Richard asks for help - starting a pen pal scheme!

Richard went to Kenya in September 2008 with Changing Worlds and did some volunteering. He has since this time returned and clearly is keen to keep links with this East African country.

(This is Rich in Kenya!)

He asks for help from our present volunteers based in Nakuru in Kenya. He writes:
Hello,

'I have been talking to David Gill, I am a past volunteer for Changing Worlds and spent my gap year in Kenya aswell. I was a volunteer at Kagoto Primary school and St. Stephens orphanage. I worked there throughout my time in Kenya and since returning home have decided to set up a pen pal scheme between any of the children you are working with in Kenya and children I work with here.

The children and Young people I work with in the UK are all Looked after and in Foster Care of some form. They have all wrote letters, which I will be sending out to Karanja this weekend again as I have a feeling they may have got lost in the post last time I sent them.

I have attached a letter from myself to those letters with a return envelope in with my business address on. I would really appreciate it if one of you does not mind using the letters and getting the Kenyan children to reply to a specific young person and co-ordinate the returns for me.

One other thing, would anyone of you mind writing a letter that gives the YP an idea of what you are doing in Kenya and what life is like? Could you please post it to Richard Hartley, Access Service, East Durham Education Centre, York Road, Peterlee, SR8 2DP, UK as soon as possible please?

I know that’s a lot to ask as I don't even know any of you, but I am really keen to set up a penpal scheme that will enable children on both sides the chance to learn about another culture. I also know that the Kenyan children are forever interested in talking to people from England.

Whoever is interested in doing this or does not mind, could you please reply directly to this email to let me know?

I will ensure all costs are covered so that you do not incur a penny!

I really do appreciate any help you can offer me, please send on my regards to the family/ children and Karanja.

Thanks,

Richard'


Richard is presently work with disadvantaged children in his home town of Durham in the North East of England.


I await a response from our volunteers - what an exciting projects for all those children wherever they are in the World.


Carry on the good work Rich - help make the World a better place!

News Update - read the February 2010 Changing Worlds newsletter

Find out about our exciting new developments at Changing Worlds.

News updates include our new martial arts programme in China and a video of a Great White shark off South Africa.

Find out more at:
http://www.changingworlds.co.uk/Home.aspx?vurl=%2f%2fRoot%2fContent%2fNewsletterFebruary2010

Enjoy!

Iwan and Gareth get working on the soccer field

Iwan and Gareth are clearly working hard in Nakuru in Central Kenya. They are working at a school.

Iwan writes:
Hello David!!!!
Placements are going really well! Gareth and I are buliding goals in pistis this week. We dug the holes on Tuesday and are going to cement and put the posts in tomorrow! weather is a bit iffy at times.
We were wondering last night if there are going to be any new mzungu's joining us in a few months?
All is well apart from that.
(Note: Mzungus = Europeans)

I have had asked for photos taken before and after - I await a response.

Chloe in Ghana reports back

Chloe got out to Ghana just over two weeks ago. She is teaching in Kumasi in Central Ghana. Her first report back is most positive. She writes:
Hey David
hope your well! Everything is fab out here. We are all fine and have settled in really well.

We are all working at the orphanage. Im finding it a little hard to adjust to the way they do things but will hopefully be able to make some suggestions and change things for the better.

Host family are great, everyone is very welcoming, no issues to mention. Went travelling for the weekend with Francis, had a fab time!!
Speak soon
Chlo
The pace of life in Ghana does take some time to adjust too! Infact we suggest to volunteers not to bother with a watch. Get used to G.M.T. - Ghana Maybe Time!
I am more than confident that Chloe and her fellow volunteers will soon adjust to their new way of life.

Sergio gives fund raising advice

Sergio recently went over seas.

He is very keen to help others in important development work overseas and kindly produced some excellent advice on fund raising:

Let me start by saying that, no matter how daunting the prospect of fundraising might seem, once you get started it gets easier and easier, to the point where you’ll really enjoy doing it. Once it is all over, you will look back and consider this stage an integral part of your volunteering project.

My partner and I are originally from Spain, where the concept of individuals fundraising for their own cause/charity is virtually non-existent. So you can imagine how we faced the prospect of “having to ask for money”. Even so more considering we were only two and a half months away from starting our stay in Cambodia, and both of us worked full time. “But, hey, even if it is a few quid, it’ll help” we thought. In the end, out of our £5.400 target we managed, in 2 months, to raise… over £7.600!! Never in our wildest dreams could we’ve dreamt such a response…

How did we do it?

Let me start from the basics. After attending a fundraising workshop and reading a couple of books on the subject, my absolute top two tips would be the following:

· Be ready to tell everyone: network, network, network!!
· Base your fundraising events on things you enjoy / your hobbies.
Taking into account these premises, what follows is a set of more or less random thoughts and ideas for fundraising based on our experience.

1) THE BLOG.

First thing, set up a blog, you don’t need any specific web design knowledge for this (I started from scratch, didn’t actually have a clue of what a blog was before giving it a go). However, it pays to spend sometime thinking of the layout and the information you want to include, and to experiment with different add-ons and widgets (a portable chunk of code that can be copy-pasted and executed by you, the end user). It took me a good three weeks before I was happy with the result. Once this is done, the blog is a very easy way of conveying your message, it can become quite interactive and adding/removing information is relatively simple.

The blog serves 3 purposes:

· Before leaving, it helps raising awareness and supports your fundraising efforts.
· During the project, it allows you to stay in touch with friends, family & sponsors back at home, hence also showing that you are delivering on your promises. Keep the blog up-to-date, with a couple of postings a week and lots of pics (internet connectivity in Cambodia was awful, so if we managed, anyone can!) For the photographs, we used links from the blog to picasa web albums. I’d recommend that people take an old laptop with them to their host countries – this way, you can write the postings at your leisure, and leave the laptop to upload them alongside the pics at the cyber-café while you savour the local delicacies!

Picasa web albums: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/
Google Documents: http://docs.google.com/

· When you come back, the information on your blog will help you putting together a presentation with the highlights of your experience. You can then deliver this presentation to friends, family or institutions (Rotary, Lions Club, Round Table, Women’s International…) to thank them for their donations/support, and maybe raise further funds.

Tips for your blog

· Think of a catchy name that people can remember and associate with you. In our case, we named it “ESC-APE!!” which stood for “Elena & Sergio in Cambodia – A Project’s Experiences!!” It just so happens that “to escape” is the same word and has the same meaning in English and in Spanish: “to remove oneself from a familiar environment”.

· Start populating the blog with a section explaining the who, when, what and how. You can do this as a PowerPoint presentation, upload it through Google Documents and then embed it into the blog.

· We imported a widget to show photographs of ourselves, and another to leave a recorded a voice message- all this helped to make the blog more personal, especially towards people who didn’t know us.

· Create a block with links to past and future fundraising events.

· Be clear about the target amount you want raise, what it is for and what will cover. Show your progress: a simple “fundraising thermometer” updated every couple of days is a very visual and effective way of doing this.

· Include a widget that offers the possibility of subscribing to the blog by email or RSS. This way, people will receive one email per day with links to updates / new postings (and only one per day; no postings/ updates, no email)

· We had a “donate directly” through PayPal widget, but I don’t think anyone used it. Most people would transfer money directly into our account, or give it to us in cash.

· It helps if you have a friend who can design a nice banner for the blog’s main header (the first thing visitors to your blog will see!)

· Include a link to your blog in the signature block of all your email accounts, and your social networks.

For our blog, we used “blogger” (formerly known as “blogspot”):
https://www.blogger.com/start

Blog ESC-APE!!: http://elena-sergio-in-cambodia.blogspot.com/


2) THE EMAIL ACCOUNT.

It helps a lot keeping separate your private email from your “project’s” email, especially if you are going to ask professional institutions / business for sponsorship.

Hence open a specific email account for your project – keep it consistent with your blog’s name/theme.


3) THE BUSINESS CARDS.

Get some business cards printed, and hand them out to everyone!! I can’t stress this enough… EVERYONE!! Include your name, email address, blog address and, if you want, your mobile/phone number.

Keep some of them to hand out in your host country.

You can get 250 business cards for free from VistaPrint (you pay only for postage and processing and any product upgrades you select)

VistaPrint : http://www.vistaprint.co.uk/


4) THE LEAFLETS.

Produce a simple leaflet briefly describing the who, what, how, when. Include your contact and bank details. You can then hand them out at your fundraising events / presentations.

5) FUNDRAISING EVENTS.

· As said above, sit down and brainstorm for half an hour about things you enjoy doing, your hobbies: Sports? Dancing? Walking? Photography? Cinema?... Then try to link them together. “Can I organize a sponsored walk, take some photos and then hire a room somewhere to exhibit them, sell them, have a raffle and maybe a wine tasting event?”

· On your list, don’t forget to organize events where people get something in return for their money. It is OK for you to train and run a10km race, but it is much better to have a salsa night.

· Keep up-to-date records of the amounts fundraised (a simple spreadsheet would do) – the more transparent you can be about it, the more people will trust you.

· Use the media! Go to your local newspaper, explain your project, hand them out your business card and your leaflets and ask them to write an article about you.

· You can always have a raffle, anywhere! Go to your local corner-shops, explain your project, hand them out your business card and your leaflets and ask them to contribute with something: a bottle of wine, some cheese, a pair of socks… Tell them you’ll be publicising their business in the upcoming article that the local newspaper is going to write about you, and at the raffle itself.

· Talk to people, explain your project, hand them out your business card and your leaflets… (spot a recurring theme here?). You’ll be surprised how imaginative people can be, and the amount of useful advice they could give, usually from the most unexpected individuals!. Most of our fundraising ideas where shaped by contributions from others. For example, since we play squash, we thought of organizing a squash competition. When we discussed the idea with the board of our local squash club (after handing them out our business cards and leaflets) they agreed to let us use two courts on a Saturday free of charge. Not only that, but they suggested that rather than a competition, we organized a “24 hr squash marathon”: have 2 courts for 12 hours, divide the time into 15min slots, at £2 per slot and person. This way, more players could take part and we wouldn’t have to buy prizes!!

5) FUNDRAISING WHEN YOU COME BACK.

As mentioned above, once you are back from your project it might be worth contacting some of the local institutions that sponsored you and ask them if they’d be interested in a presentation about your project at their monthly meeting. This is a nice way of thanking them, as you can show where they contribution has gone.

But you should also target institutions that haven’t sponsored you. We, for example, delivered a presentation about our experiences to our local Rotary Club, just with the intention of raising awareness. Two days later we received from them a £500 cheque in the post, which we donated to the NGO we worked for in Cambodia.

*********************************************************************

Hope this helps!!

Good luck with your fundraising.

If you have any queries, don’t hesitate to ask. I’m only one email away!!

Kind regards,

Sergio Gallego-Schmid
sergio.gallego.schmid@gmail.com

Do contact Sergio for further help and advice.

Thank you Sergio!

Claire's parents are happy!

Claire recently left the UK to start her teaching placement in Nakuru, Kenya.

I spoke to Claire and the others and they were all settling in to their new life and work.

Mr and Mrs Claire very kindly dropped us a line this week to say:
Hi David

We have received a couple of texts and an email and Claire is enjoying herself and settling in well . Thanks for your help.

Anne and Alby Stevens

My reply was simple - its early days yet so lets see how things go. Be waned - week three there is a reality check!

Jay in Argentina reports back

Jay reports in from Mendoza in Argentina
Hi David
Hope you´re well,
Things are great here, very, very hot (42 degrees next week!!!), I know its the opposite at home! Things are a bit quiet here in Mendoza, but I´ve taken the chance to travel around. I have classes starting from the end of the month.
Looking forward to meeting the guys who are coming out. But, yes, I´ve fallen in love with Argentina, and have now decided what I want to be when I´m older, a gaucho...spending my days sipping mate, enjoying red wine and eating beef!!!!
All the best
Jay
Jay the Gaucho aye?
To get an update go to Jay's blog at:
http://www.offexploring.com/jayharlow

Jon, our first volunteer to South Africa, reports back

Our first volunteer to Umtata in South Africa reports back:
David,

I cant begin explaining how amazing it is here!! Mr Unni is extremely welcoming and Siliziwe is showing me round fantastically,

Jon
Jon is suffering with thirty degree heat...he got no sympathy!

More details to follow!

News update - read the Changing Worlds December 2009 news letter

Here is the latest news letter for December 2009.

Find the link at:
http://www.changingworlds.co.uk/Home.aspx?vurl=%2f%2fRoot%2fContent%2fNewsletterDecember2009

If you would like to contribute to the monthly newsletter then don't hesitate to contact me at: david@changingworlds.co.uk

Adam reports back from New Zealand

Adam D.,out in Queenstown, is keen to say hello to the new participants coming out in late January 2010.

Adam writes:

Kia Ora!
Guys and Gals,
Just Adam here, David from changing worlds asked me to drop a line to all!
I'm currently out here in Queenstown so thought you all might have a few questions ect you may want to ask, so feel free to contact me on this address, no question to big or small, i know exactly how it feels to be heading out here and the silly things that play on your mind!
So where to begin... this place is amazing, i cant think of another way to put it, it really does blow your mind. the town itself is pretty small in area but once your here it feels a lot bigger on account of everything and everyone that's here!

You most likely have had or are about to recieve an e-mail from Debbie our rep here, an amazing lady i must say, once you meet her you'll understand why.. she can pretty much to anything for you, so she'll be organizing your work and housing here!

On that note work, its an odd place to work, i worked for two years before coming here and was pretty use to the hustle and bustle of a busy day, but here very chilled out, they get things done but with out the stress.

Debbie managed to help me secure a job up at the Skyline gondola, which is a pretty cool place to work, Google it if you havens heard of it, I'm a photographer there at base terminal which is pretty kusty!

Right before i ramble and ruin it all for you (haha) i'll leave it at that!

As i say e-mail me anything and everything, its hard coming away from home but I'm sure you wont regret it at all, i now i haven't!
Adam Dobinson

PS: if you want to check out a few photos check out my facebook...there's plenty on there! just search this email address!!

If you would like to contact Adam then do drop him a line to: adam.dobinson@hotmail.co.uk

News update - read the Changing Worlds November newsletter

Here's a link to our latest e-newsletter that I hope you enjoy reading.

http://www.changingworlds.co.uk/Home.aspx?vurl=%2f%2fRoot%2fContent%2fNewsletterNovember2009

If you feel you would like to contribute to our blog or our newsletter then do drop me a line to david@changingworlds.co.uk

Merry Christmas

David

Changing Worlds announces our Xmas photo competition

To learn more about our new photo competition please hit this link:
http://www.changingworlds.co.uk/Home.aspx?vurl=%2f%2fRoot%2fContent%2fCompetitions%2fHoldingpage

Good luck with the competition!

Changing Worlds wishes you a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2010.

James provides an insight in to life and work in Ghana

James has just returned from his teaching placement in Kumasi, Ghana. He writes:
'It was a long journey and heading out on my own was one of the scariest things I had done so far in my life. However arriving in Accra International Airport and meeting my contact, Francis, at arrivals went smoothly and before long I was on my way to my family house. The journey was not as relaxing as I had hoped as the road was not surfaced and we had a sermon that lasted several hours. However it did start to gear me up for what was to come, and I got my first real shock when I saw a man on the the side of the road with no clothes and just standing against a wall crying. We drove straight past on the bus and I thought to myself that people must see this all the time and that is why they do not appear to care.

That perhaps gives a bad view of what the people of Ghana were like, yes they were tough and they had to be to survive but on the other hand I have never been exposed to such a close and intense community spirit. The people really do look out for each other and you see it everyday when someone will give a hand to a complete stranger, not because the person has asked for it but because the they have noticed that they need help. This is not something that happens much in our society and though it was strange at first I quickly adapted and it was not long before I was helping push carts and even cars along the street when they got stuck or helping ladies carry water and baskets around the city.

My host family was lovely and I instantly felt like part of the family, I got on very well with their daughter who did most of the house work as in Ghana the younger you are the more you seem to have to do. Once I started school and the orphanage I just got immersed in it all. It was a long day starting at 6am to get to school on time and then finishing at 6pm when all the kids at the orphanage had been fed and were starting to get sleepy.

School was great, the teachers treated me well and I really got into my lessons making sure math’s was fun and teaching the kids music before school so they could sing new songs in assembly. We even went on a few school trips to play football and to a dance contest. The orphanage was hard, I was working with kids ranging from new born babies to 6 year olds. A lot of them were disabled in some way and everyone’s needs were different. Keeping everybody happy all the time was a full time job and I have utmost respect for the sisters and ladies who worked there every day.

It really was an amazing all round experience and I loved every minute of it. I am not ashamed to say there was a tear in my eye as I left. I will definitely be back to visit all the friends I made as soon as I can find the time. Its a cliché to say the words “life changing experience” but its true in every way and I think the thing I learnt most about in my whole trip was me.

James has been an excellent ambassador for Changing Worlds in Ghana and we cannot thank him enough for all his efforts and enthusiasm.

If you would like to contact James then do drop him a line to:
waldomagician@hotmail.co.uk

Do have a look at the Changing Worlds Facebook account where James has kindly sent us his version of the 'Banana Dance'! - makes for great viewing!

David reports in from South Africa

I have enjoyed a fantastic week in South Africa.

Harry, Siliziwe, Leslie and I have travelled over 3 500 kilometres in six days. Our journey started in Cape Town and took us first to Gaasbaii where we experienced swimming with the Great White sharks.

This new placement is a marvellous opportunity to join research scientists and find out about these wonderful creatures. The habits of the sharks are changing and we know very little about them - you can complete a one to three month placement joining the team of dedicated specialists to help understand their migration and eating habits.

From Gaasbaai we headed off to Umtata in Eastern Province where we visited schools and an orphanage for special needs children. Every one was very keen to take on volunteers in the future. Opportunities include the formal teaching of English but also the chances to coach sports, drama, music and dance.

The local children come from poorer parts of the town.

Whilst in Umtata we went to the home of Nelson Mandela and found out much more about this wonderful man.

From Umtata we headed north to Lydenburg where we saw yet more schools in this mining town. A very different type of South Africa from the true African town of Umtata. Lydenburg seemed to be caught in a time lag - racial segregation is still obvious in the town. Nevertheless fantastic opportunities for volunteers to help in English, IT and sports.

More details to follow.

Selvyn at Premavasam, an orphanage in India, signs in

Selvyn at Prema Vasam does his monthly report on the health and welfare of his special children...this is always an eye opener and keeps everything in some kind of perspective living and working here in the UK. Selvyn writes:

Dear David,

Lots of love and greetings from Prema Vasam!

In my previous mail I have written about our Diwali preparations to the extreme of expressing our anxiety to get new dresses for Diwali. Most of our children are Hindus hence we celebrate Diwali every year to make them happy and joyful.

This year on 17th of October we have celebrated Diwali, every year we buy new clothes for all our children and for our carers too. Some of our friends consider it as a duty to buy new clothes and fireworks for Diwali, this year also at the last moment we got new clothes for all our children we bought fireworks too. It is like a pleasant surprise indeed. Our boys from the boys home also came here to celebrate Diwali with us all, it was a great celebration indeed.

Our school going children got their quarterly marks. Our boys scored good marks than our girls. Three of our boys Prakash XI, Ramesh VIII and Pandian XII got first rank and two of our boys got second rank and Prasanth got third rank whereas none of our girls got first rank. These days our college going girls Anisha, Anitha, Benitta, Lakshmi, Kalaichelvi, Suganya and Radha are doing their semester examinations, it started on 30 of October would be over on 29th of November, please pray for them specially.

Our boys are very much interested in feeding the elders. The number of elders have been increasing so we have built an extension kitchen. On first of November being the birthday of our first child Indra we have started preparing the meals for the boys as well as for the elders on the week ends in the new kitchen. It is so convenient and very spacious too.

Thank God, we have one more new physiotherapist Mr.Sasikumar joined us on 4th of November onwards. He is so affectionate and has a special love for our special children. Now the number of therapists are seven but still all the special children will not get therapy everyday. Please pray for our special children so that we may afford to have more therapists for them.

With much love,
Selvyn.

Our best wishes go to Selvyn and his team at PV. At present we have three volunteers working with his team at the orphanage.

October 2009 Newsletter

Here is the latest from the news desk at Changing Worlds.

Click on: http://www.changingworlds.co.uk/Home.aspx?vurl=%2f%2fRoot%2fContent%2fNewsletterOctober2009

Jay in Argentina invites you to share in his blog

Jay went out to Mendoza in Argentina last month. He is suffering in the heat at the moment (poor thing!)...it certainly sounds like he is having a ball and making the most of his time...

Find out more at his blog: http://www.offexploring.com/jayharlow

Don't hesitate to contact Jay via his blog to find out more.

Claire has success with her fundraising

Claire is off to Kenya in January 2010. She has been busy raising money for her trip.

Claire writes:
Hi David, I just thought i would send you a little email to keep you updated on my fundraising. Yesterday morning i held a coffee morning at my church with a raffle and cake sale and raised over £500!!

So thankyou very much for the promotional material you sent me a few weeks ago.

Hope all is well, see you on the 26th/27th!

Many Thanks,
Claire Stevens'
Well done Claire....fund raising in these difficult economic times is never easy so your news is very exciting. I know Claire worked hard to put together this event.

Changing Worlds is happy to help where we can. We have a fund raising pack that includes a letter template, background information and relevant websites that we know are successful. Do contact me at: david@changingworlds.co.uk for more details. Equally do contact Claire via clairestevens_577@hotmail.com for her thoughts.

Do be aware that Changing Worlds does offer bursaries to people who need financial assistance - we take each applicaion on its own merits so there is no harm in finding out more.

Do look at http://www.changingworlds.co.uk/default.aspx?qlink=bursaries

David's monthly newsletter update

Do have a read of my monthly newsletter...to bring you up to speed on what's going on at Changing Worlds.

The link to my latest newsletter is found at:
http://www.changingworlds.co.uk/Home.aspx?vurl=%2f%2fRoot%2fContent%2fNewsletterSeptember2009

I hope you enjoy it!

David

Nick returns from Kenya and says thanks

Hi David, Firstly i just want to apologise for never replying to this email below.

I never actually saw it and only just found it when i was searching for your email address. But ye sure anything i say in emails you can use for your blog or anyother things as i really want to help karanja get more volontears as i know he really enjoys having us out there. Now im finally at home it has finally sunk in that i have left and may not see some of the friends or kids that i met again although i do plan to return next year.

It really was the best six months of my life and i have no regrets about any of it. You meet some amazing friends, the kids provide you with such entertainment and karanja and his extended family really are some of the nicest people i have ever met. I think it is fair to say that i got to know karanja, mary and john better then many of the other volontears and i can say that putting the kids aside they are the people i miss the most. The numerous nights out i had beating karanja and john at pool really were some of most fun and relaxing ways to spend the evenings and i can never remember a bad night with them. They are all now good friends and i really cant wait to see them again.

As for the placements, although i have to be honest at times they can make you sad or challenge you, especially when a child tells you about a problem or something similar, they really are all amazing. Naka primary and pistis academy the two places i worked at have provided me with some of the best moments of my life and saving goodbye to them was one of the worst. The kids are all so nice and in a selfish way when you do something nice to does make you feel very happy inside to see their happiness. The other people that made my time such an amazing expierence were my host family. Nancy and her children were alll so welcoming and i find i have made really good friends there (especially with Eustace, the son, and Nywera, the daughter). They all went out of the way to make us feel welcome and happy and i know its often said but very quickly it felt like another home. I really felt very lucky to expeirence an african family and i will definetely keep in touch with them as they are an amazing family.

Finally i just want to thank you. Without the support and planning of all of the staff in the Uk none of this could have been possible. Maybe my view is slightly biast because of karanja but i can honestly say i dont think there would be a better gap year company then changing worlds. I am trully thankfull for all you guys did making this possible and there is anything i can do in the future(talks or whatever) please let me know as i would be more than happy to help. Please also pass on my thanks to Shirley and everyone else involved.

Thanks again Nick