You Are Making a Difference

To round off a busy week of celebrating the great work of our International Volunteers, Nottingham Trent Volunteering wanted to say a big thank you to our International Volunteers.

A group photo of some of last year's International Volunteers.

International Volunteering at Nottingham Trent University has been ever-growing since the first group of students were funded to go to Romania in 2011. This year 34 students volunteered in Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Romania and Uganda for ethical, non-profit organisations.

Nottingham Trent provided financial bursaries for 67% of the students which widened the opportunity so anyone could go!

Romania - Little John's House

Nottingham Trent has been partnered with Little John's House for 6 years now. They rely on our students year after year to run a week long 'play scheme' for the children.

The 'play scheme' means our team need to plan the activities, bring all the craft materials and anything else that's required. This year, the team of 10 students and 2 staff members ran a 'space theme' week. To read more about this, see Jessica's Diary here.

The team created a collage of all the children's good work throughout the week and they put it up on the wall so the children could see it for the rest of the summer.

A group photo of the International Volunteers at Little John's House, Romania.

Guatemala

A team of 12 students went over to Guatemala this summer to volunteer within a community. 

They renovated 3 classrooms so they were fit for purpose, supported the community with renovations and maintenance on 3 houses and also helped out as classroom assistants. To find out more about what they got up to, you can read Ishmael's diary here.

Their work had a huge positive impact on the whole school and the children really appreciated their time and effort in helping their learning experience.

A group photo of the International Volunteers in Guatemala.

Sri Lanka

A team of 8 students volunteered in Sri Lanka at the Rosie May Home, pre-school and a local school where they worked helping children to develop their understanding of the English language.

Volunteers have provided continuity in their work for the last 3 years and have made a significant impact in the development of the children's English language skills.

The oldest girl at the Rosie May Home is now studying English at A Level which is a huge achievement for not only her but also the volunteers that helped her. Her success really does show the benefits of the volunteer programme.

A group photo of the team that went out to Sri Lanka.

So, what do they plan to do now they're home?

Nottingham Trent Volunteering is so proud of the achievements (both personally and professionally) of the International Volunteers. The impact they have had on these small charities is profound.

If you have been inspired by the work of last year's volunteers, why not see what projects we have on offer for summer 2017? Even though we've been working with East Africa Playgrounds for the past three years, we're re-vamping this for this year while also working with Think Pacific in Fiji which is very exciting.

You can find out what opportunities there are this year by clicking here.

You could discover something new, enjoy immersing yourself in a new culture and do work that will really make a difference!