News

On 22nd July 2011, Tore Eikeland was murdered on Utøya Island, Norway, along with 68 of his friends. In April 2010, Projects Abroad founder and Director, Peter Slowe, met with Tore's socialist delegation and worked together on the funding of an anti-fascist youth conference. In Tore’s memory, Project Abroad has now established the Tore Eikeland Memorial Fund. Projects Abroad has donated two free places a year for three years for volunteering in Africa.

Not everyone relishes getting older but at Projects Abroad we’re over the moon at turning 20 years old! Projects Abroad was founded in 1992 with a small group of volunteers joining Teaching projects in Moldova. Two decades later and we now run projects in 28 destinations and annually support more than 8000 volunteers on our projects.

Projects Abroad Care volunteers in Senegal have been doing a great job in one of the local Talibé Centres. Noticing that the children’s feet were bare and injured Naomi from the US, Christina from Norway and Coby from Germany resolved to club together and buy some shoes.

In January, Projects Abroad started a new project at a primary school in Steenberg, Cape Town. We revisited the school last week and interviewed some students. They had some interesting things to say about our volunteers!

Projects Abroad PRO volunteer, Dr Jennifer Caplin, has been working with us since November on an intensive eight month dentistry project in Shanghai. Having completed four years of university and a further four years of dental school, Dr Caplin told us of her need for a change before entering the workforce!

Projects Abroad’s volunteers in Fiji have made an exceptional effort with their Flood Relief Donation Campaign in aiding local Fijians who have been affected by the recent flooding. Volunteers had a brilliant idea of setting up a camp at Nadi International Airport where they had a very successful day collecting donations.

Lizzie Bendle volunteered on a Medicine project with Projects Abroad as a pre-university student in Togo and Ghana in 2001. After deferring her university entry for a year Lizzie decided to use her gap year to gain some worthwhile experience in her chosen field of study - medicine.

I had recently graduated when I saw a small advert in a magazine advertising “Teaching in Moldavia” in 1992. I was slightly intrigued. I didn’t know much about Moldavia but liked the idea of combining some travel and teaching overseas.

Projects Abroad volunteers in Tanzania have had a busy year! They are coming to the end of a building project in a school in Engikarat, near Kilimanjaro, and in the next month we hope to see its grand opening… Following on from this success we now have even more ambitious plans to build a primary school in the Maasai village of Meserani, south of Arusha.

Projects Abroad has launched Ghana’s first ever campaign in Kete Krachi, in order to raise awareness about the brutal reality of Child Trafficking. It is estimated that 26,000 children are trafficked in Ghana each year, most of which are held in the fishing industry as modern day slaves. Trafficking is characterised by the movement of children from one area to another, and often sees children as young as 3 years old subjected to conditions of forced labour.

Staff at our pioneering Conservation project in Cambodia are keen to have the help of more volunteers this April. We’ve had a record breaking start to 2012, with 40 volunteers joining the project between January and March; however, we need to keep the momentum and consistency going!

Following on from a 3 month placement in Ghana, Harriet Walker has been inspired to take on a new challenge, a round the world yacht race! Here she tells us more: ‘This time last year I had just arrived in Cape Coast, Ghana and given half the chance I would get on a flight back over there tomorrow! It was my three month trip of a lifetime that inspired me to take on my next big adventure – The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.

Projects Abroad volunteer, Virginie Thouvenin, from France, has made an unusual and inventive donation to her care placement in Senegal. Noticing the need for a more organised way of storing the children’s books, she sought out a carpenter in order to install four bookshelves.

Conservation Manager, Richard Munday updates us on the exciting Scarlet Macaw project, which forms part of our Conservation Project in Costa Rica: ‘As each month passes we are gradually increasing the rhythm of the Macaw project so that eventually, when we reach April/May we are there 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Our international, community-focused journalism project, Voices of the World is gaining momentum. We have now established Voices of the World clubs in India, Romania, South Africa and Senegal, thus giving the chance to local young people to attend free workshops on journalism and publish their articles in our online publication – www.voices-of-the-world.org.

Our first donations from the Bring-A-Book programme were presented to Apostolic Preparatory School in Ghana last month by volunteers, Hannah Pascoe-Smith, Harrison Swaine and Thomas Haynes. Bring-A-Book is a programme in which volunteers are asked to bring English children’s books with them when they arrive in their destination countries.

Volunteering on a Care project requires lots of enthusiasm, energy and, of course, ideas! Why not dust off the memories of your old childhood games, and share these with the children on your project? Former care volunteer in Argentina, Line Christensen, did just this and revealed her simple but brilliant idea of making play dough!

Due to the success of our placements in Phnom Penh we have now expanded to Siem Reap. Siem Reap is a large town about 5 hours' drive from Phnom Penh and is famous for being the closest town to the incredible temple complexes of Angkor Wat.

The Projects Abroad team in Kenya are thrilled to have welcomed their first volunteers onto our Care project - Takuya Yamanaka from Japan and Victoria Strømsodd from Norway! Our Kenya Country Director, Karanja BK, has expressed great excitement about the future of our projects in Nakuru.

Volunteers often return from their projects overseas inspired to do more. Many stay in touch with their placements and host families, some raise money to make donations of books or toys and some volunteers even start planning their return trip.

Projects Abroad is currently carrying out a survey in conjunction with Massey University in New Zealand in order to find out the motivations of our volunteers. Whether you are on a gap year, at university, on a career break, or even a retiree, we would like to know what made you decide to volunteer!

Projects Abroad volunteer, Lauren Brant, had a unique opportunity during her Music Project to make an appearance on one of Bolivia's biggest television channels. Lauren volunteered with us last year and after 3 months of teaching music to blind children, both hers and the student's hard work was recognised.

Projects Abroad's Conservation team in Costa Rica has embarked on an exciting and essential mission to help save the Scarlet Macaws. These beautiful birds are at grave risk of extinction and our aim is to put an end to this devastation.

The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) is giving a £700 grant to two volunteers taking an elective placement in the near future. The Royal Society of Medicine gives a series of grants throughout the year and they are now looking to award grants to two elective students to tie in with their campaign on Global Health.

Booked your project? Thinking about fundraising? Your journey with Projects Abroad is on the horizon, you are just wondering how to get there... Do not be overwhelmed by the money you need to raise! This is the first challenge that you will encounter as a volunteer, and raising money is a great way to utilise your creative skills.

Alexandra Ichim, Projects Manager in Romania tells us about a recent charity show that the Projects Abroad Romania staff team and volunteers from a variety of projects, helped to arrange.

As another year comes to a close it is immensely satisfying to look back over our accomplishments from the last 12 months. With the help and dedication of 242 volunteers, 2011 has flown by and we have made huge progress in so many of our projects and new discoveries in our biodiversity research.

Projects Abroad are currently working on an ambitious building project in Tanzania, which will see the creation of a school for one of the Maasi communities. We began the project earlier this summer and we are pleased to say that the work is almost completed.

The Projects Abroad Peru Conservation Project; the Taricaya Research Centre celebrated its 10th Anniversary this November. Conservation Director, Stuart Timson tells us more...

Many volunteers refer to their time overseas as 'life-changing'. For James Taylor this is certainly true. We spoke to James about his journey from Projects Abroad volunteer to a member of Projects Abroad staff to up-and-coming solicitor.

Summer might seem like a lifetime away as we turn up the heating and get ready for Christmas, but we've had record interest and many early applications this autumn for next summer's 2-Week Special programmes, so get in quick and give yourself something to look forward to!

Projects Abroad volunteers in Ghana have helped to organise a health walk for the members of Osu Children's Home in Accra. The walk was set up in order to raise awareness about the importance of exercising, with an aim to improve overall health and reduce hospital bills.

Our Thailand Conservation Director, Ingrid Sprake, met recently with the founders of the Association of the Protection of the Environment (APE) and finalised details of an exciting new partnership.

Earlier this month, on Wednesday 9th November, our Projects Abroad volunteers were visited by his Royal Highness Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla at Leganga Primary school. The surprise visit from the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall was certainly a memorable and rewarding moment for local children and teachers, as well as our volunteers.

Our Human Rights volunteers in Ghana have recently been involved with the moving case of Kweku Nartey. This case is the second major success that the Projects Abroad Human Rights office has witnessed.

Projects Abroad's primate rehabilitation project, based in the province of Cordoba, is the only rescue centre in Argentina solely committed to the rehabilitation of primates. Volunteers have a unique opportunity here to work in the only reserve in the world dedicated to Carayá monkeys.