Jodie Thackray volunteered with VESL in Thailand in Summer 2012, here she has put together an excellent video of her time there, from teaching in school to eating crickets! Jodie recently graduated from MMU and is a freelance film-maker, photographer and artist – check out her website. Thailand 2012 VESL from Jodie Thackray on Vimeo. […]
Tag Archives | past vols
Dealing with reverse culture shock…
What is reverse culture shock? If you have volunteered with VESL for a long period of time you may find the shock of coming back to the UK bigger than the initial culture shock in your host community. Reverse culture shock can be harder to deal with as it is unexpected and can occur even […]
A day in the life: Thailand Project
“Get involved with the culture and take every opportunity that comes your way as not only does it combat homesickness, it will create memories to make this one of the greatest experiences of your life!” Katie Desmond and Stacey Smail, Volunteers in Thailand 2012
Student Leader Diary – India 2012 – Free time…what free time?!
In true context of this post, we have been so busy that we have not had time to write another post – so although this a little delayed… here is my next post about what we have been up to in our free time! We have managed to become involved in lots of different activities […]
How time flies… [Volunteer Journal]
Lucy Allcock is a student from Edgehill University and she is a volunteer in one of the Student Leadership Programme teams from Edgehill. Lucy has completed her first week in India, here she enlightens you all on how the time has flown by and what an amazing time she has had so far… Wow! It’s […]
Help – I need some tips to control my class
For students, having volunteers in their classroom is a new and exciting novelty, and like students anywhere they will try to push the boundaries at the beginning. Below are a few tips that will help you manage the behaviour of the students, particularly in those first few weeks as you settle into the role (some of them may sound very […]
Starting an After School Club
There are lots of opportunities to run extra-curricula activities and it is a great way to fully involve yourself in the project. Just make sure you ask permission from the school before you set anything up. My experience teaching English in Kerala I spent three months teaching English in Kerala. The students in the English medium class […]
VESL Appoints New Programme Manager
VESL is extremely pleased to announce that we have appointed Lauren Pluss as our new Programme Manager. Lauren is a past VESL volunteer and returned this year volunteering as an overseas programme assistant. Lauren’s first experience with VESL was on a project teaching English in a fishing community school in Kerala for 3 months in 2011. […]
Fundraising Inspiration
Not sure if you will be able to fundraise your contribution? It is not as hard as you might think and there are lots of different opportunities and ideas that will help you reach your target. A couple of past and current volunteers explain what they did to raise money: Eve Hadshar, India 2011 To […]
5 Things To See & Do in Kerala
After all the hard work that you put in during the week, the weekends are a great opportunity to explore the area around you. Kerala is famously known as ‘God’s own country’ because of its beauty and there are plenty of things to see and do, but here is what I consider the top five […]
New 2011 Photos
We’ve been able to collate photos from a number of our 2011 volunteers and have just added 4 new photo galleries… Kerala 2011 Thanks go to Elaine Abili & Kath McGuire for their photos from the summer of 2011. Elaine was helping to develop a new project in Southern Kerala for 3 months from June […]
Volunteer Feedback : Alisdair Smith
“The teaching was great fun and, as someone with little prior experience, I would definitely say that it’s not as scary as you might think!” Alisdair Smith, Volunteer in Thailand, 2011
A review of 2011
2011 has certainly been a busy year for VESL… here are a few highlights from the year : Kerala We had great success with our new programme working in schools within fishing communities in Kerala (South India). All of this year’s volunteers did a magnificent job in helping to lay down the foundations of this programme. […]
Volunteer Case-Study : Chiang Rai, Thailand
“It is surprising how quick we settled in. Everyone was so helpful and caring.” Caley Vye, Thailand, 2010-11
