British Council Global XChange international volunteer, Jean Benoit Pradeau from Paris, France help with children from Wentworth at a fun day at Moses Mabhida stadium in honour of Children’s DayYouthful volunteers from KZN, United States of American, France, Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom join together to work in an inspired international volunteer exchange programme, entitled Global Xchange, which is co-ordinated by the British Council.
Twenty volunteers from five countries are all currently working and living alongside each other for three months to engage meaningfully with projects and community initiatives in the greater Durban area. Using the BAT Centre in Durban’s Small Craft Harbour as a base, the 16 visiting volunteers are working together with their four South African counterparts. The cities represented in this project are Durban (South Africa); Belfast (UK); Paris (France), Los Angeles (USA) and Free Town (Sierra Leone). While in Durban, the volunteers have rapidly integrated themselves into their new environment and host city. They are working together with some of the most pro-active NGOs and community-based organisations to learn and share with them.
The volunteers – aged between 18 and 25 - have been working on projects as diverse as street poets; HIV Aids prevention; sexual health awareness; youth programmes; street children initiatives; education support organisations; local government sectors; homes for the aged and the disabled; women’s groups; arts projects and education programmes. They work in the communities from Monday to Thursday; and come tougher as a group every Friday at the Bat Centre. The volunteers are based in Phoenix, Wentworth, KwaMashu and the city centre.
On January 2, 2011, all 20 volunteers leave South Africa to go to Northern Ireland where they will spend another three months, this time in the Belfast community. This will be followed by three months of volunteering in a community in Northern Ireland, UK as part of the Global Xchange programme.
Global Xchange gives young people from different countries a unique opportunity to work together, to develop and share valuable skills and to make a practical contribution where it is needed in local communities. The six-month programme works with teams of young people aged 18 to 25, with equal numbers coming from the participating countries. The participants are recruited and the teams formed to reflect the diversity in terms of ability, education, ethnicity, gender and geography. Together the cross-cultural pairs live with host families and work with host communities for up to three months in a host country (South Africa and then in the UK). They also work on a global citizen project aimed at raising awareness of development and diversity within their host communities.
‘‘It is much more than volunteering,’’ says Nise Malange, Director of the BAT Centre. “Young people are there to learn about the local issues but also about the global factors that affect the way things happen. As part of their learning agenda, they will explore poverty and inequality, community development, volunteering and social action.”
Lion Phasha, Project Consultant for the British Council, adds: “For the British Council, our partnership in the Global Xchange programme enables us to build partnerships between South Africans and the UK. Through the project we hope that the experience for the volunteers and the communities they will work with, will build greater inter-cultural understanding, democratic development and bring positive social change.”
More information from Co-ordinator Claire Faithorn on 071 269 1017
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