At a glance - Exciting new projects - teaching English and language assistants roles in primary schools within local fishing communities in Kerala (Southern India).
Projects run 3-5 months (Jan, May/June or Sept start dates)
At a glance - 3-5 month project teaching/language assistant and orphanage work + community roles/NGO support. Children's home and Hospice in Northern Andhra Pradesh, Southern India. (Any start date)
At a glance - NEW 3-5 month teaching project for qualified volunteers (TEFL, CELTA or PGCE) to go to a unique rural school in the foothills of Niligri Hills in Tamil Nadu, Southern India. (Jan, May or Sept start date)
We are a UK basedcharity, run by a dedicated team of experienced past volunteers.
We run well-supported projects providing opportunities to volunteer abroad throughout the year, helping support rural schools teaching English in Thailand, Sri Lanka and India.
We are passionate about making each project asuccess and aim for everyvolunteer to feel proud of their achievement.
VESL is a registered charity and is not run for profit
VESL is run by a dedicated team with extensive overseas experience, all of whom have been past volunteers themselves and have a passionate commitment to run projects that are not only rewarding but beneficial to host communities.
VESL works closely with host communities, regional authorities, local NGOs to identify worthwhile projects that have a clear need and desire to host volunteers before matching volunteers’ skills and experience to them.
VESL expects every single volunteer to return feeling proud of their achievement and to have had an experience they will never forget.
The projects focus on volunteers teaching English or working as language assistants in rural primary or secondary schools.
We also have a small number of community development / orphanage support roles in Southern India.
When
4-6 weeks projects run through June-Sept.
3-12 month projects can run throughout the year – Jan, Jun & Sept start dates are preferred.
Who
People of all ages (18 – 80) who have energy, enthusiasm and a commitment to do their best.
Our application process is open to all. We’ll give you honest feedback so, even if your not 100% sure yet, please apply and we can discuss things with you.
Responsible Volunteering Overseas(5/1/2013)-In response to today’s BBC News article on volunteering overseas, we’d like to stress that nothing about volunteering with VESL is ‘voluntourism’… it’s challenging work, and of real and measurable benefit to those schools and communities we work with. All volunteers are interviewed and we don’t just send anyone willing to cough up the funding [...]
Wild Fund used to promote hygiene in schools in India(4/25/2013)-Ingrid Masters volunteered in Kerala from January to March 2013, while she was there she used funding from the VESL Wild Fund and a personal donation to help improve sanitation and hygiene at the school she was volunteering in. Sanitation and hygiene is a really important issue for students in India as they use their right hand [...]
Edgehill Volunteers Win Awards(4/24/2013)-You may have seen our article last week about some of our volunteers who were short listed for Volunteer of the Year Award and Volunteer Group of the Year Award at Edgehill University for their work over the past year in supporting VESL and rural schools in Thailand and India. Today we are very pleased [...]
VESL Volunteers Nominated for Awards at Edgehill University(4/17/2013)-A huge congratulations to our volunteers who have been short listed for the Volunteer of the Year Awards at Edgehill University next week. Lucy Allcock has been shortlisted for Volunteer of the Year Award and our team of volunteers who were pioneers for VESL in Phayao Province have been nominated for Volunteer Group of the [...]
Congratulations to the VESL Major Series Runners(3/12/2013)-A huge congratulations to everyone who ran the Major Series in Tunbridge Wells on Saturday for VESL and raised £955! A team of past volunteers & VESL supporters endured the freezing weather and 20 obstacles over 10 kilometers to raise money…so a MASSIVE thank you to Eve (past volunteer), Katrina, Lauren, Charlotte, Alastair, Nick and [...]
Fundraising case study: Involving the local community(5/17/2013)-This week we have a great case study from our volunteer Sophie Ramshaw a student from Hull University who has done some great fundraising in her local community, check out the different events she held below to see how she met her fundraising target. To reach my fundraising target I decided to get the whole [...]
Teaching Advice: Learning Styles(5/16/2013)-All of us learn using different learning styles, so it is important as a teacher to ensure that you are incorporating these styles into your classroom practice. This way you are giving the pupils in your class the best chance of being able to understand the lesson as well as keeping them engaged and interested! There [...]
Student Leader Interview: Andrew Durrant(5/14/2013)-This is the second of our Student Leader blog posts (last week we had a post from James Hallworth), drawing on their experiences from last year and previous overseas volunteering they have written some useful advice. Our second post comes from Andrew Durrant, a student at Keele University. I am currently finishing my final year [...]
Student Leader Interview: James Hallworth(5/7/2013)-We will be bringing you a series of blog posts from our Student Leaders and past volunteers about their experiences of working with VESL and some handy tips for preparing to go overseas. Our first post comes from James Hallworth a student at Edgehill University. I have just finished my second year of studies at [...]
Fundraising Idea: BBQ(5/3/2013)-Summer is here! Okay we may be getting ahead of ourselves but a GLIMPSE of summer is here and there are two bank holidays in May (plus obviously all the weekends!), so let’s hope for once we get good weather and can crack out the BBQ’s and some Pimms! Who doesn’t love a BBQ? BBQ’s [...]
3 - 12 month projects from Oct 2013 / Jan 2014.
We still have spaces left for mid to long term projects in Sri Lanka for October 2013 and Kerala & Thailand in Oct and Jan 2014