Volunteer Experiences
"Volunteering with the Youth Self empowerment programme in 2005 was a wonderful experience. YSEP began with a local volunteeer's attempt to rescue a struggling project working to empower a small group of marginalised youth from the very poorest backgrounds. The young people had not had the benefit of an education and so had no prospects of finding work. Some had no families and those that did found that as they reached their late teens their family could no longer afford to support them. Their futures were bleak.
My role was to bring some business experience and to help develop ideas for accessing funds and establishing new projects. I must admit, however, that I learned far more than I was able to teach!
The experience taught me the importance of getting one customer when that is the difference between eating or not eating that day. I also learned that the people who have nothing are often the happiest and most generous you will ever meet. To watch an uneducated teenage girl go in six months from having no skills, or prospects, to tailoring a dress from scratch and selling it for enough profit to feed her family for a few weeks is probably as rewarding an experience as you can get.
The youth often get overlooked by NGO work who focus on children, the sick or the elderly but if the youth are left to suffer in poverty then the next generation of children will also be born into poverty and the downward spiral will continue. If, however, with the support of organisations like YSEP the youth can be taught useful marketable skills they have the prospect of dragging their whole families and communities out of poverty. This is why the work of YSEP is so important."
Kevin Bull, founding volunteer, UK
"Walk inside the Arusha Remand Home and the teenagers there come to greet visitors with a big smile. They want to learn English, take part in the activities volunteers organise and always thank visitors for coming. Without exception they are a joy.
These children have not made bad decisions - they had no decision to make in the first place.
At just 14-years-old many have resigned themselves to a life of struggle and poverty, and it is devastating to hear.
That is why YSEP is such a fantastic organisation; it opens doors that until now have remained firmly shut in these children’s faces."
Sarah Goldthorpe, journalist, UK volunteer
"During my time in Tanzania I taught English at a variety of places but none gave me more pleasure, or was more worthwhile, the Arusha Remand Home.
It was definitely rewarding for me, but also I think for them.
We were told that many of the kids were there for less-than-convincing reasons and on little proof. All I know for sure was that not only were they amazingly well behaved, but they - almost miracously for kids in the nine to 16-year-old bracket - were enthusiastic to learn.
Just as impressively was the sense of community in the institution, whereby older kids looked after the younger ones, offered role models, and did not discourage them from learning.
The existing helpers seemed to do a fantastic job, but were confronted with a huge amount of work and shortage of materials like books and pens.
Any help they can be given was more than reciprocated by their efforts, and it is a project crying out for more resources both materials and teachers - particularly as this might be the last chance to influence these children before they get written-off as young criminals."
Ben Wensley, Bank of England worker, UK volunteer