If you think students spend all their spare time avoiding studying, going out with their mates and having a good time then you'd be right. Well our student bloggers do anyway. While they assure us they don't slack on the study, they've got a lot to answer for when it comes to enjoying themselves while volunteering.

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Wednesday Aug 01, 2007

Hello!

Hello,

My name is Tom Gray and I'm a second year student at Warwick University.  I got involved in some conservation work whilst at school, going to Borneo and since then Belize to take part in eco-tourism projects and teaching.  At this point voluntary work and the voluntary sector seemed like an interesting sideline, something to dabble in but then leave behind for seemingly loftier ambitions.

Going to university after a gap year changed this viewpoint.  I began to fancy doing something a bit different with my life.  I got into volunteering not because of high morals and a chance to make a difference, but simply because the type of work you get to do seems interesting.  I might get to travel, I might get to work with local people in cultures I know nothing about, I might get to organise a project from beginning to end and get that sense of satisfaction you get when you know everything has gone well.  Of course I might not get a chance to do any of these things and I might change my mind.  A career in London, with a suit, an office, a comfortable wage, ski-ing holidays, good restaurants and bars and a gym membership has it attractions.  However at the moment I am determined to give something different a go, it would seem silly not to try and who knows what doors may open.

Working for READ international has been one door that has opened since being at university.  The organisation runs projects in several UK universities, collecting textbooks from local schools and sending them to Tanzania, where they are distributed (with advice and guidance) to schools which need them.  These books would have otherwise been thrown away, filling landfills up and down the country.  Instead some (the useful ones which fit the Tanzanian syllabus and come in sets) are recycled and used again.  For me READ seems to optimise the benefits that a well thought out development scheme can bring.  It gives no huge donations, employs minimal paid employees, places responsibility and autonomy in the hands of its volunteers and operates to a successful business model repeated across its projects in universities. 

From volunteering last year, I am going on to become one of three project leaders next year.  This summer I am going to Tanzania with the books and have become involved in the charities fundraising and branding strategy.  The charity will move forward with ambition and professionalism, both qualities which it is increasingly embodying.  It does an awful lot of good for children in Africa but also children here, giving school presentations wherever possible to raise awareness.  It is a low cost, low overhead but high impact charity in its infancy.  I feel lucky to have become a part of it.  I will be in touch again soon.

Tom G    

Posted by Tom G ( 3:29 PM )
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