Five things I learnt from being the London Chair for SVN

With my last meeting as the London Chair for the Student Volunteering Network coming up it seems like a good time to reflect on how I’ve found the role and, hopefully, share some insight with new chairs or potential ones. Here are my top five learnings from just over two years in the role. 1. […]

Guest post: How travelling helped me reflect on my career and decide what to do next

Rosie Coleman explains why she took time off to travel and how it helped her career. Make sure you check out the video about her first three weeks in southern Africa too. I’d never taken a gap year. My travels had been holidays rather than extended periods spent overseas. After graduating from LSE in 2013, […]

How to volunteer sensitively and be aware of power dynamics

Last week I spoke at the excellent ‘A refugee like me‘ conference run by the Wonder Foundation at The Baytree Centre. The two day conference, attended by young people from many countries including the UK, Sweden and Slovenia, was all about opening up discussions about refugees in the UK and practical advice about how to volunteer for […]

How to get in to the charity sector

I was recently asked to make a small contribution to Child.org‘s excellent Charity Apprentice programme by writing an article about how to get in to the charity sector. This course teaches young people both how charities work and how to do effective charity work. Applications for the January 2017 intake are now open so if you’re interested […]

Walk the Walk 2016 with The Tootsie Rollers

On Saturday I was invited back to Walk the Walk to capture The Tootsie Rollers performing their charity single and then starting the half marathon through the night all to raise funds to end breast cancer. As when I attended in 2014 the atmosphere was incredible with 15,000 people in the tent being treated to […]

An interview with Ashish Thakkar

When invited to review Ashish Thakkar’s book, The Lion Awakes, I was also asked to do a Q&A with him about some of the topics that he explores in the book. Thank you to Ashish for taking the time to answer my questions so fully! How do you view the importance of aid versus trade (or […]

5 steps to get the most out of international development volunteering

Getting experience in a particular field through volunteering can really make your CV and application stand out when applying for roles, and this is especially true in the international development sector. But how can you make sure that you pick the right opportunity for you and then make the most of it when you’ve started […]

Protesting with Amnesty UK for Albert Woodfox

Amnesty UK commissioned me to take photos at their latest march, protesting for Albert Woodfox, as part of their annual student conference. “Albert has spent the last 43 years in solitary confinement. Despite having his conviction overturned three times and an appeals court ruling his immediate and unconditional release, Albert remains in his 6×4 foot […]

Shine Night Walk 2015

I was invited back to volunteer as a photographer at Shine Night Walk 2015 and I was really happy to help with such a good cause. The atmosphere was incredible once again with thousands of walkers, all in good spirit, loads of volunteers on the route and London lit up in Cancer Research colours. I also got […]

Documentary: The Voluntourist

“In a globalised world where information is so easily accessible young people are becoming more and more aware of the disparities that exist in the world and “voluntourism” is seen as a good way for them to help those who are less fortunate. But without any skills and over shorts period of time how much do you […]

A Ghanaian Summer – 2015

Despite it being almost two years it barely felt like I’d been away when I went through customs at Kotoka Airport in Accra. The same humidity, big queues for immigration and Dan being late to meet me. As always though my experiences in Ghana were huge fun and a lot of work was completed. I’ve […]

Volunteerism in Ghana: Alive and well

Volunteering in Ghana has been a big industry for a long time now. But when people think of volunteers in Ghana they often think of people flying from all over the world to work on a number of projects (some good and some not so good). However, over the last couple of years we’ve seen […]