Ollie's trip to India

Hi everyone, we're all in very high spirits here at Gapforce HQ as the sun is absolutely BEATING down in London.

Today's blog is a special one because its written by one of our volunteer's who is currently in India with Greenforce.

Below is an update we received from him earlier this week.

"I spent the second week living with a host family in Faridabad, a suburb of Delhi, working in a school for slum children. The host family were very nice and the project was great fun, teaching small children basic English and literacy.

For the last 2 weeks I've been working for the organisation Vatsalya, the NGO that runs the Udayan Children's orphanage in Achrul, just outside Jaipur. I spent 2 days there but seeing as the children currently attend school outside of the orphanage whilst preparing for their examinations, there was not a lot of contact time with the children and it wasn't giving me the volunteer experience I hoped for. Since then Vatsalya have been very helpful in transferring me to their Jaipur offices where I am involved in teaching young adults in English communications and also improving their website.

I have been ill once and Rajan was very helpful in accommodating me whilst I was in transit from Delhi to Jaipur. If you have any questions or request to view any pictures then please don't hesitate to contact me. Rajan is very easy going and is contact with lots of different projects and therefore it is easy for the volunteer to pick and choose and discuss with him which project suits the volunteer best. The fact that lots can be organised when in India, and different options/projects are available perhaps needs to be stressed more on the Gap Force personal pages.

All in all, I'm having a greatly inspiring experience and that is the most important factor. The projects have been great and when I wasn't comfortable at the children's village simple coordination by telephone to Rajan and with Vatsalya made a change to more appropriate work very easy.

I hope all is well in London and I'm very much looking forward to returning home and sharing some of the experiences with those who are interested."

Thanks very much indeed Ollie, we look forward to seeing you.

If you would like more info on volunteering in India or indeed on any of our projects, call 020 7384 3028 or email info@gapforce.org