Guest post – Charity PR: Stop the sensationalism!

Jen Wilkins is an LSE alumni and former LSE SU RAG president. She now works for PR agency PHA Media specialising in campaigns and causes. She’s particularly interested in mental health and women’s rights and is a member of Amnesty’s Women’s Rights Action Network connecting activists with their My Body My Rights campaign. Thank you to […]

Win a childcare experience. Really?

I received an email today. At first glance I thought it was an April Fools. Been thinking about taking part in a GVI childcare programme recently? Well, today could be your lucky day! To raise funds for the GVI Charitable Trust, we’ve partnered up with PrizeAid and StudentUniverse to provide one lucky donor with a free 2-week place […]

Guest post: Touched by the pain of the Ebola epidemic

At LSE I have the pleasure of working with people from all over the world, including the countries in West Africa affected by the Ebola epidemic. One of these people is Syerramia Willoughby. She edits the fantastic Africa at LSE blog, a constant source of reading material for me and many others. In recent weeks and months […]

Band Aid: Stop the stereotypes

I don’t need to explain why Band Aid 30 can have a detrimental affect on the wider communities of Africa, it’s been done so eloquently by Fuse ODG, Ben Keene, Cecilia Lynch on Africa is a Country and Bim Adewumni. The evidence on the damage that stereotyping and ignorance can have is also highlighted in The […]

Volunteering with children: A game of double standards?

Let me ask you. How many times have you logged onto Facebook and been greeted with a newly-updated profile picture of one of your friends, volunteer-smile intact, affectionately cuddling a small, rather grubby-looking child, from an unknown African nation? Once? Twice? Too many times to recall?

Happy – Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan

UNDP have released a fantastic video showing happy people in the Philippines dancing amongst overturned cars, wreckage and knocked down buildings. Are the people of the Philippines still suffering? Absolutely. Is it still possible to smile and have fun whilst facing problems? You decide after watching the video below.

I love Ghana because…

One of my favourite projects in the summer was, with a lot of help from Coco, meeting people and asking what is was about Ghana that they loved so much. Patriotism certainly isn’t a dirty word in Ghana and the flag can be seen proudly flying everywhere you travel with the national anthem is sung […]

What’s it like to be a woman in Ghana?

Originally posted on Steph in Ghana: Tales from a Development Volunteer:
Now, when I say ‘Ghanaian woman’, what do you think of? For the next three posts, I’d like to introduce you to some women I’ve met here. Firstly, Mirabelle: Who are you, what do you do and how do you know Stephanie? It’s 2014. I’m Mirabelle…

Responsible volunteering at the World Travel Market

On 7th November I was invited to speak at the World Travel Market on the topic of overseas volunteering and how the sector can improve in this area. My speech focused on best practice when involving young (16-24 year olds) volunteers. You can view the slides and watch a recording of all the speeches and […]

My Ghanaian summer

A few photos to show what I got up to during the summer of 2013. Best enjoyed listening to the song below:

Summer school, football coaching and a haircut

Apologies for the delay in the latest blog post, but since I last wrote seven new volunteers have arrived and five of those have left. They’ve been completing a large variety of work. Chris Minch has settled in well to the role of Assistant Volunteer Coordinator. His time has been taken up by airport pickups, […]

A busy two weeks

Two weeks already? Ghana has a fantastic way of making time go incredibly slow and fast at the same time. When you are waiting for a tro-tro (mini bus) to fill up, knocking back unwanted offers of meat on a stick, in the mid-day heat and humidity, it feels like the seconds are minutes and the minutes […]