Volunteer Projects Overseas – IBI Blog
The Background
Volunteering, and ‘giving back’ to local and other communities, is part of our Corporate Social Responsibility at IBI.
In this Overseas Volunteer Initiative, IBI will be linking with an organisation called ‘Real Gap’ in 2011, enabling up to 40 employees to work as volunteers on two different projects – the Costa Rica House Building project and the Thailand Childcare project.
This year, there will be two opportunities for 10 (different) volunteers to go on both these projects for a 2 week assignment, allowing some continuity, as opposed to working on a project just once.
Employees from different IBI divisions around the World have applied for the first two trips. The first overseas volunteer trip will be to Costa Rica from 3rd-17th April and the second will be to Thailand from 6th-21st May. For those individuals that secured one of the coveted places, they will be blogging their ‘personal journey’ whilst they are there, so please do follow them to find out all about it!
What will the volunteers do?
Costa Rica House Building Project
The volunteers will have the opportunity to play a vital role in the improvement of living conditions for some of the local people in Costa Rica through the building of new homes; with some help from the local builders of course. This project has been created thanks to a contribution from the Government of Canada which led to the formation Costa Rican and Canadian Rural Housing programme which, among other things, funds the re-development of homes in some of the poorest rural communities of Costa Rica.
The activities and tasks that volunteers may be involved in will vary depending on the stage of the building work when they arrive. They will be able to get in involved in all aspects of the building process; some of the tasks may include the following: digging trenches for foundations, laying floors and mixing up concrete.
Thailand Childcare Project
There are various childcare centres which provide a safe place for those children with poor working parents. With monthly wages as low as £50 for an adult working on a farm this is an essential resource. Moreover, in many cases parents move to the cities to find work leaving grandparents to bring up the children. The use of the centres is a very welcome break to these people and therefore provides an essential service to the local community and you will soon feel that you are part of the community.
There can be up to 50 pre-school children (up to 4 years old) at one time at the centres so the volunteers help is vital to ensure that the children are well looked after. Volunteers will help the local staff look after the children during the day organising games, activities, teaching lessons and preparing food. Volunteers can also get involved with renovation and repair work at the centres which may include painting walls or renovating kitchens.
