Life changing stories

Tom Collins from Rathfarnham in South Dublin left his role in business management to join VSO in March 2008. Tom currently works as a business development advisor with a regional council in Cameroon. Below Tom describes a typical day in Cameroon.

After five years spent teaching in the classroom, Ruth Powell wanted to “do more than just go to work every Monday for pints every Friday”. So she went from teaching English language to adult refugees in Dublin to having “the most extra-ordinary experience” as a VSO English teacher and trainer at a university in Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar.

Orla Ni Eidhin an accountant originally from Limerick, worked with a large consulting firm in Dublin before volunteering with VSO in 2008. She now works as an accountant and management adviser with a human rights programme in Kathmandu, Nepal. Below Orla details an average day as a VSO volunteer in Nepal.

Marie Banaghan, a primary school teacher from Trim Co Meath, Ireland, volunteered with VSO along with her husband Kieran in September 2008. She currently works along Kieran as a professional development facilitator for the Ministry of Education in Malawi. Below Marie describes a typical day.

Maria Rafferty from Ireland, began volunteering for VSO in 2007. Here she describes her impressions of Ethiopia.

John Brogan an IT specialist from Dublin volunteered with VSO in September 2006 and worked as an IT trainer with the Ministry of Education in Eritrea.

Jenny Hobbs a primary teacher from Bray Co. Wicklow, Ireland recently finished her placement in The Gambia.

Helen Collison from Portmarnock Co. Dublin left her teaching post in St Sylvesters Infant School in Malahide, to volunteer with VSO as a district teacher support officer in Northern Ghana. Below she recounts her Ghanian experience.

Brendan Grehan, a teacher from Dublin, spent two years working in education development in Eritrea.

Child sacrifice is on the increase in Uganda. It involves cutting off body parts to offer to spirits in return for luck and wealth. VSO is working with the African Network for Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) to ensure affected families receive the counselling and legal support they so urgently need.  Vivien’s ten-year-old son was abducted for child sacrifice but survived. Here she tells her story.

To many Maasai people, disabilities are a curse from God. VSO volunteer Úna Higgins is based in Kajiado, in rural Kenya. She’s working to change that attitude by helping more than 20 disabled Maasai boys fulfill their potential. Here she discusses the difficulties she faced and the progress she’s made.

No longer bottom of the UN Human Development Index, there are growing signs of improvement in Sierra Leone. Health manager Tim Heywood is playing a part in that. He’s volunteering there in partnership with VSO and the Welsh Assembly Government. Here Tim discusses the challenges of working outside his comfort zone and some of the surprises and rewards of his placement.

At 18, Susan Cross considered volunteering with VSO but didn’t have the confidence to go for it. Some 30 years on and now an experienced primary school teacher, Susan returned to VSO. Here she describes the rewards and challenges of two years spent as a volunteer in Ntchisi, Malawi.

Management consultant in the City. Chief exec in the third sector. Table tennis extraordinaire. Now Steve Vaid is to face his toughest challenge yet: he and his wife Kristenne Pickles are off to Rwanda to volunteer with VSO. Here Steve describes his journey from an Australian bank to a VSO assessment day, his inspiring feats of fundraising and his first task in his new job: recruiting his own boss.

Volunteer Stephanie Stoker uses creativity to help paint a brighter picture for the youth of Iquitos, Peru. The visual artist, who has extensive experience in theatre and arts education, is using art to help young adults develop life skills and get involved in the future development of their community. 

VSO was thrilled when psychotherapist Stella Wragg decided to volunteer again. With the experience of her first VSO placement in Nepal, Stella is now preparing to volunteer in Sri Lanka. Her expertise will be put to excellent use improving the care available to people who are living with mental illnesses as a result of years of civil war and the 2004 Tsunami. Here she reveals her hopes and fears about her upcoming placement.

In the 1960s Simon Marchant was a schoolboy in Somerset watching a film about VSO. Some forty years on he could be starring in that film: he’s now a VSO education adviser in Ethiopia, sharing skills and expertise that will transform teaching in classrooms across the country.

Cambodia has some of the worse maternal and infant mortality rates in South East Asia. In rural areas many people don’t know about eating healthily, so malnutrition is rife.  As part of VSO Cambodia’s maternal and child health programme, volunteer nurses are coordinating cookery demonstrations that teach mothers how to make simple, nutritious meals that will help their children to thrive.

Ruairi O’Hehir from Dublin is a secondary school teacher at Rathdown School in South Dublin. Ruairi volunteered with VSO in 2008 and was placed in a VSO education programme and currently works as an education management advisor in Rwanda. Ruairi’s role involves training local Rwandan teachers. Here he describes a typical day in Rwanda.

Chest physician Richard Feinmann is volunteering with VSO in Uganda, where life expectancy is just 51 and over a third of the population live in poverty. Here Richard describes some of the challenges facing patients and why exposure to these challenges is so crucial for UK health professionals.

Improving income opportunities for poor people is a crucial aspect of VSO’s secure livelihoods work. That might involve developing people’s marketing skills so that their small businesses can thrive, or equipping students with IT skills so that they can become more employable. Former IBM management consultant and VSO volunteer Ramona Maye is currently doing both in Dodoma, Tanzania.

With 30 years’ experience as a teacher and twelve years as head teacher at a large comprehensive in Plymouth, in the UK, Peter Reid has the combination of hands on classroom teaching and management experience that VSO is looking for. After retiring in 2001, he and his wife Rosemary decided to volunteer. Here Peter tells us how his skills are supporting the Ministry of Education and Sports as it prepares to offer Nepalese children a further three years of free education. 

Dr Ollie Jefferis volunteered in Malawi through a joint scheme between the Royal College of Paediatrics and VSO. The programme is seen as professional development for junior doctors and provides recognition for the volunteer job when they come back to in the UK. Here Ollie talks about his experience in Malawi.

Nicola Swann was a fundraiser for an autism charity in London before volunteering with VSO in Uganda. She’s sharing her skills and expertise in fundraising with the Uganda Society for Disabled Children, a charity that provides crucial support to disabled children and their families across the country. Here, Nicola describes the highs and lows of life in Uganda and dodging goats on her way to work…

Creating livelihoods while promoting sustainable resource use is an increasingly important component of VSO's work. CUSO-VSO volunteers serving in Latin America are taking a walk in woods that are models of community stewardship and sustainability.

Margaret Flanagan a business consultant from Drogheda Co Louth, Ireland, volunteered with VSO in June 2008 and currently works as an organisational development adviser in Bagerhat, a rural area in Bangladesh. Below she describes a typical day in her placement.

The Creative Self Help Centre is a community organisation in Papua New Guinea supporting people with disabilities. Youth for Development volunteer Laura Carse, who is herself visually impaired, spent a year raising awareness of the centre’s crucial work and challenging attitudes towards disability. 

"The Lady Mechanic Initiative"? It sounds like something out of a quirky novel. But it’s not a work of fiction: it’s real and it’s changing the lives of disadvantaged women all over Nigeria. VSO volunteer Russell McKeown is drawing on 25 years’ experience in engineering and business to help The Lady Mechanic Initiative go from strength to strength.

In a country with just one doctor for every 62,000 people, GP Katrien Deschamps is playing a vital role in Malawi’s healthcare situation. As one of just two doctors working in a district hospital in the north of the country, she’s undertaking life-saving clinical work and at the same time passing on invaluable skills to health workers at all levels.

On the face of it, you might not think helping to establish a new university course would make much of a difference. But the work of VSO nurse trainer Joanna Haworth could have a far-reaching effect on healthcare provision in Sierra Leone, where life expectancy sits at an average of just 42 years.

Head teacher Isabel Hodger had 36 years’ experience in education and just three years until retirement when she decided to volunteer with VSO. She’s sharing her expertise in Ethiopia, where classrooms are bursting with children due to free education, but teachers are poorly trained. Here Isabel describes how her work with teacher trainers from all corners of the country will ultimately benefit millions of school children.

Nurses are vital components in the treatment and recovery of hospital patients. In Sierra Leone, where many hospitals lack basic supplies and equipment, even a good bedside manner can mean the difference between life and death.

Dr Hale found herself the only doctor at a hospital that served a population of over half a million. In addition to emergencies and the anything-but-routine life of a volunteer doctor, she was able to introduce new life-saving preventative medicine measures.

CUSO-VSO connects experienced public servants and government advisers with opportunities to share their skills and knowledge abroad. Hugo Pellerin’s story takes us from Gatineau, Quebec, to the far north of Cameroon.

A CUSO volunteer alumnus makes an emotional journey back to the site of his overseas volunteer placement, almost two decades later.

A CUSO-VSO volunteer works with Jamaica’s Dispute Resolution Foundation to help foster peace and reduce violence in the Caribbean nation.

Papua New Guinea’s mountainous terrain is so impenetrable that the entire population of the entire district of Porgera – over one million people – did not make contact with the developed world until 1938. Imagine, then, the obstacles faced by disabled people who live there. VSO physiotherapist Edd Shaw talks about his role in improving their mobility, including distributing over 300 wheelchairs.

VSO fundraiser David Whittaker shared his skills in proposal writing, project planning and donor reporting to help Zambian youth organisation Africa Directions secure crucial funding from local and international donors. VSO developed his own skills too. Returning to the UK a better leader and strategic thinker, David is now a manager with a London-based homeless charity.

After many years at senior management level within local government in the UK, Dave Sternberg decided to take a career break and volunteer with VSO. He spent two years working for a women’s rights organisation based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Here he describes how he developed his colleagues’ management skills and in doing so enhanced some of his own.

Thanks to support from VSO, pre-primary education in Zanzibar is receiving a makeover. The old-fashioned “chalk and talk” approach once ruled - but walk into a classroom today and you’ll find children learning through participation and play. Working alongside local colleagues, VSO volunteer Daphne Sharp is helping to ensure that all children in Zanzibar receive a good basic education, whether that’s in a brightly decorated classroom with an animated teacher or under a tree with a wind up radio.

Cristina Gaspar (a monitoring & evaluation and documentation adviser) gives an insight to being a VSO volunteer, the selection process, the place, the people and the work involved in developing systems for rural development programmes in Mohuda, India.

Years of conflict have made Cambodia’s healthcare system one of the weakest in the world. That’s why VSO volunteers like Dr Suzanna van Schaick are making difficult journeys into remote communities to share knowledge and advice that will save lives.

Primary teacher and VSO volunteer Cheryl Evans has been supporting literacy in Guyana’s primary schools for nearly two years. Here she describes the transformations she has seen in children’s reading and writing, the “heaps of new skills” she has developed as a volunteer and the sights, smells and sounds of life in Guyana.

Across the world, VSO volunteers are working with tiny organisations that are making a huge difference to people’s lives. Here, fundraising adviser Catherine Mahoney shares the stories of two inspiring organisations in Hawassa, Ethiopia that are doing just that.

Primary teacher Caroline Pitcairn received strong support from her school when she decided to volunteer with VSO. Having been awarded a 19-month sabbatical, Caroline took her teaching expertise to Rumphi in northern Malawi. Here she describes her work, the warmth and generosity of her colleagues and neighbours and her sometimes very muddy commute…

Giving something back to the community has been a life long passion for education manager Bola Ojo. Taking early retirement and volunteering with VSO International meant she could continue to contribute to the community – but this time internationally. She opted for a 12-week volunteer placement in Rwanda. At the same time as sharing valuable teaching and management skills that will help to improve standards in 126 local schools, she helped lay the foundations for a long-term volunteer to take her crucial work even further.

Betty Ayagiba offers hope in Ghana through the Widows and Orphans Movement (WOM). WOM works to curb violence against women, and provides training and income-generation support to widows and orphans.

Canadian volunteer Ashleigh Mitchell used information technology to help women in the Solomon Islands find their voice – and make sure they're heard.

Twenty three year old Abass Koroma was just eight years old when the civil war in Sierra Leone began in 1992. During the next ten years he missed out on going to school and spent months living in the bush trying to avoid recruitment as a child soldier. But five years after the war ended, and with support from VSO partner CCYA, he is part of a flourishing village enterprise and is putting the finishing touches to a house he has built for himself.