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Where the earth screams in horror
0 - Issue 38
Welcoming Global Xchange volunteers
SHABAB Project with the British Council are embarking on a volunteer program that brings together youngsters from Syria and the UK
The British Council and SHABAB Project launched the Global Xchange programme in its third cycle in the presence of officials, diplomats, NGOs and hosting families on March 7 last at the Prince Abdul Kader Al Jazairi Palace, Dummar.
The sixteen volunteers, from the UK and Syria, have already started their three month voluntary work in Damascus with a number of local charities and NGOs in the first phase of the new Global Xchange programme. They will spend three months doing voluntary work in Damascus, followed by a second phase where Syrian and British volunteers will travel to the UK for another three months of voluntary work in the Newcastle-upon-Tyne area.
Elizabeth White, Director of the British Council in Syria, commented “I’m glad to see this third group of Syrian and British volunteers already so well settled in to their work and life in Damascus, and I look forward to celebrating with this sparkly group of young people who are so committed to community work and to the interchanges and interactions of cultural relations.”
British and Syrian volunteers are staying with Syrian host families in Damascus where they will work with local NGOs on business development skills, raising awareness regarding living with disabilities, and designing workshops focused on young adults with learning difficulties. In Newcastle, the focus of the program will be on youth health issues, environmental work and refugee support.
As a team, these sixteen volunteers live and work in cross-cultural pairs for six months and live in local homes and volunteer for 4 days a week on a diverse range of local community projects as the fifth day of the working week is given over to informal education workshops (called global citizenship days) which are run by and for the volunteers themselves. These days focus on global issues, development awareness and intercultural dialogue. Like the volunteers, host homes represent the diversity of the host communities.
The charities involved include BASMA, SOS Children’s Villages, SHABAB, Zied Bin Haritha, Smoking Cessation, Karim Rida Said Foundation, Aamal and Women Development Role Organization are there to give the volunteer the support through their work on either private projects or as a continues help for the organization.
Volunteers focus their learning around a ‘Global Citizenship Framework,’ which was developed in association with Oxfam, and covers five key areas being poverty and inequality, diversity, community development, volunteering, and social action.
