Will volunteer alongside peers from the UK, France, South Africa, Sierra Leone and Rwanda
January 7, 2010 – Los Angeles – The British Council and VSO have selected the following Los Angeles community activists to join a Global Xchange program in Durban, South Africa and Belfast, Northern Ireland: Andres Rivera of Street Poets, Jill Gurr of Create Now, Martha Chono-Helsley of Reach LA and Mary Agulian of LA’s Best.
From January 17 to February 6, the four participants will join peers from the UK, France, South Africa, Sierra Leone and Rwanda in Durban, followed by a placement in Belfast from March 7 to 27. Today and tomorrow, the four selected LA participants are meeting one another during a training course to prepare them for their journey.
Global XChange is a UK program comparable to the United States’ Peace Corps program. Typically, Global XChange matches small groups of UK volunteers with peers from one other country. The bilateral teams spend several weeks or months on a volunteer project in the UK in addition to time spent on a project in the home country of the other participants.
The upcoming program marks two firsts: Global XChange’s first multilateral team and the first project in which Americans will participate. In Durban and Belfast, the Los Angeles community activists and their international counterparts will observe local organizations, exchange best practices, and explore cross-cultural approaches to serving at-risk youth.
The Durban and Belfast exchanges will be followed by a youth exchange. Between June and December, groups of 18-24 year-olds from each country will live and volunteer for three months in Durban followed by three months in Belfast. The American participants will be nominated by the participating LA nonprofits and Homeboy Industries.
“I am delighted to launch Global Xchange in the United States,” said British Council USA Director Sharon Memis. “We are inspired by the individuals selected for Global XChange from Los Angeles; they all do exemplary work with LA youth. We look forward to seeing the results of their time abroad, and to seeing the new international partnerships that emerge from the exchanges.”
Learn more about the types of volunteer work done on past Global Xchanges and how participants have become completely immersed in their host communities.
About the British Council: The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international non-profit organization for cultural relations and education opportunities. We build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people worldwide. In the US, we increase recognition of the wide range of learning opportunities available in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and facilitate educational cooperation between the US and UK. Through transatlantic artistic partnerships, we introduce the American public to high-quality, groundbreaking creative achievements from the UK, and our science programs build networks that draw upon the UK's innovation in climate change and other disciplines. We also develop initiatives that give a voice to the next generation of leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, encouraging them to work together to explore solutions to current and future global issues.
About Global Xchange: Global Xchange aims to support the development of active global citizens, committed to working for positive change within communities. Global Xchange is run in partnership by the British Council and VSO. VSO is an international development charity that works through volunteers and was voted top international development charity in the International Aid and Development category at the Charity Awards 2004 for its work promoting innovative approaches to globalizing volunteering. To learn more, please visit http://www.globalexchange.org.uk/ and http://www.vso.org.uk/.
CONTACT: Carrie Annand# # #
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