Volunteer East is an non-governmental not-for-profit organization based in London, Uk (registered Company Limited by Guarantee in the UK, number 07227341) that recruits volunteers and gathers goods and funds for local NGOs in Nepal, India and Uganda.
Philosophy behind the NGO
The philosophy behind the NGO is that everyone who is willing to volunteers should
have the chance to do so, irrespective of their financial status. This is why Volunteer East
does not charge any programme fees; the only obligation of the volunteers is to provide a small donation to their placements and host families to
cover their living costs and to pay for the own flights to get to their placement.
Director and local partners
Tiija Rinta, the founder of Volunteer East, has herself volunteered
at the advertised placement sites. During her placements, she became increasingly
aware of the need and poverty that people live in in Nepal, India and Uganda. As a volunteer,
she contributed to the development of the placement projects and built strong bonds
with local partners. As a result of these trips, she started up Volunteer East
in order to recruit and send people over to areas where their skills, knowledge
and expertise are needed.
Volunteer East collaborates with local partners in Nepal, India and Uganda.
The belief is that local development can most effectively take place via close
collaboration with locals. This is why Volunteer East works with
local partnership organizations based on the belief that locals can determine their own
needs and the resources for catering for such needs are provided by Volunteer East
Examples of the work that Volunteer East
conducts are: refurbishing an orphanage in the Kathmandu Valley; training teachers in
school located in the slums in Uganda; and organising education and re-creational
activities for children living in an orphanage in villages in souther India.
The Aims of Volunteer East are:
- To cater for poor and orphaned children in terms of their physical and emotional needs.
- To deliver, improve and promote educational programs for children living in poverty
and for teachers based in local schools in deprived areas.
- To educate parents and locals on the importance of education and on health-related
issues.
- To improve the standard of living of local people, through raised awareness of well-
being and through improving their physical living conditions.
- To raise awareness of children’s needs in their local context and to encourage local
adults to cater for children’s needs.
- To make a lasting impact on local contexts by educating locals on how to keep the on-
going projects running.
- To enable volunteers to have a unique opportunity to carry out good work in a
developing country, to develop themselves and to experience a new culture.
Placements: Currently, volunteers can participate in education, health and construction
projects. Depending on their placement site, volunteers live either with a host family, in
an orphanage or in a monastery. All hosting sites have proper bathroom facilities and
rooms for volunteers.
Logistics of placements
The Length of the project is up to the volunteer to decide. Placements can take for as
many weeks as the volunteer wishes to stay in the location, but there is a minimum
commitment of 2 weeks for each project.
The cost of the project depends on the volunteer’s length of stay, with the minimum
donation per week being £10. This money is given directly to the hosts, with a fraction
being retained for organisational issues, such as the taxi ride from the airport to the
volunteer's placement.
Volunteers are in charge of booking and paying for their own flights.
Volunteers will be picked up from the airport by a local partner and taken to their
placement where induction will be delivered by the staff working in the placement.
Arrangements as to how many hours per day the volunteer is willing to work etc. are
made upon arrival with the help of the local co-ordinator. Volunteers have two days a
week off for themselves should they wish to explore the country and culture as a tourist.
Current placements:
- Resources Centres in Kathmandu Valley and on the Himalayas in Nepal as an English
teacher, teacher training, activity organisor or health educator
- Orphanages in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal as an activity organisar, teacher, health
educator or construtor
-Monastery in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal as an English teacher, constructor or health
educator
- Slum schools in Uganda
-Teaching homeless children in Uganda
-Teaching and organizing activities in a school for special needs children in southern India
Volunteer East n also offers other placements that are not listed
here. Please contact us and we will be happy to advice you.
We have several reliable contacts in the partnership countries - we
can place volunteers in different sites without you having to break your bank.
Are you interested in volunteering with us and would like to know more? Email:
tiija@volunteereast.org.uk
