Bringing the global village closer

The volunteers, aged between 18 and 25, taking part in the Global Xchange project have been shining examples of active citizens, who are immersing themselves in all aspects of life both here and in a developing country.

Exchanges have recently taken place between Crawley and India, Birmingham and Indonesia, Edinburgh and Nigeria, Selby and South Africa and Hounslow and Kazakhstan.

A team of 18, nine from the UK and nine from Kazakhstan, touched down on English soil at the beginning of December from three months in Kazakhstan to start their work placements in organisations across Hounslow.

This follows on from the success of two previous Global Xchange programmes in Hounslow, which saw young people from Nigeria and Sri Lanka live and work in the borough.

The theme for this year's exchange was disability and participation and in both countries volunteers have been involved in projects to increase awareness of this issue and help disabled people integrate with society.

As well as young people being globally-minded, the idea is to promote cross-cultural understanding among the volunteers and anyone who comes into contact with the programme.

Teams are created to be as diverse as possible in terms of age and background and volunteers are paired to live and work with someone from the other country.

They all lived with host families during their stay in Kazakhstan and Hounslow, which ensured the volunteers were fully submerged in the culture and experienced life as a native.

Host homes had no relation to volunteers from that country, meaning that they also experienced a new perspective on their own culture.

Sarah Greaves, Global Xchange project supervisor, described the "amazing time" hosts had too with volunteers becoming part of their families and people wanting to stay in touch and visit in the future.

Carys Morgan, 22, one of the UK volunteers, said: "I didn't know anything about Kazakhstan before I went there but I really, really liked it.

"I surprised myself because I was quite apprehensive but was surprised how similar people are, even across the other side of the world.

"Everyone's got the same fears and problems and I found my host family and the people I met and other volunteers so hospitable and friendly.

"Some of my closest friends are from Kazakh side of volunteers, which really surprised me. I know it shouldn't have done but I just assumed the British would get on better but actually I formed genuinely close friends."

Volunteers have also been able to learn from the experience of being a part of two communities that are so different.

In Kazakhstan there is a lot of social exclusion of people with disabilities and the young people worked to challenge the idea that disabled children cannot contribute to or be involved in society.

The placements were very hands-on and focussed on creating opportunities for social interaction and bringing children from different backgrounds together.

A touching example involves children from an orphanage called Ainlain, who attended a nearby school but were considered to be outsiders and excluded by the other schoolchildren. The two volunteers who worked there threw a party for all the children.

Sarah said: "After that some of the children said they were wrong and that the orphanage children are nice and fun.

"There was fear based on ignorance of each other as they had never interacted before.

"A lot of project work was really successful in helping to break down these barriers and just to realise that they are average, normal children who enjoy the same things and play the same games."

In one secondary school volunteers helped to bring back students, said to be under the "bad influence of the street" in terms of drugs and truancy, by setting up activities from English classes and a school newspaper to sports and picnics.

Gulmira Rymbaeva, project supervisor from Kazakhstan, said that in Kazakhstan most disabled children just sit at home without the opportunity to meet other children.

Volunteers helped children with severe cerebral palsy, who could not attend school regularly, by going on much-needed home visits and organising a sports event for them to enjoy.

At Harut, a youth centre where Carys worked, they also visited children and young people with disabilities in their homes and ran clubs and one-off events.

Carys said: "The staff suggested a Halloween party for disabled children and one for non-disabled children but that defeats the whole point so even the fact that we got them all together in the same room was quite a big deal.

"Some of the same children came to the different events and we saw a slow movement from very separate to actually treating each other the same.

"It was gradual over the three months but there was a noticeable shift from the first event to the last event."

The team also organised community activity days, one-off events which brought all the volunteers together to make a positive impact in the town.

One day the volunteers collected all the broken glass off of the playing field at the orphanage and used it to make a mosaic of an underwater scene on the wall of one of the buildings that was run-down.

Back in Hounslow the volunteers were faced with a dramatic shift in food, resources, social life, work and weather.

Perhaps the biggest change was in the placements the young people found themselves doing, Volunteers provided classroom support for students at Oaklands School, Isleworth and Marjory Kinnon School, Bedfont, which both look after children with learning difficulties.

At the Awaaz project, for youngsters of South Asian heritage, volunteers helped groups create pieces of art evoking their ideas and beliefs about lifestyle for an exhibition to be shown at the National Portrait Gallery.

Other projects included promoting and engaging young people in the borough in the youth council and UK parliament elections and working with the youth service diversity officer towards the European Week of Anti-Racism.

At the other end of the spectrum there were placements at Age Concern Hounslow, working with older people on a reminiscence project, and Hounslow Community Transport, where volunteers helped with research to ensure people know about and can access services including the shop mobility scheme.

All of these projects show that the 18 "Global Xchangers" slotted into the existing framework of programmes already set up to help vulnerable people or minority groups in the borough.

Carys, who worked at Hounslow Community Transport and youth club PHAB (Physical Disability Able Bodied), said: "In Kazakhstan we were always in charge or organising events because there wasn't much infrastructure whereas in England there's not that freedom. We go and facilitate and help and get involved but it's not our own project so much.

"I'm working harder in England in the sense that it feels more like what I associate with work than picking up glass and making a mosaic.

"I like the programme because you do get to see both people in both countries whereas a lot of things it's just British people going out to, say, Africa.

"This has got people from those countries coming back to the UK and helping here, which is equally valued. Hounslow has just as many, different needs."

Madi Kamashbayev, one of the Kazakh volunteers, echoed this view by talking about the needs of some of the children at PHAB.

He said: "I want to try to help everybody here in youth club.

"There are some people who just sit alone in the corner and we just need to find who needs help here and then try to make conversation and get them involved.

"I think for them it's very difficult because (they are) not small children but 12 or 13 and can't change.

"I think the youth group work is good because they have fun and then some of them need real help from outside."

In Kazakhstan and Hounslow there have also been activity days specifically run for and by the volunteers to look at local and global issues and help the young people devise and deliver a training session.

The team have covered an extensive range of topics from climate change and Non-Government Organisations in Kazakhstan to domestic violence and refugees in Hounslow.

Despite the fact that the volunteers have been on the go 24-7, they have managed to squeeze in some time to socialise and see the sights of London.

Carys said showing the Kazakh volunteers around has been one of the most exciting bits of the UK phase, especially taking them to experience a taste of Russia London-style at Trafalgar Square's Russian Old New Year in January.

Both Carys and Madi speak enthusiastically about their Global Xchange journey with Madi saying that everything in Britain is "very amazing".

Carys said: "It's be good if everyone could experience a different culture in such a way because it has changed how I think about a lot of things.

"And it's fun. I've got some really good friends out of it who I do not want to fly back from Kazakhstan because I'll miss them."

For information visit globalxchange.org.uk.