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December 2008Recession sends volunteer numbers soaring
The voluntary sector may be the one industry benefiting from the economic downturn: as employment hits two million and redundancies are increasing there is growing interest in taking time out to do voluntary work overseas or to learn new skills on a short or long-term project in a developing country.
December 2008More people taking gap years
Gap Year organisations have seen a sharp rise in the numbers of people from the financial services, property and media sectors take ‘gap years’ as a result of redundancies due to the credit crunch.
Dr Peter Slowe, founder of the UK’s leading gap year organisation Projects Abroad and founding member of the Year Out Group says the trend is clear.
- December 2008
Two Gladstone State High School students have sacrificed their "schoolies" celebration in order to volunteer at a Cambodian orphanage.
James Black and Caitlin Moore, both 17, depart Australia today for Phnom Penh, where they will stay until Christmas Eve, working with young orphans.
August 2008How I made it: Peter Slowe, founder of Projects Abroad
University lecturer spotted a gap in the travel market
Before Peter Slowe went to university in 1972 he spent a year teaching English, geography and cricket in Kashmir, taking a gap year before the term was even coined. “It was great,” said Slowe. “I was doing a really worthwhile job. Everyone was nice and I felt wanted and useful.”
August 2008South-east Asia: the gapper's paradise
Cheap, safe and vibrant, South-east Asia is the premier choice for the budget traveller, says Kate Thomas Who goes there?
Whether you're an eco-adventurer looking for a low impact challenge, a water baby in search of an island paradise or a city dweller looking for a bit of excitement, South-east Asia offers it all in a neat, low-cost package. The last five years have seen destinations such as Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam really open up to gappers - low costs, relative political stability and short distances make it easy to combine a worthwhile project with a travel experience.
What gap years can you do there?
From volunteering on coral reef conservation projects on Thailand's Edenic islands to helping shape the futures of street children in the Philippines, gap year organisations offer a dazzling array of projects in Southeast Asia.
Old favourite Thailand has plenty to tempt travellers. While you'll probably want to check out the beaches and put in an appearance at the famous full moon parties, there are also lots of opportunities to volunteer. Projects Abroad offers gap year experiences that combine both work and play
August 2008Moving experience for Rebecca
AFRICA'S AIDS orphans are fast becoming the forgotten generation, relying on state handouts and the kindness of overseas volunteers to live from day to day. Newhall teenager Rebecca Craddock has just returned from a two-week trip to Ghana, in West Africa, and spoke to Mail reporter LAURIE DEVITT about her life-changing experience.
June 2008Best gap year projects - Journalism, Mongolia Based in Ulaanbaatar, your journalism internship in print, radio or TV will give you experience in a media environment that has flourished since the introduction of democracy in 1990. You might be asked to write a column in the English section of a national paper, front a radio chat show and gain experience behind the camera, directing or presenting the news.
June 200820,000th teen to volunteer
Joining a two-week medical project in India, a 17-year-old from Esher has become the 20,000th volunteer for Projects Abroad. Manon Oliver, a student at ACS Cobham International, will head to India this summer with her brother. But before she heads out to make a difference Manon met Projects Abroad director Dr Peter Slowe and recruitment director Ian Birbeck.
June 2008Sarah's helping hand in Africa
As a regular volunteer for a charity, Sarah Phillips knows exactly what it means to lend a hand. But she is taking her kindness one step further and has gone to offer help in Ethiopia for two months. The 35-year-old, of Digswell, flew out on Sunday to work in an orphanage looking after babies and toddlers, as well as teaching English to three- to six-year-olds.
May 2008Dragons Den investor sets up Pakistan gap year trips
He's best known as one of Britain's richest and most successful businessmen, and one of the fearsome panel of investors from TV's Dragons' Den.
But now entrepreneur James Caan has found a new project to work on - helping British people of Pakistani descent rediscover their roots. The businessman has set up a gap year teaching project that will give young British people the chance to work in Pakistan.- May 2008
Natalie Cook, 21, is in her second year of a geography degree at Royal Holloway University in London.
'Last year I spent three months in Peru with Projects Abroad at an agricultural secondary school up in the Andes. Another volunteer and I were taking all the English lessons for every year except one.
Not speaking Spanish was a barrier to start with, but it also helped the students to see the teacher making mistakes with her Spanish, which they found hilarious. A lot of the students were so shy about saying anything in English - you would ask a question and it would take 10 minutes for an answer. But the look on a student's face when they got it right was so satisfying.
Since coming back I've done some summer-school teaching in Eastbourne, and at the end of my first term I got involved with a volunteer project teaching refugees English - young asylum seekers who had just come in to the country.
If I hadn't gone to Peru I would probably have passed that by. This summer I'm doing a two-week placement in a school in Reading - that will be my first experience of an English classroom and English students.'
April 2008Enterprising Dragon
James Caan, of BBC television's Dragon's Den fame, is launching a drive to send Pakistani Muslims back to Pakistan with Projects Abroad, the gap year organisation, to hone their enterprise skills.
Those taking part in the scheme will also have the chance to have their ideas backed by Mr Caan if they show potential. Lahore-born Mr Caan recently built a school on a plot of land he bought in his birthplace.- January 2008
Not enjoying your journalism work experience? Head for Shanghai!
Breaking into the British media has never been easy. Now, budding journalists are heading off around the world for valuable work experience.
"My journalism internship in Shanghai is certainly nothing like the rubbish jobs I was given back home when I was interning with our local paper," says Emma Lloyd, 19, a student at London University, interning at the Shanghai Star. "I am actually working as a real journalist. Someone else makes the tea and does the photocopying."
Emma arranged her internship through Projects Abroad. This UK-based organisation arranges volunteering and internships for 3,500 students a year. They have some 250 internship posts for would-be journalists in Argentina, Bolivia, China, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, India, Ghana, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Romania, Senegal and Sri Lanka.
January 2008"Legodimo - paradise in Botswana? I was about to find out! With the future of my grand-children to think about I felt it was about time I did something to help preserve the animals and land in other parts of the world, and so I trawled the internet for volunteer opportunities. Projects Abroad's conservation trip in Botswana caught my eye. The main requirements: aged between 18 and 100 and must be fit and well!"
- January 2008
"The club are taking Ghanaian players and basically giving them a shop window for bigger clubs around Europe," I'm told. "They're eager for Man United to be involved as obviously it's the one club most young footballers really aspire to. The project is the brainchild of Dr Peter Slowe, a director of Projects Abroad, a company which specialises in organising overseas volunteer work.
