Interested in volunteering abroad?

 Interested in volunteering overseas?…then come and “Meet VSO”

Local teacher Sue Ryding will be among those sharing their experiences of volunteering with Voluntary Service Overseas at a Carlisle event organised by international development charity VSO on Saturday 20th October.  Sue volunteered in Namibia and is now back teaching in Cumbria.  She will be joined by other local returned volunteers Hilary Pickup and John Dawson. They will be sharing their experiences of working in the world’s poorest countries and providing an insight into what it's really like to volunteer.

 The  “Meet VSO” event, will be held from 1030 to 1200 on Saturday 20 October at the Old Town Hall , upstairs Assembly Room, Carlisle, CA3 8JH. Also present will be members of the local VSO Cumbria Supporter Group  (www.vso.org.uk/act/supporter-groups/cumbria.asp).

VSO is now recruiting young people from 18-25 years old to take part in the International Citizenship Programme.

VSO also needs experienced, older, skilled professionals with agriculture, healthcare, education, and business backgrounds and is currently recruiting  doctors, midwives, teachers, business advisors, managers, fundraisers, and many more. The organisation works in 34 developing countries and delivered half a million hours of volunteer work to help fight poverty last year. It focuses on health, education, HIV/AIDS, increasing political participation and helping people in poor and marginalised communities to secure a decent livelihood to work their way out of poverty.

The Meet VSO event aims to bring volunteering with VSO to life, and will cover the role of a volunteer, what volunteers can do, and how to get involved.

Anyone interested in volunteering, or finding out more about VSO, will be very welcome at the Meet VSO event in Carlisle on Saturday 20 October.

The event is free. Book your place at www.vso.org./events or just turn up on the day.

Back To Nature

Col's Blog is again undergoing a short period of inactivity as I have been away birdwatching in East Anglia. Key targets were some of the exotics that are extremely or somewhat unlikely to appear up here on the Solway coast e.g. bearded tit, reed warbler, bittern, spoonbill, marsh harrier, hobby, avocet, spotted redshank.

However, to put a bit of a careers gloss on this, my successes have been partly down to advice I received from RSPB volunteers and an Education Officer (or I assume that's what she was) with Natural England.

I didn't need use my binoculars to observe that both these agencies are actively looking for volunteers in various capacities, so for those who may be interested, here are the appropriate web references:

www.rspb.org.uk/volunteering

www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/enjoying/gettinginvolved/volunteering/default.aspx

National Citizen service - Hot from the Press

We have just heard that Connexions Cumbria have won a contract to deliver the new National Citizen Service, which is part of the Coalition Government's Big Society initiative.

They will be looking for 40 volunteers to work with Year 11 leavers throughout Cumbria next summer. The volunteers will work 3 weeks full time and 2 weeks part time and will receive accredited training/expenses.

Watch this space for more details.