Life changing stories

Fourteen women die in childbirth every day in Sierra Leone, simply through a lack of basic life-saving and midwifery skills. VSO volunteers like Alice are helping to change this.

Sixty-seven year old SEN teacher Meg Mansfield is currently volunteering with VSO on the Thai-Burma border.  Here, children with disabilities are extremely vulnerable: they can’t access education and live isolated lives with little social contact.  Through Meg's work at The Star Flower Centre, she is building brighter futures for the Thai-Burma border’s forgotten 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.

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.

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.

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.

Child sacrifice is on the increase in Uganda. VSO volunteers are working with the African Network for Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) to ensure affected families receive counselling and legal support.  Vivien’s ten-year-old son was abducted for child sacrifice but survived. Here she tells her story.

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.

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

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. 

South Africa is home to over a thousand informal settlements; communities with limited resources, sanitation and formalised welfare. Children often suffer within these communities and miss out on an education. VSO volunteer Mary Njuguna is working with local organisation Children on the Move to help get children back into school and enjoying life again. 

"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.

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 Jean Marie worked as a primary school teacher for eight years to save up for the fees to complete his secondary school education. Confused?! Find out about his incredible journey here.

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.

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.

Peru is an ethnically divided country. With its large indigenous population and small white elite, deep-rooted discrimination towards indigenous people has persisted since the time of colonisation. It was identified by Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission as one of the leading causes of the violence that gripped the country in the 1980s. This finding prompted grassroots NGO APRODEH to develop anti-discrimination programming. It is here that VSO volunteer Claire Reid worked to carry out invaluable research that ultimately led to the passing of anti-discrimination legislation in the country.

Twenty eight year old Georgina Chetwynd is sharing her skills in Kolkata. Here Georgina – who has also volunteered with VSO in Pakistan – describes the challenges faced by disabled women in India and explains how, by telling their stories, she is helping to tackle some of those challenges. 

With over one million people in Tanzania living with HIV and AIDS, raising awareness among young Tanzanians is a high priority for VSO. We’re working with local partners like Femina HIP to help young people create a healthy future.

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. 

Volunteer Sandra Scantlebury is working to get more girls into schools in the Upper West region of Ghana. Here she tells us why involving communities in education is such a crucial part of her work. 

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. 

In Tajikistan many workers move to Russia in search of work and better opportunities. In the northern town of Khojand, VSO is piloting a programme of partnering with private businesses to provide opportunities for the local community. One such partnership includes Mr Mirzosulton and his dairy farm, Correct.

In Guyana, VSO is improving services for people with disabilities by strengthening the skills of local health workers. Merle Sobers works at Ptolemy Reid, a centre for children with mental and physical disabilities. She has spent the last eight months working alongside VSO volunteer Hannah Kay, the only speech and language therapist in the country.  Here Merle describes the long-term impact Hannah has had on her work.

Memory was nine when a truck driver raped her. Four years later she discovered she was HIV positive. Initially rejected by other children, Memory courageously shared her story with them. Now 20, she is a youth ambassador helping other children to learn to live with HIV. Your support for VSO’s work has made a huge and important difference to Memory’s life and enabled her to help other children coping with traumatic circumstances.

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.

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.