiya Rajkotwala spent nine memorable months in Rwanda through the partnership. Her experiences there clearly demonstrate how VBP can greatly benefit the individual, the organisation they volunteer with and the company they work for back in the UK.
Laura Carse
Creative Self Help Centre - Papua New Guinea
The Creative Self Help Centre is a community organisation in Papua New Guinea supporting people with disabilities. Youth for Development volunteer Laura Carse, who is herself visually impaired, spent a year raising awareness of the Centre’s crucial work and challenging attitudes towards disability.
Meredith Alexander
Management - Bangladesh
As campaigns manager for UK charity People & Planet, Meredith Alexander knew that first hand experience of the very issues she was campaigning for would help her to do her job more effectively. She volunteered with VSO in Bangladesh, where she developed the management skills of her colleagues at an organisation supporting disadvantaged communities. The enhanced understanding and greater communication skills Meredith returned to the UK with are proving invaluable in her current role with Save the Children.
Lesley Chapman
Management Adviser - The Gambia
In the Gambia, where 59% of the population live on less than a dollar a day, VSO works alongside local organisations that help disadvantaged people to make a living. Wuli and Sanda Development Agency (WASDA) is one such organisation. It supports women’s agricultural groups by enabling them to grow more crops to sell at the market and take home to feed their families. Once, WASDA was low profile and struggling. Thanks to the commitment of its staff and support from VSO volunteer Lesley Chapman, it is now well respected and thriving.
Tom Wipperman
Policy and Research Officer - Bangladesh
Tom Wipperman’s ‘Driving with Dignity’ is a VSO funded exhibition documenting the lives of ten Bangladeshi rickshaw pullers living and working in the slums of Dhaka. It has recently had a four-week showing at a gallery in East London. Here, Tom describes how ‘Driving with Dignity’ came about and the stereotypes it is successfully challenging both here in the UK and back in Bangladesh.
Peter Reid
Education Adviser - Nepal
With 30 years’ experience as a teacher and twelve years as head teacher at a large comprehensive in Plymouth, Peter Reid has the combination of hands on classroom teaching and management experience that VSO is looking for. After retiring in 2001, he and his wife Rosemary decided to volunteer. Here Peter tells us how his skills are supporting the Ministry of Education and Sports as it prepares to offer Nepalese children a further three years of free education.
Laura Marshall
Advocacy officer - Nepal
Proper support for teachers results in good quality education for children. VSO Education volunteers working in the area of advocacy play a crucial role in raising awareness of the rights of teachers and campaigning to ensure governments are supporting teachers to do their job well. VSO advocacy volunteer, Laura Marshall tells us about her work.
Ram Singh Ayer
Nepal
Ram Singh Ayer and his wife Parvati live with their sons near to the busy border town of Mahendranagar in Nepal. Ram has to work long hours at his tea and pakora stand as well as borrowing money to ensure his youngest son, Yagya, has the opportunity to achieve his dream of becoming a doctor. Because of VSO’s work to improve the quality of teaching in the area, Yagya’s future opportunities are improved. But not all children are so fortunate, which is why VSO continues to develop its work in Nepal.
Kadiatu Koroma
Sierra Leone
Kadiatu Koroma lives in Mile 91, Sierra Leone, with her husband and five of their children. The family has lived there for ten years since fleeing their previous home during the civil war. Then, they were homeless, without income and the children were unable to attend school. Now, with the support of VSO partner, SLYEO, Kadiatu is running a flourishing business and her children are going to school.
Oliver Jefferis
Pediatrician - Malawi
Oliver Jefferis volunteered in Malawi through a joint scheme between the Royal College of Paediatrics and VSO. The programme is seen as professional development for junior doctors and provides recognition for the volunteer job when they come back to in the UK. Here Dr Jefferis talks about his experience in Malawi.
Abass Koroma
Ex-child soldier, Sierra Leone
Twenty three year old Abass Koroma was just eight years old when the civil war in Sierra Leone began in 1992. During the next ten years he missed out on going to school and spent months living in the bush trying to avoid recruitment as a child soldier. But five years after the war ended, and with support from VSO partner CCYA, he is part of a flourishing village enterprise and is putting the finishing touches to a house he has built for himself.
Abdul Quyyam
Primary teacher trainer - Pakistan
Abdul Qayyum had been a primary teacher in the UK for 40 years when he retired in 2004. In all of those years he had not returned to his native Pakistan. When he applied to VSO he hoped that he would find himself volunteering in Thailand or China, but when he was offered a placement training primary teachers in Pakistan he saw it not only as a professional challenge, but as an opportunity to learn more about his home country.
Angela Spielsinger
Youth for Development, The Gambia
With four years of voluntary work and a degree in media under her belt, it was finally time for Angela Spielsinger to realise her long-held dream of working overseas. Angela is deaf, so finding an organisation that would meet her needs was her top priority. She chose VSO’s Youth for Development programme and a job in The Gambia. As an Advocacy and Awareness Raising Trainer with The Gambia Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, she challenged attitudes towards disability and set up a groundbreaking Deaf Club.
Bola Ojo
District Education Office, Rwanda
Giving something back to the community has been a life long passion for education manager Bola Ojo. Taking early retirement and volunteering with VSO meant she could continue to contribute to the community – but this time internationally. She opted for a 12-week volunteer placement in Rwanda. At the same time as sharing valuable teaching and management skills that will help to improve standards in 126 local schools, she helped lay the foundations for a long term volunteer to take her crucial work even further.
Charles Kalameera
Project Adviser – Zambia
Charles Kalmeera works for the Home Based Care Consortium in the Garden Compound just outside Lusaka. The compound is home to over 100,000 people. The Home Based Care Consortium provides care in the community and home for those infected or affected by HIV and AIDS. The consortium depends on the voluntary work of its carers, the majority of whom are women.
David Whittaker
Fundraising adviser – Zambia
VSO Fundraiser David Whittaker shared his skills in proposal writing, project planning and donor reporting to help Zambian youth organisation Africa Directions secure crucial funding from local and international donors. VSO developed his own skills too. Returning to the UK a better leader and strategic thinker, David is now a manager with a London-based homeless charity.
Elizabeth Asung
Public health adviser, Cameroon
Twenty-eight-year-old public health adviser Elizabeth Asung was one of the first volunteers to go to Cameroon through the UK-based organisation Africa Foundation Stone. The experience has left her not only more aware of issues affecting those in her country of heritage, but also committed to supporting UK community charities. This is her story.
Elwin Wolters
Business adviser – Kenya
How Elwin worked with colleagues is seen in the development of the workshop. ‘My objective was to help build for the long term so we looked at the basics of how the workshop works. We looked at how people operate, we looked at the equipment there – how it was being used, if it was being used.
Glenn Benablo
Community Nurse Trainer – Mongolia
Volunteer community nurse trainer Glenn Benablo has been training local health volunteers in Mongolia as part of VSO's growing National Volunteering initiatives. The volunteers were already registered with the health district but because they weren't adequately trained they weren't working as effectively as possible. One of Glenn's more novel approaches was to take the volunteers on tour to see how puppetry could educate communities in how to take better care of their own health.
Global Xchange
Earlier this year 18 young people had a profound impact on the lives of people throughout Caithness in Scotland. They were participants in Global Xchange, a six-month, team-based exchange programme, which gives young people from different countries an opportunity to volunteer and live together and make a practical contribution to community development projects. Here we find out how four of them helped a fledgling charity find its feet.
Halima
peer-to-peer educator, Bangladesh
Fifteen-year-old Halima is a peer-to-peer educator working with street children in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. She is trained and supported by local NGO and VSO partner, Aperajeyo. This job enabled Halima to earn a small income that she is saving to one day to set up a small business. But Halima’s path to this job was not an easy one and it’s one she is trying to help other vulnerable children avoid.
Jill Hudson
Leadership development - Namibia
Jill Hudson was one of the first volunteers recruited through the VSO and National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) partnership. She has spent the summer in the Oshana region of Namibia, a predominantly rural area with many isolated communities and schools and the lowest standard of education in the whole country. Jill has been working with school leaders to address some of the issues behind poor quality teaching in a bid to improve pupils experience of school. Here she reflects on her experience.
Katrien Deschamps
Doctor – Malawi
In a country with just one doctor for every 62,000 people, GP Katrien Deschamps is playing a vital role in Malawi’s healthcare situation. As one of just two doctors working in a district hospital in the north of the country, she’s undertaking life-saving clinical work and at the same time passing on invaluable skills to health workers at all levels.
Krystle Lai
Youth for Development volunteer, Sierra Leone
Krystle Lai is just coming to the end of her time as a VSO Youth for Development volunteer in Sierra Leone. She has spent 14 months working as an advocacy adviser for Youth Alliance for Peace and Development, where she has been helping member organisations develop their advocacy campaigns. Here Ali Martin Sesay tells us about how Krystle has helped his organisation raise awareness across Sierra Leone of the issues affecting blind people.
Louise Smith
Global Xchange - Host mum
Louise Smith from Caithness was a host Mum to James Blackburn from Stirling, Scotland and Faless Mukumbwa from Chitipa in Northern Malawi. James and Faless were two participants in Global Xchange, a programme that brings young people together to work on community development projects and develop cross cultural understanding. Here Louise tells us how the experience has excited and inspired her children, and how the family and wider community have benefited from the Global Xchange.
Maria Hernandez
Magbenteh Therapeutic Feeding Centre, Sierra Leone
In just seven months VSO volunteer Maria Hernandez has transformed the Magbenteh Therapeutic Feeding Centre from a tired and unwelcoming building into a haven of care and centre of education for seriously ill babies and their mothers. But with malnutrition the biggest threat to the life of a child born Sierra Leone there is still much to be done, which is why VSO is committing to a new programme of work that will focus on maternal and child health.
Matan Hasda
Bangladeshi farmer
In Bangladesh, there are more than 45 indigenous (adibashi) communities. Adibashi are amongst the most marginalised in Bangladesh with a literacy rate of just 9% and most working as wage-labourers. One of the biggest challenges facing these communities is the issue of land grabbing, and many families – and in some cases, whole villages – are losing their land to non-indigenous people. Matan Hasda tells us his story.
Mpinga Loida
School girl – Namibia
Seventeen-year-old Mpinga Loida is a student at Impumbo School in Oshana, northern Namibia. Predominantly rural, the Oshana region has the lowest standards of education in Namibia and a teacher population that is inadequately trained and often demotivated. Here Mpinga talks about the challenges of school life for students in Namibia.
Pam Wilson
Nurse Trainer – Malawi
After 24 years spent nursing in Dundee, Pam Wilson decided it was time for a change. Then she spoke to a former volunteer who inspired her to apply to VSO. She’s now working as a clinical nurse instructor in Malawi College of Health Science in Zomba. A career break granted by her local NHS trust means her pension contributions are being paid and she’s guaranteed a post back in Dundee at the same grade to the job she left.
Patricia Flynn
Rehabilitation Manager - Namibia
Patricia Flynn has taken her occupational therapy skills from County Cork, Ireland to Ondangwa in Namibia. She is working for Elcin Rehabilitation Centre, training Namibian volunteers to deliver community based rehabilitation to hundreds of disabled people in rural communities. Here she tells us about why she chose to volunteer, what she’s learning and life in Namibia.
Penny Hollowell
Inclusive Education Adviser - Namibia
Penny Hollowell works as an inclusive education adviser in the Oshikoto region of Namibia. A predominantly rural area, teachers work in isolated circumstances with few resources and little opportunity for training and peer support. Many children were not included in classes because teachers did not understand how to cater for their different needs. Penny tells us about her work and what volunteers working in the area of inclusive education can expect.
Richard Taylor
Research Officer – Ethiopia
Richard Taylor’s year spent volunteering in Ethiopia helped hundreds of people gain life-saving access to water. Ten years on, it’s proved to be his springboard to a sought-after career. Now a policy officer with the Department for International Development in Sudan, Richard claims VSO gave him a unique insight that he still uses today.
Rosemarie Obana
Agricultural small business adviser, Mozambique
Filipino volunteer Rosemarie Obana found the experience of volunteering in Mozambique so rewarding she stayed for four years. Her work during that time has had a real impact on the production outputs of a number of community farmers.
Sarah Barnett
Monitoring & Evaluation Adviser – Bangladesh
Sarah Barnett left her job in the City of London to work as an Monitoring & Evaluation adviser in Bangladesh. Rupantar is an NGO based in Khulna City in the South West and its objective is to raise awareness of social issues, such as domestic violence, local governance, and environmental conservation amongst poor and marginalised people throughout the region.
Sierra Leone
Peaceful elections
Last month saw the inauguration of the new president of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma. Despite international expectation to the contrary, the summer elections passed off in a largely peaceful manner. It was the first election without international military presence since the civil war ended five years ago so marks a huge step in the country’s transition to peace and democracy. VSO partners and volunteers played a key role in this year’s election, and will continue to do so as the country moves forward in its development.
Tricia Sloan
Hospital Management Adviser - Cambodia
In order to meet its strategic objectives, VSO needs to continue to attract the highest calibre of skilled professionals. Tricia Sloan is one such professional: she is currently Director of Planning and Performance at Tameside and Glossop Primary Health Care Trust. Next month she’ll be leaving for a VSO placement in Cambodia, where she’ll spend her two-year career break strengthening hospital management teams.
Tuulikki Nekundi
ELCIN rehabilitation centre – Namibia
Tuulikki Nekundi is a powerful force in Namibia’s disability movement. Blind herself, she brings a unique perspective to the organisation she leads and the government departments she advises. For the past 17 years she has led Elcin, an organisation that undertakes training, awareness raising and advocacy work on behalf of people with disabilities in northern Namibia. Here she talks about the social attitudes that hinder disabled people’s involvement in society and how Elcin in tackling these challenges.
Vester Chisale
Trainee nurse, Malawi
Vester Chisale is a trainee nurse at the Malawi College of Health Sciences in Zomba. Now in her third year, Vester has been taught by VSO volunteer Pam Wilson since she arrived at the college. The number of Malawian nurses being trained has doubled because of volunteers like Pam. But in a country where one nurse attends to 100 patients, there’s still a critical need for more. Vester urges more nurses to volunteer so that the next generation of Malawian nurses are equipped with the vital skills to save more lives.
Vicki Masters
Organisational Development Adviser – Namibia
Vicki Masters has taken her skills in organisational development from the NHS in Scotland to the Ministry of Education in Namibia. She is volunteering safe in the knowledge that her job is secure thanks to a partnership between VSO and NHSScotland, which enables staff to return to their employer after volunteering. Vicki’s role was to implement a performance management system across the region, but in doing this she saw the opportunity to improve standards further by developing a leadership programme for school principals. Vicki tells us more.