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 […]

Research insights in to overseas volunteering

A new 3-minute video from globalsl.org summarising research insights on good and bad community impacts of international volunteering has been released. I’ts good to see a body of research is being developed to help inform people how to volunteer ethically and assist the people they want to help. International Volunteering from Kindea Labs on Vimeo.

African people don’t want your stinky T-shirts

African people don’t want your stinky T-shirts and other mythbusters by Eliza Anyangwe.

Want to help the children of Nepal? Don’t fuel the orphanage industry

We’ve all seen the terrible images and stories coming out of Nepal over the past two weeks. You would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved and want to offer your help in any possible way. The British public has already donated millions of pounds and I’m sure this total will continue 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 […]

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 […]