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VAP open evening: non-commercial international volunteering!

Come and find out more about non-commerical international volunteering projects with VAP!

This is a chance to find out how you can take part in international volunteer projects responsibly, without paying vast sums of money to profit-making "voluntourism" companies. VAP is a charity that is part of a network of NGOs all over the world, originally set up to run reconciliation projects after WWI. We now run projects in the UK for volunteers from abroad to take part in, and train and support UK-based volunteers to take part in projects in other countries. From conservation work in Japan and refugee support in Belgium to education in Palestine and European Solidatity Corps at Othona Bradwell in Essex, the aim is always to increase intercultural understanding, build friendships, contribute to local projects, and above all learn from each other.

Come along on the 25th to hear from past and current volunteers and find out how to take part - everyone welcome!

Where: The Canvas Cafe E1, 42 Hanbury St, London, E1 5JL

When: Friday 25 January 2019, 6 - 8 pm

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posted on: 18 January 2019

World Heritage Volunteering 2018

We in VAP have long had a special relationship with UNESCO through the Co-ordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service. UNESCO’s most visible action is the listing and preservation of the world’s heritage – and “World Heritage Volunteers” are playing a big role in helping. The list grows longer every year and includes famous buildings from the Tower of London to the Taj Mahal as well as important environmental sites such as the Victoria Falls and Lake Baikal. You can work on any of these projects through VAP.

If you select the option "Heritage protection" (HERI) on the Type of Work dropdown menu of our database, you will find many of these projects. If there’s a project you don’t find send us an email.

Here are some examples of projects where you can volunteer:

Uganda:
The Tombs of the Kings of Buganda (9-30 September);
Rwenzori Mountains (5-26 August);
Bwindi Mountain Gorillas (8-29 July).

Indonesia:
Borobudur Temple (27 August - 9 Sept. or Ongoing project all year);
Prambanan Temple (15-30 August).

Togo:
Koutammakou Villages in the North (14-31 July).

Russia:
St Petersburg and Country Estates (18-29 July);
Solovetsky Islands (19 July-3 August).

Bolivia:
Historic City of Sucre (18-30 August)

Kenya:
Sacred Forests on the Coast (9-30 July);
Maasai Mara Conservation, culture and wildlife (5-26 July).

China:
Mount Sanqingshan (6-22 July);
Temple and Cemetery of Confucius (20 July-5 August);
Mount Qingcheng and the Dujiangyan Irrigation System (6 July-5 August)

India:
Hampi, Karnataka (13-26 June);
Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu (11-24 July).

Nepal:
Kathmandu Valley (17-29 September);
Vajrayogini and early settlement of Sankhu (5-17 November).

South Korea:
Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes (14-27 July);
Namhansanseong, Forgotten Fortress (5-14 August).

Vietnam:
Ancient Town of Hoi. Stay in Triem Tay eco-village (11-22 July).

Armenia:
Cathedral and the Archaeological Site of Zvartnots (14-26 July).

Belgium:
Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes (15 August-2 Sept.)

posted on: 26 April 2016

News from VAP meet-up and info day with guest speakers from Crossroads

Facts:

• 50% of women asylum seekers are survivors of rape
• 70% of women in detention are rape survivors
• 88% of rape survivors are disbelieved by Home Office officials when they first claim asylum. Half of those Home Office decisions are overturned by a judge on appeal.

Last Friday on 22 April, VAP supporters old and new gathered for a meet-up event in central London, along with guest speakers invited from the Crossroads Women’s Centre. We heard from their Women of Colour and All-Africa Women’s groups on their current advisory and support work with female refugees and asylum seekers. Some of the experiences that these women have faced are truly shocking – for instance, we learned about lesbian women from Uganda who are forced back to a country where their lives are at risk just because of their sexual orientation, and about the Yarl’s Wood removal centre where women and children continue to be held in completely inadequate conditions. Concerns have even be raised about abuse and rape allegations there. This is particularly shameful considering that many of the detainees are already survivors of rape and other violence.

The programme for the evening continued with VAP member Gabrielle Messeder sharing her reflections on volunteering and meeting people at the "Jungle" camp in Calais earlier this year. This led into discussion of the recent Refugee Rights report on human rights abuses at the camp – perhaps the most disturbing example is the police violence that 86% of those surveyed reported. Two other VAP members also reported on their discussions with people living in tents and other makeshift housing at the port in Athens. Again, these include women and families as well as men who are already escaping awful situations including war, only to find themselves abandoned and destitute in Europe as well, or facing deportation.

VAP believes that it is crucial to continue raising awareness about these abuses and the poor treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in many different countries. These are human beings who have already suffered hugely – so it is an absolute scandal that they are treated so horrifically in the countries where they are seeking refuge and peace. The Crossroads groups also organise school visits and other public education events to draw attention to these issues, and VAP will be keeping in touch so that we can share resources and prepare our workshops on migration and human rights for this year’s UK workcamps.

For more information on the Crossroads All African Women’s group supporting refugees and asylum seekers, please see www.facebook.com/AllAfricanWomen.

And don’t forget the day of action on detention on 7 May – details coming soon!

posted on: 24 April 2016

VAP’s 2015 Annual Get Together

We are organising our Annual Get Together, on Friday 2 October at 6:30 pm, for all returning or soon-to-be VAP volunteers to meet up with like-minded people, discuss interesting topics, get ideas for your next volunteering adventure, or just find out more about what VAP does if you’re still considering getting involved.
As well as providing the chance to share experiences and ideas informally, the programme for the event will include:

• A presentation on the Migration Museum Project – a project aiming to open the UK’s first specialised museum with a positive approach to the theme of migration.

• A presentation by Better World Cameroon – a VAP partner organisation focused on sustainable agriculture and cross-cultural education.

• An overview of the “Raising Peace” campaign – an initiative organised by the Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service to ensure that peace and human rights remain at the heart of the volunteering projects that organisations like VAP are involved in.

• News from VAP’s latest orientation weekend for volunteers and camp coordinators, including a short video made by a former volunteer.

• A screening of the short anti-militarist film “The Unseen March”, followed by discussion.

We’ll also be holding our Annual General Meeting – a chance for you to find out exactly what VAP has been up to this year and have your say in where we’re headed next.

The event will once again be held at The Gallery, 77 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EL. It’s a one-minute walk from Farringdon station, on the Metropolitan, Circle, Hammersmith and City and Thameslink lines.

See you there!

posted on: 24 September 2015

No More Deaths in the Mediterranean Sea!

VAP is joining our voice to thousands of volunteers represented by a long list of international voluntary service organisations in protest against the silence of European governments in face of the catastrophe happening right now in the Mediterranean sea.

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posted on: 4 May 2015

All the fun of a volunteer workcamp – with extra Brownie points!

Volunteer Action for Peace is currently offering three camp coordinator positions for short-term volunteer projects in the UK coming up this spring and early summer. This is a great way to get involved in international voluntary work and meet people from all over the world without even leaving the country. That can make it cheaper for you (in fact, all travel costs are paid by VAP) and require less of a time commitment – but still means you can take part in meaningful voluntary work in an exciting international environment.

You’ll get to participate in all the activities that the camp involves, including the work and the social side – meanwhile, you’ll also be the team’s central point of contact, contribute as much as possible to making sure the group is getting on okay, and take a leading role in any decisions. It’s a workcamp adventure without the participation fee, and at the end you are sure to have gained new skills and can always use the experience for bonus points on your CV and for those tricky “responsibility” and “problem-solving” questions in job interviews! Read on to find out which projects we are now recruiting for:

The first is at the Quadrangle Trust in Shoreham, Kent from 29 April to 8 May. Housed in a farm built in 1870, The Quadrangle Trust is a non-profit enterprise that runs art, wellbeing, ecology and sustainability education programmes and workshops. The VAP workcamp will bring 7 international volunteers to work on clearing a small area of woodland to create an extra space for camping and to protect the trees. As well as this task, there will be a programme including documentary films and discussions, swimming in the river, Scottish dancing, and a one-day visit to London.

Next up is the Green Earth Awakening festival camp, which will be held from 14 to 29 May. This Buddhist festival for up to 2,000 people is focused on environmental and sustainability issues, while the camp itself also includes setting up the festival and disassembling when it’s over. There will be plenty of organised activities here too, including green crafts, yoga, dance and discussion on social change. The VAP team will consist of 12 international volunteers.

A further upcoming project is at “Taraloka” Buddhist women retreat in Shropshire from 19 June to 3 July. This is an all-women retreat and the workcamp will involve learning about Buddhism and meditation as well as taking part in daily life and maintenance at the retreat centre. The international volunteer team will be made up of 12 participants from all over the world. Not to be missed!

To find out more or to sign up for experiencing international workcamp volunteering in the UK as a camp coordinator for VAP, please contact Nuno at action[at]vap.org.uk!

posted on: 12 February 2015

UK projects – ideas welcome!

VAP is always on the lookout for new ideas to expand our programme of workcamps in the UK. This is your chance to shape the work that VAP does – and all you need is to give us your ideas!

If you are a UK-based VAP member who has participated in a project abroad or are applying to do so in the future, the chances are that you are also interested in projects on similar themes in the UK as well. So here is our question for you – do you know of any organisations in the UK that would benefit from the support of a group of international volunteers for a week or more? It might be an organisation you are already involved with yourself, or one that you have simply heard about and think might fit the bill. The only important thing at this stage is the idea! We’ll then get in touch with the organisation you suggest and see if we can develop a project there.

For inspiration, you can have a look at the organisations we organised workcamps with this year, such as the environmental conservation foundation London Wildlife Trust: http://www.wildlondon.org.uk/volunteer and the Othona peace and sustainability community: http://www.othona-bradwell.org.uk/Home. Or you could refresh your memory of VAP’s mission statement to see which issues we focus on: http://www.vap.org.uk/about-vap/. From supporting refugees to environmental work and projects with disabled people – we just want to make the world a better place!

Let us know your ideas on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Volunteer-Action-for-Peace/193838147321030?fref=ts. This is an exciting and easy way to get involved in where VAP concentrates its work and resources and could really help important UK charities and other organisations – don’t miss this opportunity!

posted on: 21 October 2014

VAP in Seoul with CCIVS

Volunteer Action for Peace is currently represented at the 33rd General Assembly and General Conference of CCIVS, the Coordination Committee for International Voluntary Service, which is taking place in South Korea. Paul Winter, our former chairman and current member of VAP’s International Working Group is our man in Seoul!

posted on: 16 October 2014

A move in the right direction

At September’s executive committee meeting, an important decision about VAP’s volunteer exchanges was made: we will no longer be treating “standard” volunteer programmes (in Europe, North America and other so-called “developed” areas) differently from what we used to call “North-South” programmes (in “developing” countries). All projects will now be presented in the same category.

This is a significant step for a whole host of reasons. For one thing, it addresses a long-standing inaccuracy in terminology that can simply cause confusion – it clearly isn’t even the case that all developed countries are in the “North” while all developing countries, still recovering from centuries of colonisation and exploitation, are in the “South”. But more importantly, the change shows that we at VAP want to move away from the idea that our projects should be divided in such a binary way between “poor” and “rich” locations at all. Of course, we are well aware that it is a fact that the situation in terms of poverty, health, education and oppression is better in some parts of the world than others. However, the committee’s discussion on this topic concluded that, as there is progress to be made all over the planet, it is better to consider these issues as being on an equal footing, rather than to perpetuate the assumption that the “North” and “South” are fundamentally different.

The other exciting effect of this decision is that volunteers placed on all projects will now be able to take part in the training that VAP offers. This opportunity was initially only available to North-South volunteers and those placed on longer-term projects. Extending training to all volunteers is another demonstration of the fact that it is just as important to prepare for a volunteer project in Iceland or Spain as it is to prepare for one in Kenya or Peru.

So there you have it: VAP has made a crucial, progressive change in its attitude towards categorising its global volunteer work. Let us know what you think about this decision on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Volunteer-Action-for-Peace/193838147321030?fref=ts

In any case, this certainly shows that committee meetings don’t have to just be about boring facts and figures!

posted on: 9 October 2014

The social side of VAP

This year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) was a great success – it combined an official update on what VAP has been up to in the last year, and was also a fun social occasion for volunteers, committee members and staff to get together and share experiences and ideas. And there’s more to come because we are about to increase our social events programme for members!

One part of the AGM that was particularly popular this year was the screening of part of a film by Chloe Ruthven, along with a chance to discuss its themes with the director herself. The film, “The Do-Gooders”, is a documentary that questions the role of aid workers and volunteers in Palestine, and as a result it provided food for an interesting debate on precisely the kind of international development work that VAP is involved in. We found that this was an exciting way to keep things varied at the AGM – along with presentations on past projects abroad and an overview of how the year has been for VAP in terms of international volunteering, UK workcamps, finances and plans for the future.

It was also a super opportunity to meet up with other volunteers and hear about each other’s experiences, and it made us realise that this is a side of VAP that we want to expand further. The thing about VAP is that it can often work out that you are placed on a project abroad, have a great time, come home and then don’t get to speak to any other members about your experiences and get new ideas from theirs. This event showed how much fun and how useful it can be to get together and report back in an informal, social setting – we had returning volunteers from places as varied as Palestine, Sweden, and Italy this time.

So if you missed out this time, do not despair! We will be holding two more social events in the near future, timed to coincide with our committee meetings just in case you decided you want to get involved in those as well. Save the dates now: Friday 23 January 2015 and Friday 8 May 2015. The events will be held in the cool new setting of The Gallery in central London (http://alanbaxter.co.uk/about/gallery-events.php) – everyone who came this year agreed it was a very impressive venue! Again, we will have a film or presentation for discussion, followed by informal chat and whatever else people want to do!

See you there : )

posted on: 6 October 2014