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- 26 أغسطس 2003
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الأمير هاري في مهمة انسانية لمساعدة فقراء افريقيا في ليسوتو
لعله يكون حافز للمسؤلين والامراء المسلمين لحذو حذو الغربيين في قيمة القيام باعمال خيرية نحو المحتاجين
Gap year students 'wasting their time' on foreign aid projects
By SIMON CABLE
Students who undertake aid projects in their gap-years are wasting their time on 'spurious' activities, one of Britain's leading charities has warned.
Gap-year volunteering, in which students pay thousands of pounds to join schemes designed to help Third World countries, are often badly planned and do nothing to help local communities, said Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).
Travel companies are accused of cashing in on the growing trend for students travelling to Africa, Asia and Latin America to teach English or help build wells and schools.
Scroll down for more
Prince Harry volunteered in Lesotho helping orphans during his gap year
Read more...
Top-up fees 'will leave graduates £22,000 in debt'
Careers advice 'is letting down girls'
Essential tips for gap year travel
Judith Brodie, the director of VSO UK said: "While there are many good gap-year providers, we are increasingly concerned about the number of badly planned and supported schemes that are spurious - ultimately benefitting no one apart from the travel companies who organise them."
She has now urged students to think twice about signing up for so-called voluntourism - and should instead go travelling around the world on holiday.
"Young people want to make a difference, but they would be better off travelling and experiencing different cultures, rather than wasting time on projects that have no impact and can leave a big hole in their wallet," she said.
Both Princes William and Harry undertook voluntary gap-year projects, helping fuel a huge rise in the numbers of school-leavers who join the schemes.
Prince William went to Chile with Raleigh International in 2000 to help build schools, while Prince Harry worked with orphans in Lesotho in 2004.
Up to 200,000 people now undertake the projects each year, with the average traveller spending £4,800 on a placement.
Thousands more students are expected to jet out for similar schemes after collecting their A-level results this week - and before starting university next year.
VSO said that in one case a volunteer who thought she would be working on a rural conservation project spent six months behind a desk inputting data.
Another had been asked to survey the endangered coral reef only to find that the same project had been done numerous times previously.
Tom Griffiths, founder of gapyear.com, a company organising such packages, said students choose the company that they use very carefully.
He said: "Some companies raise the expectation of students to unrealistic levels and make them think they will change the world.
"When they get there they discover they are only small players."
One student who was disappointed with her experience of gap year volunteering was Hannah Saunders, 19, from London, who took up a placement teaching in India with a commercial organisation.
"I paid over £1,000 to teach English and maths to children in Pune", she said.
"I didn't have any training or preparation from the organisation before I went, and they didn't expect me to have any qualifications.
"I had a really tough time and suffered from culture shock, as India is so different from anywhere else, which I wasn't ready for.
"I turned up at the learning centre and the teachers didn't even know I was coming.
"It was very hard to find out what I was supposed to be doing. It wasn't value for money, as there was very little support from the organisation before or during my time there."
Prince Harry said he got out a lot out of his gap year experience
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/uk_prince_harry_in_lesotho/html/4.stm
لعله يكون حافز للمسؤلين والامراء المسلمين لحذو حذو الغربيين في قيمة القيام باعمال خيرية نحو المحتاجين
Gap year students 'wasting their time' on foreign aid projects
By SIMON CABLE
Students who undertake aid projects in their gap-years are wasting their time on 'spurious' activities, one of Britain's leading charities has warned.
Gap-year volunteering, in which students pay thousands of pounds to join schemes designed to help Third World countries, are often badly planned and do nothing to help local communities, said Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).
Travel companies are accused of cashing in on the growing trend for students travelling to Africa, Asia and Latin America to teach English or help build wells and schools.
Scroll down for more
Prince Harry volunteered in Lesotho helping orphans during his gap year
Read more...
Top-up fees 'will leave graduates £22,000 in debt'
Careers advice 'is letting down girls'
Essential tips for gap year travel
Judith Brodie, the director of VSO UK said: "While there are many good gap-year providers, we are increasingly concerned about the number of badly planned and supported schemes that are spurious - ultimately benefitting no one apart from the travel companies who organise them."
She has now urged students to think twice about signing up for so-called voluntourism - and should instead go travelling around the world on holiday.
"Young people want to make a difference, but they would be better off travelling and experiencing different cultures, rather than wasting time on projects that have no impact and can leave a big hole in their wallet," she said.
Both Princes William and Harry undertook voluntary gap-year projects, helping fuel a huge rise in the numbers of school-leavers who join the schemes.
Prince William went to Chile with Raleigh International in 2000 to help build schools, while Prince Harry worked with orphans in Lesotho in 2004.
Up to 200,000 people now undertake the projects each year, with the average traveller spending £4,800 on a placement.
Thousands more students are expected to jet out for similar schemes after collecting their A-level results this week - and before starting university next year.
VSO said that in one case a volunteer who thought she would be working on a rural conservation project spent six months behind a desk inputting data.
Another had been asked to survey the endangered coral reef only to find that the same project had been done numerous times previously.
Tom Griffiths, founder of gapyear.com, a company organising such packages, said students choose the company that they use very carefully.
He said: "Some companies raise the expectation of students to unrealistic levels and make them think they will change the world.
"When they get there they discover they are only small players."
One student who was disappointed with her experience of gap year volunteering was Hannah Saunders, 19, from London, who took up a placement teaching in India with a commercial organisation.
"I paid over £1,000 to teach English and maths to children in Pune", she said.
"I didn't have any training or preparation from the organisation before I went, and they didn't expect me to have any qualifications.
"I had a really tough time and suffered from culture shock, as India is so different from anywhere else, which I wasn't ready for.
"I turned up at the learning centre and the teachers didn't even know I was coming.
"It was very hard to find out what I was supposed to be doing. It wasn't value for money, as there was very little support from the organisation before or during my time there."
Prince Harry said he got out a lot out of his gap year experience
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/uk_prince_harry_in_lesotho/html/4.stm
