Email: svn.crump@btinternet.com
Phone: 01905 796313

When SVN began in 1996, it was a small network of volunteers seeking to respond to requests for educational help from across the globe. Organisation and finance were simple and little administration was needed.

As SVN has grown, both in terms of the number of registered volunteers, and the scale of its activities, the need for transparent financial practice and effective leadership and administration has grown. Over the years the number of volunteers involved in the leadership has increased. John Hallett, Founder Director, was joined by Ruth Brooksbank, as co-Director, early in the history of SVN. By the beginning of 2004, the Leadership Team consisted of three Directors (unsalaried) and a co-opted volunteer and support administrator.

The day-to-day responsibility for running SVN passed to John Crump after the 1st of September 2004, whilst the other members of the Leadership Team continue to take specific responsibility for aspects of the organisation. Margaret Barber and Tracy Hale continue their valued contributions. In March 2006, Ruth Brooksbank retired from SVN leadership, and Isabel Wodrow joined the Leadership Team with particular responsibility for developing our work in the area of Special Needs. John Hallett continues as a Director. In November 2006 Dian Hunt and Chris Stickland joined the Leadership Team.

John Crump's address is:

Nyangombe
9 Brecon Close
Droitwich Spa
WR9 0BB.
Email svn.crump@btinternet.com

For further information contact John Crump at svn.crump@btinternet.com .

WHY NOT GO!
Volunteering for overseas work

It is clear from discussions with volunteers that there is often a sense of inadequacy that holds them back from responding to the opportunities that we present. In almost all cases this is unfounded. Work in the developing world tends to be with very basic, pioneering enterprises in education and, usually, we are the only source of help. We have enjoyed far more initial training, more in-service training, more contact with colleagues in other schools, more published material on teaching, than the teachers there have. From our privileged position we have so much to share, so much that could help and encourage the teachers in the developing world.

The work is free from red-tape and government initiatives and targets and calls us to go back to the basics of the teaching and learning process, something we have acquired understanding of over so many years.

When we go we find we have treasure chest full of ideas and well tried approaches: the problem is often to discern which to bring out that is truly appropriate to the situations and needs of the teachers we are working with. We will be forced to improvise and be creative where there are few resources, we will need to adapt well tried approaches for situations so very different from ours. But this is a delightful challenge. One thing we can be sure of is that, together, we can make a difference and we can find joy and satisfaction in it. The climate may be more demanding, but the day has periods of rest. The environment may be very different but there is a joy in new experiences and the cheerful friendliness of the teachers and children is contagious.

There is a further satisfaction – we are meeting a need and responding to pleas for help. If we do not go, then, in all probability, they will not get help from anywhere else. Two volunteers went to Zambia and helped get a new school for deaf children off the ground. It is still working and is called ‘Southern Hope School’ for that is what it had done, brought new hope for the deaf children whose needs had been generally overlooked. It is a fairly basic education, but a whole world better than nothing.

The need is there, the opportunities where we can help are before you. Please consider just two or three weeks on a project, travelling and working with an SVN team, seeing a new part of God’s amazing world, and making a difference to the life chances of children in need.

John Hallett
April 2005

The Activities of Volunteers in 2007

The principal activities of the volunteers continue to be the use of their experience and skill in education, in consultancy, training and writing materials for education. The year was a period of further healthy growth and activity. As SVN is more of a re-active agency, responding to requests, the pace of work in any period will always be unpredictable. However, with SVN and some of its overseas partners introducing the strategy of annual or bi-annually to some projects planned over a period of years, the pattern of work could become more regular.

This year saw SVN engaging with 10 overseas projects out of 15 requested.

• 10 projects- in 11 locations -in 9 different countries;
• 19 different volunteers- of whom 1 did 3 projects;
• 3 volunteers worked on their first SVN project.

Within the UK, volunteers continued to work for North Star UK, and an appeal from them for volunteers to help support A level students in Amano school (Zambia) was met with three volunteers coming forward to become 'etutors'.

Outside the UK, three volunteers went to India, at different times through the year, to join the Destiny Education team in Mumbai which is engaged in a very heavy schedule of in-service training amongst teachers in poorer schools. SVN tries to find volunteers to visit at peak workload times. One of the volunteers travelled to an outpost of this work in Raxaul on the Nepalese border. Two meetings, both in the UK, with Destiny staff, clarified the situation there and the way development of Destiny was leading and strengthened the partnership.

• SVN's Founding Director travelled to Maharashtra to help and support the Principal designate of the planned 'Graham Staines College'' with planning and preparation. The College will train teachers to work amongst the 'dalits'. This follows a visit in March by two other volunteers who researched and reported on the way that college should be established.
• SVN's SEN team held a day conference in Sheffield to raise awareness of what SVN was trying to do around the world. The SENCO went to Senegal to help at two schools with ex-patriate children.
• One volunteer went to Kampala (Uganda) to advise the governing body and staff on how to move forward and open the secondary phase of work.
• A lady volunteer went to Thailand, in 2007, where she worked with missionary children, who do Home Schooling, brought together for a creative arts week. This project has been served annually by SVN in collaboration with the missionary agency- OMF. A husband and wife also travelled and helped in February 2008 as there will be no similar week in October 08. These three volunteers are new to SVN.
• One volunteer, and his wife, travelled to Rumbek in southern Sudan to work at a teacher training college there in collaboration with ACROSS, a charity based in Kenya but working there.
• Milestone College, in Bangladesh received further help this year with the volunteer running a short TEFL course. They have placed a request, with SVN, for a volunteer for 6 months to develop this work, with all expenses being paid.
• One of the main developments has been the progress made on the partnership project working with ACSOL in Liberia. Following research carried out by the Founding Director of SVN during his visit to Liberia in April 2007 a partnership development plan was drawn up. The first visit was postponed until March 2008,

Of the 5 project requests we were not able to respond to, 2 were postponed, 2 were cancelled for differing reasons and contact was lost with one.

In the first three months of 2008 the first team of four volunteers went to Liberia in March, to work in schools, as ACSOL was not able to set up the planned residential courses with the first cohort of teachers. For this project and other expensive ones, every attempt to try to raise money to help volunteers with costs has failed. A funding bid put into DfID was unsuccessful. A request for advice on setting up IGCSE courses in a new college in Malawi was responded to by two volunteers who spent 10 days with the staff.

SVN GIGG

Many retired teachers join SVN and want to make a difference but have doubts about their ability to contribute to in-service teacher training overseas.

GIGG, (Get Involved , Get Going), is just for you.

We will address this feeling of inadequacy, informing you of completed projects and offering shared experience with those who have done this work.

Take this opportunity to hear of future opportunities and meet other retired Christian teachers.

So, take this opportunity to be inspired and equipped to extend Gods Kingdom through worship Bible study and prayer, led by bob Hunt, former vice-principal of All Nations College. We want to increase the potential of SVN by coming together with God and each other.

This opportunity takes place at Northampton, this autumn, at the attractive Kings Park Conference Centre.

• The dates 11th to 13th November
• Cost £125, no single supplement, all rooms en-suite.
• Non-returnable deposit £25 Places are available
  
  Enquiries to SVN GIGG on 01604 770308 or by email at j_lorna@hotmail.com

Together we can make a difference!

Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)