Press Release

A six month volunteering programme in Horley and Crawley kicked off this week thanks to a £79,000 grant from BAA Communities Trust. The Global Xchange programme is run by a partnership of three organisations: VSO, the British Council and CSV, with funding provided by BAA Communities Trust to benefit the communities around Gatwick Airport.

A welcome reception for the volunteers from the UK and India was held at Crawley’s Civic Hall on Monday 2 October. The nine volunteers aged 18-25 from all over India will work alongside nine volunteers from around the UK on a wide range of community based projects for three months. The group will live with volunteer host families in Crawley and Horley while they are in the UK, before travelling to Rajasthan in North West India in December to work together on community projects for a further three months in a similar role.

The volunteers will be giving over 6000 hours of voluntary work to local organisations in Crawley and Horley, including Crawley Open House for homeless people, Brambles Multiple Sclerosis Respite Centre and Manor Green Primary School in Crawley. They will also be working together with people in the community to take part in one-off volunteering events.

Part of the Global Xchange programme also includes ‘Educational Activity Days’, when the volunteers research, plan and conduct workshops to learn more about important issues such as environmental awareness, poverty and HIV/AIDS.

Project supervisors Ceris Jones and Meenal Sarda said : “We’ve been amazed at the reception so far in the community. People from as far as Reigate as well as Crawley and Horley have been so welcoming by sharing their homes with the young people, taking them on in their workplaces and generally showing great hospitality and enthusiasm for the principles of the programme.” The volunteers were welcomed to the area at the Civic Reception by the Mayor of Crawley, Councillor Sally Blake.

BAA Gatwick’s Managing Director, Paul Griffiths said: “This exciting collaboration with the Global Xchange community volunteering programme gives young people from different cultures and backgrounds the chance to work together and add value to a wide range of projects - many of which Gatwick is currently supporting or has been involved with in the past.” Mike Toms, BAA Communities Trust chairman explained the background of BAA Communities Trust support of the project: “ The Trust supports Gatwick’s aim to be a good neighbour to local communities. Our partnership with the new national youth volunteering charity v means that we can create opportunities, through both local and overseas community volunteering with Global Xchange, for young people to build their understanding of different nations and cultures - with air travel creating the bridge.”

Volunteer Manmeet Kaur from Delhi said “ The warm welcome we’ve had from our host families and guests at the reception tonight has been really amazing. We are very excited to be here and are looking forward to starting our volunteering projects this week.” The evening closed with a variety of entertainment from the Indian and British volunteers as well as local young people to celebrate the start of the programme.

Media enquiries

Abigail Fulbrook, VSO/ Global Xchange Tel: 020 8780 7292 Abigail.fulbrook@vso.org.uk www.globalxchange.org.uk (link to URL: http://www.globalxchange.org.uk/) Ceris Jones. VSO/ Global Xchange Tel: 07989 982 753 Ceris.jones@vso.org.uk www.globalxchange.org.uk (Link to URL: http://www.globalxchange.org.uk/)

Notes to Editors: The GlobalXchange programme is designed to encourage young people to volunteer and be active in communities both in the UK and overseas.

VSO is an international development charity that works through volunteers. VSO volunteers live and work with some of the poorest communities in the world to share their skills and leave a lasting impact. For more information visit www.vso.org.uk. (link to URL: http://www.vso.org.uk/)

In the third year of its partnership with Global Xchange, the BAA Communities Trust is investing more than £150,000 towards four exchanges, matched pound by pound by V with the joint aim of inspiring more young people to get engaged in volunteering and community action. BAA Communities Trust was established 10 years ago by BAA. Since then it has made grants of nearly £4 million for projects in the communities local to the company's seven UK airports, including Gatwick, to support charitable initiatives by staff and to global projects linked to youth development. For further information on BAA Gatwick see www.gatwickairport.com.

The British Council is the UK's international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. Our purpose is to build mutually beneficial relationships between people in the UK and other countries and increase appreciation of the UK's creative ideas and achievements. We operate in 110 countries and territories around the world. www.britishcouncil.org (link to URL: http://www.britishcouncil.org/new/)

CSV (Community Service Volunteers) creates opportunities for people to take an active part in the life of their communities through volunteering, training and community action. Each year 195,000 people give 4.9 million hours of their time as volunteers through CSV. www.csv.org.uk  (link to URL: http://www.csv.org.uk/?display=volunteering)

V was launched in May with a key objective of inspiring 1 million more young people to volunteer. The Government has set aside up to £50 million over three years to support the nationwide initiative. For more information visit www.wearev.com. (link to URL: http://vinspired.com/about-us )