To Namibia, Newcastle and Back: January 2012

Shaving Heads for Charity - 31/01/12

You may already be aware from previous posts that our GX team are placed over 8 different organisations in and around Newcastle - all surrounding homelessness and/or vulnerable people. One of these is Norcare where AM and Clara are working.

As with all the placements they have been encouraged to start their own projects and use their initiative. Clara, being the most competitive person in the world, naturally chose a massive challenge - fundraising an ambitious £8,000 for Norcare.

The first step towards this is a world record attempt - shaving the most heads simultaneously. I, having no style or self-respect, will be one of the people getting a trim. The image above is an artist's impression of how I'll look. Clara is currently in the process of recruiting other people stupid enough to participate and fundraise money. If you are interested contact her.

To sponsor me (and contribute to this massive challenge) click below.

Video/Team Updates - 24/01/12

You can read updates about the team on our volunteer written webpage on the Global Xchange website.

Oh and here is a video from Namibia...

Greggs - 23/01/12

In previous blogs about Namibia I talk of all the strange things I noticed such as the behaviour of taxis and the living conditions. Now in Newcastle the first thing I notice is the sheer number of Greggs outlets. It is the home of Greggs and I even had my first experience of Greggs Moment - a Greggs coffee shop!

This map shows how many there are - in the red rectangle (1x1.6 miles) is the city centre hosting 14 stores. In total there are 27 on the map. Despite the recession they have been booming - probably thanks to the fact that it is the home of fresh baking.

Now I'm certainly not complaining. I love Greggs. In fact I had a Greggs every day for two weeks after arriving here!

BBC Radio Newcastle - 20/01/12

Coco and I were interviewed along with a member of Crisis staff, June, about GX by BBC Radio Newcastle.

It is a 3 minute piece beginning at 1.21.50

Newcastle Partner - 20/01/12

Our time in Namibia has finished and we have left the Namibian summer, with heats reaching 46 degrees, to return to the British winter. It sounds pretty miserable but the heat is a little relief. You can always put more clothes on but you can't keep taking them off when working in the sun in Rundu.

Although everyone is sad to leave Rundu behind and all the people we were working with, the placements here in Newcastle, where we'll be working for the next 10 weeks, have plenty of exciting things in stall for us.

Now only 16 member on our team we are split across 8 organisations with Crisis Skylight Newcastle being the official partner. The other seven organisations are Aquila Way, Riverside Community Health Project, North of England Refugee Service, Sunderland YMCA Foyer, Scotswood Natural Community Garden, Norcare and St Vincent De Paul Society. They are all charities that do work related to homelessness and other vulnerable adults and hopefully through our GX team we will bring them closer to one another. Where I am placed is Crisis Skylight and I am working with Coco - and so I will tell you a little about Crisis as a charity.

Crisis is the national charity for single homeless people. Crisis Skylight Newcastle offers classes, support and advice to people who are homeless - it is not a shelter but a service that helps get people back into society and gives them skills to take control of their lives.

Writing skills, job clubs, mental health forums, photography and art classes are among the many open door sessions they offer. There is also a Skylight Cafe where some of the members (people who use the service) can work and gain qualifications and work experience.

Coco and I have taken responsibility for putting together an event incorporating the success of all the organisations we're working with and to promote their services. To do this we'll be working with Crisis Skylight members and the staff to put together a presentation and stall. We'll be visiting the other organisations and through the other GX volunteers we will be getting them to do something similar.

I am basically Ed Sheeran...
Ed Sheeran used to volunteer for Crisis and it is where he met the person he wrote A-team about. This year he'll be doing secret gigs for the charity. Here he is performing for Crisis:

Read more about us joining up with Crisis and our community welcome on their website.

Summer School -12/01/12

Volunteers and Children
It was called the Mehozetu Summer School (Mehozetu meaning 'our future') and it ran for two weeks for teenagers. Rundu has limited things to do when the schools break up and, as with anywhere, young people with nothing to do can lead to them getting into trouble. The motivation behind the summer school was to give them somewhere to go and have something to concentrate on whilst being educated and learning new skills. Local volunteers from different youth organisations around the region were invited to help and we had a team of dedicated people. On the registration about 5 children signed up and so a last minute announcement on the radio was in order triggering our phones to be ringing every few minutes. The next day we had over 40 teenagers turn up. Throughout the week more wanted to join.

Musical Chairs
Activities on offer were sports, arts & crafts, drugs & alcohol abuse workshops, confidence building, drama and singing. Also ice breakers and team games made an appearance. I was one of the volunteers in charge of sports. In this we offered Volleyball and Football. Football is huge here, everyone supports a premiership team and are always shocked to hear I don't support one. Often football is on the TV whenever I enter a house, even Christmas day the boys in my host home watched a repeat of Man Utd vs. Man City. So this often became the focus of the workshop.

Arts & Crafts
Throughout all the activities the children showed enthusiasm and most turned up every day. Shady, Mervin and Hendrick (some of my host brothers) would ask me every day what activity they were doing the next day.

On the final day the children got certificates. A mother came in to collect one young boys certificate as he was ill and apparently crying his eyes out because he was missing the last day. Some of the teens made it apparent that they had had few people ever believe in them and encourage their skills, however the summer school did this for them. Groups of children were cheering about "completing the Mehozetu Summer School".

Showing off Certificates
The local volunteers hope to continue doing such projects in the future for the school children and have already started looking into getting funding and permission for it.

Hospital Visit - 12/01/12

Around Christmas time the team visited the local hospital. Armed with donated crisps and drinks as well as home made snow flakes, paper chains and balloons we were sent around the children's wards.

The condition of the hospital was less than you can expect in the UK - but wasn't awful. The premature birth room had no door and we were allowed access without any sort of precautions put into place. Sinks had the odd cockroach scuttle on by and there were cats on the hospital grounds, some that managed to get into empty areas to nap on the hospital beds.

The patients and their family were all very grateful for the gifts and the decorations. Some of the girls on our team sang Christmas carols and the more religious members prayed for the ill. It was quite an emotional day for a lot of the team - either being reminded of family members or their past selves going through the same or just from the upset of seeing so many poorly people.

Rundu Clean Up Day - 12/01/12

Although sat in Newcastle I am catching up on posts about Namibia. Each phase (i.e. Rundu, Namibia and Newcastle, UK) we hold at least two Community Action Days (CAD's). One was a clean up day.

With help from the town council (providing mouth guards, gloves and two rubbish trucks) we had organised a day to pick up litter on a particularly messy road. The area was just used as a dump despite being just across the road from lots of people's homes. Sadly our Namibian counterparts had to leave the community due to issues with visas and so we were only half a team. However the day was booked and we went ahead.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.