VESL was pleased to be awarded a grant by the British Council / DFID to run a Global Community Links Programme between Dec and August 2011. VESL, alongside its partner NGO in Southern India, VeSSS, ran a series of workshops for young people across the UK.
Nearly 300 young people attended the workshops which were run by 18 volunteers. During the workshops the young people learnt amount the Millennium Development Goals, education and schools overseas and learnt first hand from past VESL volunteers about communities overseas, different to their own.
After the workshops participants were challenged to become active citizens and run their own project that would make a difference to the lives of other young people in India.
Over twenty projects were planned and carried out by the young people. These projects included running fundraising events, collecting books and sports equipment to send overseas, running a campaign about HIV in India and creating a linking resource pack.
Rachel Taylor, a volunteer, commented
“I have very much enjoyed being involved in the Active Global Citizens programme and I am sure I have developed my skills. I found the workshops very rewarding, particularly seeing those who took part so interested and inspired to go away and carry out their fundraising and awareness ideas was very encouraging. I hope they are all able to follow through and hopefully these workshops will have gone a long way to develop a new team of volunteers in the future”. Rachel Taylor, Volunteer
Nick Veal, Head of Humanities at Maltby School, commented
“This has been a great project from the school. The students have had an opportunity to learn from great role models in an interactive and fun way about the MDGs. They have also loved having the opportunity to create their own projects and support VeSSS” Nick Veal, Head of Humanities at Maltby School.
References :
The UN website for the millennium development goals has more info – www.un.org/millenniumgoals
The European Commission have put together a great pdf document describing the ‘EU Contribution to the Millennium Development Goals’
The DFID [Dept. for International Development] website is also a good website for reference to the millennium development goals – www.dfid.gov.uk/global-issues/millennium-development-goals
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