Introduction to me and volunteering on the International Citizen Service scheme

Hi I’m Alex, I’m from Leicester and am graduating from the University of Leeds in July!

I’m volunteering with Raleigh international, as part of the International citizen service scheme which aims to involve young people in meaningful development work in some of the world’s poorest countries and provide a valuable learning experience.

To give an overview of the international citizen service scheme; it consists of three parts; Fundraising, volunteering abroad for 12 weeks and taking action at home.

The fundraising is not used by Raleigh to directly buy things for the project I’m assigned to, but is used to enable as many young people as possible from the UK and overseas to volunteer on projects in the developing world and fight poverty.

My fundraising target is a minimum of £800 and my fundraising deadlines set by Raleigh international can be seen below;

50% Fundraising deadline: Friday 19 July

Fundraising deadline: Friday 30 August

To ensure a good understanding of how to deliver sustainable solutions to development issues, Raleigh will give me training in the UK and also overseas. I’ll be joining a team of 12 enthusiastic volunteers, half from the UK and half from India. We’ll live and work in a rural southern Indian community for 12 weeks on a project designed to make a positive lasting impact. Local project partners will provide expertise and help to strengthen the impact of what we achieve in the community. I do not yet know the project I am assigned to until I have been to the training day in early July. But I will either join the rural health program or the rural livelihoods programme. These programmes will use a variety of methods to tackle issues in the community such as action research, peer-to-peer education, community infrastructure development, training local people to use and maintain infrastructure, raising awareness and resource development. Please feel free to have a look at a great past project by visiting this link.

You can follow projects on the Raleigh India ICS blog, including the project I’ll be part of :).

Upon my return home I’ll be raising the awareness of development issues and inspire others to take positive action in my local community by sharing my experiences and acting on issues I care about. One way I’ll be doing this is by giving a presentation at my local school.

I am fundraising in a number of ways and will add updates as they materialise.

If you could take the time to visit my just giving page I would be very grateful. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on, or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity (Raleigh international). So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.