Hartlepool College of Further Education, A Level Students Hannah Carr (18) and Kayleigh Brown (20), had the experience of a lifetime spending 10 weeks in a nature reserve in South Africa, aided by Platform 2, a voluntary organisation.

Platform 2 is a global volunteering experience for 18-25 year olds in the UK who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford to volunteer in a developing country. This Project is funded by the Department for International Development and run by Christian Aid, Islamic Relief and BUNAC.

Kayleigh and Hannah spent 10 weeks at the False Bay Ecology Park, South Africa, 40km from Cape Town. They stayed with a group of 11 volunteers from all different parts of the UK. The activities included building bush camps for school children, social interaction with the local communities and visiting an orphanage. The group were such great workers, that they completed their programme in 4 weeks, this enabled Hannah and Kayleigh to do some teaching in a secondary school in the neighbourhood teaching 13-14yr olds, lessons in story telling, poetry and English language.

Hannah and Kayleigh also had to get used to the local cuisine, which included Ostrich Meat, similar to scotch egg meat, according to them both, and the South African national dish of mince and eggs.

Kayleigh says of her experience. ‘being from a small town like Hartlepool, living in a vast place with completely different culture, certainly opens your eyes, and makes you more accepting of the things you have here” Hannah says “I had quite a few pre-conceptions of Africa, and it is not somewhere I would have chosen the go on holiday, but since my 10 weeks volunteering there and seeing it for real, I have a completely different outlook now”.

Kayleigh says that ‘for the first time I was going to another country not as a tourist, which was a really different experience’

Both Kayleigh and Hannah would like to thank Hartlepool College of Further Education for their support. They both received two hundred and fifty pounds funded by the College to buy essentials like Walking Boots and Clothes and the College gave them the opportunity to attend a Cultural Diversity Day where they found about the Platform2 organisation. Special thanks go to College Lecturer, Barbara Old, who supported Kayleigh and Hannah before going on the trip and post trip by helping them catchup with work they had missed.

Kayleigh and Hannah are still in touch with friends from the UK and South Africa via facebook. Both Kayleigh and Hannah have been invited back out there, and are looking for some more volunteering there in 2010.

Relevant Links:

False Bay Ecology Park (South Africa) Website

Platform2 Website

Link to Kayleigh's Personal Photo Gallery:

http://flickr.com/kb6988