A Chance To Volunteer Overseas
Posted by Dan (Sub-Editor) from Cardiff - Published on 25/01/2010 at 15:29
- Tagged as Climate, Culture, Education, Travel, Work & Training, Volunteering
If you're aged between 18 25 (at the time of travel) with a valid UK passport, the Department for International Development are offering you the chance to experience 10 weeks as a volunteer overseas completely free.
Platform2 is a scheme aimed at providing opportunities to young people who may not usually have the chance to travel overseas; it offers them a miniature "gap year" to broaden their horizons and experience the world beyond the oceans. Volunteers for Platform2 will travel to countries including Peru, Kenya, South Africa and India, where they will live and work alongside local communities.
The Platform2 team will offer full support to you before, during, and after the trip. On your return you will be invited to a 3 day residential workshop where they will equip you with some of the skills you'll need to communicate what you've seen with others, as well as giving you the chance to get involved in future trips and projects.
Below is a testimony from Jack Martin, who worked as a Platform2 volunteer after finishing his A-levels:
“I went to Ghana on Platform2 last year. The trip changed my life completely. I had just finished college and was going to go on to study art at university. But then I went on Platform2, which gave me an amazing chance to live in a developing country and gain an insight into life that no tourist or backpacker will ever get. Everything was paid for: I would never have been able to have this experience if I had to fund the trip myself. My trip was both humbling and inspiring, the family I stayed with in Ghana looked after me so well and I’m still in contact with them and hopefully will be for the rest of my life.
I’m still living the Platform2 experience. When you get back to the UK you become part of a community of young people from all over the country, of all different backgrounds yet all having shared this incredible experience. Even though you may have gone to a different country at a different time, Platform2 returnees still have a special bond. It’s more of a community than I’ve ever been a part of.
After getting back from Ghana I hooked up with another Platform2 returnee and, after saving a bit of money, we travelled together to work with an Indian NGO in Tamil Nadu. I am still working on Platform2, and enjoyed the experience so much I was inspired to join their related Christian Aid gap year scheme: I've just come back from a Christian Aid trip to Kenya, and will be going to the climate change conference in Copenhagen later in the year."
If you are interested in getting involved in Platform2, more information can be found at:
Or by contacting
ed@myplatform2.com or 0800 988 6828