Community: News

There are fewer than 50 places left on the last GX Youth Action programmes, which will start in April 2012.

The deadline for applications is Friday 17th February. 

So if you’re 18-22 and interested in making a difference in a community in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Sierra Leone or Zambia, then apply before Friday 17th February to be in with a chance of taking part. 

You can find out more about the kind of experience you could have by reading Hannah Howard's blog from Bangladesh
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We always hope that GX will be a memorable experience for all our volunteers but sometimes the good old British weather conspires to make a memorable moment without any help from us.

The GX team from Sri Lanka and Derry/Londonderry shared one of those moments with us.

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Are you wondering what exciting new things you can get involved with in 2012? If you are up for a challenge, enthusiastic about volunteering, want to learn new skills, meet new people and boost your CV. Then why not become a Concordia Co-ordinator? They are now recruiting for a three day Co-ordinator training weekend 29^th March – 1^st April 2012, to prepare and become a project leader of an international volunteer group in the UK this summer. Many GX RVs have done this before and gone to lead summer groups very successfully so why not give it a go.

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This month DFID launched their new graduate scheme - a paid, 50 week development programme offering a diverse range of opportunities in areas from humanitarian response to private sector development

Successful candidates will undergo a structured development programme including personalised induction and training, e-learning, a mentor, and you will be able to apply for internal jobs while you are placed with DFID.

The programme is now open for applications until 20 March 2012. New recruits will start in September this year and be based in either the London or Glasgow offices.

Find out more: Visit www.dfid.gov.uk/graduate ​

The 17 young people from the UK and Bangladesh on YX117 met HRH The Princess Royal, VSO's Royal Patron, during her recent visit to Dundee.

Local youth club venue, The Shore, hosted the event where Her Royal Highness spent an afternoon with a number of youth projects including Dundee Youth Parliament members and those on the GX programme.

The GX volunteers, who areabout to start work on community projects in Dundee, introduced their presentation by performing a song "we shall overcome" in a mixture of Bangla and English which is traditionally sung in primary schools across Bangladesh to inspire young people.

The team has spent the last three months volunteering in the indigenous village community of Khagrachari in the Chittagong Hill Tracts working with young people and Youth Clubs on Water and Sanitation projects.
 
The Princess Royal previously visited Bangladesh in 2010 and was interested to  listen to volunteers about the advocacy work they had carried out around access to safe drinking water, the importance of hand-washing and using safely-built latrines. Her Royal Highness was even presented with the limited edition GX t-shirt with which she seemed very pleased.
 
The Princess Royal was greeted at the event by Sir Andrew Cubie, chair of the VSO UK Board and VSO RV's. Phil Hanks from GX and partner staff were also present. GX is partnering with Yusuf Youth Initiative (YYI) in Dundee to promote young people as future leaders.