Birthday Celebration!

time Posted June 23, 2008 * Comments(2)


The one and only Rose

Last Thursday we were summoned from our offices by Director Peter Slowe to celebrate Rose Yelland’s big birthday. We enjoyed a champagne toast and Rose received a massive bouquet. She was seen leaving the office like a moving flower display.

We were not told how big the birthday was. I don’t think it was 18 or 21. Scott Mcquarrie was even seen to be suggesting Rose might have been 30. The answer remains a mystery.

Rose is a lady of many talents. As well as keeping the marketing department in order she plays a mean game of badminton and outshines everyone in the UK office. Pabbu from India reckoned he might be able to match her but suffered like the rest of us. Rose even has similarities with Margaret Thatcher. In the past she used to keep Denis Thatcher (Margaret’s husband) in order when she worked with him.

She is a font of many stories which keep the marketing department amused. If you have a chance ask her about her exploding kitchen. Assisting coordinating our representatives at different universities across the UK Rose is normally up with the gossip of who is going out with who and where people are going on holiday. Coordinating our many visits to schools and universities I am frequently greeted by a careers assistant asking is Rose not coming looking disappointed at the arrival of myself.

Oko from Mongolia and Catalin from Romania are both big fans of Rose’s cooking. She cooks a mean curry. Her steaks are well loved. Oko in fact loved one of them so much he went back for a second one!

Happy birthday Rose! We have our investigators out counting the numbers of candles on the cake.

- Ian Birbeck

Filed under: Projects Abroad, United Kingdom

Gap Year: The arguments for taking a Gap Year are on your side

time Posted June 11, 2008 * Comments(0)

Although summer isn’t even in full swing yet, I know a lot of students are already in the process of contemplating taking a gap year. I know I wish I had the opportunity to take one when I was younger and Dr. Peter Slowe who has been organizing them for over 15 years is going to tell you why you should take advantage of a gap year when you can. For people who have already been on a gap year, how was your experience? - Will

By Dr. Peter Slowe

The Gap Year opportunity comes once in a lifetime. When else will you have a whole year with almost no pressure?

What about when you’ve graduated and urgently need a job? Not a great time to take a long break.

When you get bored with your job and want a career break? There’ll be the mortgage, the missed promotion, your partner, both kids.

When you retire? OK, if you live that long and you don’t have a heart condition – and you don’t have to work till you’re 82 because there are no pensions.

Just take a Gap Year now! Start dreaming and planning. The year is yours. No parent, teacher or bank manager has the right to take it away from you. The opportunity simply won’t come round again. Miss it and that’s that.

There are quite a number of arguments you might have to face down when you decide to have a gap year.

“It’s just a middle-class rite of passage”. So what? Most people are middle-class – and besides, what’s wrong with a rite of passage?

“You’ll forget how to study”. Why should you? Are you going to forget how to go to the pub or forget your name? We’re talking about a year, not three decades.

Then there are the tedious arguments – but they are all on your side too. Most university departments now think a Gap Year is a good thing because it reduces drop-out rates. UCAS, most vice-chancellors and a whole spread of the great and good have all issued statements at one time or another saying a Gap Year is a Good Thing because of the extra experience and maturity it brings.

These are all important arguments, but there is something else, something more difficult to argue in public but no less valid than any other part of the debate. It is the intrinsic value of the gap year. Even if it couldn’t be justified as a career-move or a CV-builder (though it will probably be both of these anyway), it has worth as and of itself. It’s like justifying the study of history or the classics, which have their own real value. They enhance life. So does a Gap Year. It is the right thing to do and you don’t have to justify it any more. Go for it!

Filed under: Gap Years, Projects Abroad

LANDS END TO JOHN O’GROATS

time Posted May 30, 2008 * Comments(3)

Rich and his bike
Rich and his trusty stead

By Richard Clowes

Starting on Sunday 1st June I’ll be cycling 1,000 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats (the southern tip to the northern tip of Great Britain) to raise money for Addis Ababa Safe House.

Every £150 Pounds I raise pays for an Ethiopian child to be brought in off the streets and given basic housing, food and education for a year.

You can read more about the project and see daily updates and photos of the trip at: http://richardclowes.blogspot.com/

Any sponsorship you can give will be matched by Projects Abroad so all will be greatly appreciated. Thanks to Peter for Projects Abroad’s support.

Rich in Ethiopia
Rich in Ethiopia

Filed under: Ethiopia, Projects Abroad

Projects Abroad hits 20,000 volunteers!

time Posted May 29, 2008 * Comments(0)


Kristina, Peter Slowe, Ian Birbeck and Manon Oliver, our 20,000th volunteer!

By Ian Birbeck,

It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was setting off nervously as a volunteer to teach in Moldova. I had just graduated and really wanted to go and work somewhere different. I saw an advert to go teaching in Moldova and before I knew it I was at the bus station in London meeting Peter Slowe the Director of Projects Abroad before travelling to Chisinau. I didn’t imagine that 16 years later I would have an office next to him and be the Recruitment Director for Projects Abroad. I was within the first twenty volunteers to join Projects Abroad.

A couple of weeks ago we had the 20,000th volunteer join us. Manon Oliver has joined one of our two week programmes in India this summer. She will be on the programme with her brother who is the 20,003rd volunteer. It is amazing to think that a football stadium’s worth of volunteers have been away on programmes with us since my time volunteering in 1992.


Kristina and Manon

At the end of last week Peter Slowe and myself met up with Manon. It was great to be able to meet up with her and her mother at ACS International School in Cobham. Also present was Kristina Johansson who helped persuade Manon to join us. Kristina was away on a two week programme with Projects Abroad in Ghana last summer.

I had given a talk alongside Kristina in the middle of March. Kristina had called me to ask if I would mind coming and giving a presentation alongside her. She didn’t tell me that there would be 300 students in the audience! I think it was Kristina’s enthusiasm that persuaded Manon and her brother to join Projects Abroad this summer.

It is a strange coincidence that Manon has chosen to join our India programme. This is the very destination where Peter took his own gap year. On his gap year he met up with Chinasammy Rajendran who is now the Director of our India programme.


Peter and Manon

Filed under: Projects Abroad

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