Life-changing stories

Decentralisation is essential if isolated parts of Cameroon are to eventually fulfil their potential, but resistance to change is endemic. In the rural north west of the country, VSO volunteer Shamsul Akhtar works with local councilors to implement essential government reforms. Despite difficult living conditions and early frustrations, Shamsul is at last seeing progress.

Namibia stands to gain a great deal from international tourism, but there’s a fine line between empowerment and exploitation. Lacking the commercial skills and business infrastructure to profit from tourism, some Namibian communities risk missing out on opportunities for economic growth. VSO volunteer Pratap Sinha is working with outside investors and local people to guarantee sustainable development.

VSO has supported the development of the mental health sector over the last 15 years, helping to create more clinics and rehabilitation centres as well as establishing training programmes to raise standards of mental healthcare. An estimated 2.5 million Sri Lankans have been reached by the efforts of VSO volunteers during this time. Chandani's experience illustrates how VSO's intervention has helped transform one woman's potentially bleak future into a much brighter one.

Leandra Lok, a teacher training adviser, has lived in Cambodia for one-and-a-half years along with her husband who is also volunteering with VSO in Battambang.

Malaria is the world's biggest killer: someone dies of it every 30 seconds. In Uganda many people living in rural villages can't afford to pay for transport to get to hospital, so they don't get drugs and they die. That's why the work VSO nurse Pam Llewellyn is doing in Miirya sub-county is so vital: she is training village volunteers in malaria prevention so that they can help their communities to combat the disease. 

The Pamirs are an area of outstanding natural beauty in Tajikistan, boasting some of the most mountainous landscapes anywhere in the world. But against this remote backdrop most people live in poverty and over a quarter of the population live on less than US$2 a day. VSO is working with the Pamir Eco-Cultural Tourism Association to increase tourism in the area to improve the livelihoods of the local community.

Economic opportunities are limited in Tajikistan so large numbers of men are leaving the country to find work abroad. According to official estimates, approximately one seventh of Tajikistan’s population works abroad, leaving almost as many women to support family by themselves. These women are in urgent need of work but lack the skills and opportunities to make a decent living.

CUSO-VSO volunteer, Jan Teevan, always wanted to help mothers and children in the developing world. She got the chance in 2007 through a joint project with the Malawi Ministry of Health. 

In Vietnam, a widespread lack of awareness and education leads to discrimination against people living with HIV. Ben Nguyen and her two young children were shunned by their community when she discovered she was HIV positive. That’s why VSO volunteer David Graham is working to strengthen self-help groups that offer vital support to Ben and other people like her.

In Vietnam a ground-breaking online counselling service is allowing young people to access vital information about sexual and reproductive health. We find out VSO volunteer Ian Bromage’s part in its amazing success.

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. But five years after the war ended, and with support from VSO partner CCYA, he is part of a flourishing village enterprise.

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.

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.

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.

Ellen Crabtree has swapped her life as a highflying finance executive to help vulnerable people in downtown Johannesburg at risk from HIV and AIDS. Here she tells us about a project that helps sex workers find alternative sources of income - and explains how volunteering has changed her own life, as well as the lives of those she is working with.

Tourists flock to Zanzibar each year, but the money they spend has little impact on the lives of the majority of the population. A new project run by VSO International is helping an association of farmers to build better links with the thriving tourist sector, and to earn a far higher income from their crops.

Sifa, a young Rwandan girl, was found in Nyungwe forest, in the far south west of the country. It was clear she had been alone for a long time – she walked on all fours, was surviving on a diet of grass and sticks, and was terrified of people. We find out how VSO volunteer Antonia Eastman has played a crucial role in helping her new carers turn her life around. 

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.

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.

Olive Okobasingiza was five when a militant shot her in the arm during the genocide. Today she’s a Paralympic athlete. Find out VSO volunteer Nic Clark’s part in her incredible story here.

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…

Having spent most of her career working in the Third Sector, Catherine Mahoney was always interested in volunteering abroad. But it wasn’t until she’d given up her full-time job – and become a Grandma! – that the time was right for her to volunteer.

Across South Africa there are thousands of disadvantaged and vulnerable children who leave school at a young age and miss out on their right to an education. Others become vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and sex trafficking. However, VSO and local partner SCORE aim to tackle these problems through sport and are helping many at risk children on their way to a better future. One girl is NomFundo Ndlovu who has discovered her two passions in life, education and football. 

Ahead of South Africa’s World Cup, VSO volunteer, Clare Barrell, 26, from Hertfordshire has spent the last two years working with local charity SCORE, helping vulnerable children find a better future through the power of sport. Here she gives an insight into the life of a volunteer in the run up to Africa’s first ever World Cup.

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.