Blog

Our blogs are written by our volunteers in each country to give you a flavour of what life is like on our programmes. Filter by Country, Programme and Subject/Theme to find out more.

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“My community and I are so happy that Raleigh are building hand-washing stations. It will make my life easier”

Mojkumari Joshi lives in Sanobadhera, a small village in the Gorkha area, where she has lived all of her life. The availability of water in this region is scarce, especially during the dry season where many water sources dry up. Each community in Gorkha owns its own water source, so when one does not produce enough water, the village are forced to look elsewhere, sometimes having to heavily ration their own supplies or even pay for water.

Raleigh have been working on a WASH (water and sanitation hygiene) project in this community for two months, building a storage tank to act as a backup supply of water, as well as a central handwashing station to reduce the distance community members need to walk to access water.

December 3, 2018
Volunteers head out for their final phase. Enviando los grupos para su fase final.

Raleigh volunteers in Costa Rica are heading out to start work on their final projects. The groups will be taking on the youth leadership element of their Expedition, supporting park rangers to maintain one of Costa Rica's national parks, and helping an indigenous community to construct a kindergarten to provide care and education for young children.

December 2, 2018
Awareness raising and training with community members in Dadagaon

After working continuously in community for four weeks, ICS volunteer teams were excited to review their progress and hear from other groups. At the ICS mid-phase review, volunteers get opportunity to meet the other working teams; reflect on our experience so far; learn about their challenges and share ideas to implement on return to our community projects.

Blog by ICS volunteers, Ritik and Supriya (Team Dadagaon).

November 27, 2018
Costa Rican and Nicaraguan youth discuss campaigns with British Ambassador

Recently Raleigh had the privilege of hosting a visit from the British Ambassador to Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Ross Denny. The ambassador visited a group of Raleigh volunteers in La Marta National Park where they are running a community action day on the environment with the local community. He then headed back to Turrialba to view the progress of an innovative campaigns and awareness raising project with McCann WorldGroup UK and Raleigh’s Costa Rican and Nicaraguan national society members.

November 27, 2018
An interview with Jash: Head of Mathilo Raniswara’s Women’s Committee

Mathilo Raniswara, one of the villages that current Expedition volunteers have been working in, began a women’s committee in 1995 in a bid to help their community. The current head of the committee, Jash Maya Rai Ale, spoke to us about the issues she has been tackling in her ward.

November 23, 2018
‘It got us highly motivated and we could see the immediate benefits’: ICS livelihoods community revisited

Panchu Thing is a 43 year old female farmer from Ickchung, a rural community in the Makwanpur district of Nepal, and a former participant in Raleigh Nepal's ICS livelihoods programme. She lives with her three sons and her husband Fatte Bahadur Thing, who is one of the leading farmers from Ickchung. We revisited her farm to discuss how taking part in the programme had helped her family's business.

November 22, 2018
When Nature Calls: Raleigh and World Toilet Day

It happens to us all everyday, but where would you wee or poo if you didn’t have access to a loo?
(Photo: Sylvie Myers, a Raleigh Volunteer Manager, digs out a toilet pit)

November 19, 2018
“World Toilet Day is about more than just a toilet, it is about allowing people to access their basic human rights.”

It may seem obvious that we all need a toilet, but billions of people around the world still live without adequate toilet facilities. According to the UN, 4.5 billion people worldwide live without a safe toilet, and 892 million people still defecate in the open. In developing countries, more work needs to be done to improve sanitation facilities, so when ICS volunteer Amber arrived in the community of Msunjilile in Tanzania, she and her team got to work.

November 19, 2018