A Wealth of Info & Resources Emphasis on Volunteering Programs

Another excellent UK website has crossed my path. It contains so much information that I can't hope to summarize it all here, so I recommend that you visit. I found it when looking at volunteering sites, and that's why I've listed it here rather than the contacts and jobs section. However, is much more than just a list of volunteering programs.

The site is Travel Tree

They list:

Study Abroad Opportunities

Internships

Language Schools

** Volunteering Programs **

Jobs

Teaching Positions

Adventure Programs

Gap Year Programs

Training and Educational Courses

Career Breaks

Travel insurance

Embassies

Govt travel warnings

Hostels/accomodation

Currency converter

Travel gear

Travel guides

Group Helps Needy, Motivates New Engineers

(NUI) - When you think of volunteering, you probably think of canned food drives, nursing homes and home building. But a group called Engineers Without Borders-USA is taking volunteering to a new high.

With projects like improving drinking water for citizens and building irrigation systems for crops, Engineers Without Borders-USA makes a difference in people's lives. Made up of student chapters based at universities across the United States, the organization seeks to implement sustainable engineering solutions and inspire new engineers in the process.

One group of students from the University of Colorado is designing and building a water system for a village in Rwanda. In a project conducted in May 2003, a team of six engineering students from the Colorado School of Mines at Golden worked alongside the villagers of San Pablo, Belize, to site a pair of solar panels and install the electrical wiring in a school, a church and other community buildings.

The nonprofit organization has coordinated humanitarian projects all over the world, including Thailand, Mali, Senegal, Peru and Afghanistan.

ASME, which provided partial funding for the Belize project, has teamed up with Engineers Without Borders to promote the involvement of ASME members and student members in future overseas projects. These projects are slated for fall 2004 and throughout 2005.

Next year, ASME and Engineers Without Borders will lead a coalition of technical societies and other organizations for Engineers Week 2005. ASME will facilitate communications with other engineering groups to organize project teams to support Engineers Without Borders' endeavors around the world.

For more information, visit www.asme.org.

Kamala School Fund

Dear Readers,

This appeal came to me from some very close yachtie friends. Please take a few minutes to read about this fund that has been organized by a fellow yachtie to rebuild the Kamala School on Phuket.

- Kim Davis - editor@extraordinary-jobs.com

Kamala School Fund
Hello friends

As you may have heard, Kamala was the hardest hit beach and village on Phuket Island. Here you can view some pictures of the school and local village. Please be patient while the image gallery loads. http://www.eyenav.com/Downloads/KamalaTsunami Huge devastation, loss of lives, injuries and destruction are visible everywhere.

However, the resilience of the Thai people, and the human spirit of everyone is phenomenal. Removal of rubble, cleanup operations and the rebuilding of this village is the immediate focus of this community.

We have received so many encouraging responses from so many of you, and the pledges for donations are accumulating.

In the name of the Children of Kamala, a huge thank you for your support, generosity, kind words and cooperation. Simply fantastic!

We know now that with your help we will be able to make a real difference in the life of these Kids and bring back the smiles to their faces and lighten up their hearts.

Here is an update of our progress in helping the Children of Kamala.

We went to Kamala School, which is right at the beach. We met with the school master, and some of the teachers to assess the status of damage and the school needs.


STATUS OF DAMAGE
• The school is 80% destroyed.
• There are 374 children at this primary school / kindergarten aged between 3 and 12 years of age.
• 2 children died during the Tsunami wave. (luckily, on Sunday 26th of December the school was closed, otherwise there would have been a huge loss of these young lives.)
• 16 teachers work at the school, 8 of which used to live on the school grounds, 1 teacher died, the teachers' living quarters are also totally gone.
• The kindergarten building was annihilated.
• The only building that is still standing contains 8 class rooms. It is unsafe, and in need of major repairs and reinforcement.
• This is a government funded school, so most of the basic repair work will be financed by the government, and this may prove a slow and tedious process.
• All schools in Thailand reopened last Monday 3rd of January. Kamala school will reopen next Monday 10th of January, and classes will probably place outdoors.
SCHOOL NEEDS

A. Find urgently child psychiatrists to counsel and comfort the five young children who lost their mothers.

B. Purchase equipment for the playground :: swings / slides / climbing walls / little play cottages / sea-saw riders and more ( a list was written up by the
teachers) and have such equipment installed.

C. Purchase equipment for the sportsground and a basketball court and supervise it's installation.

D. When a list is established next Monday, when the kids return for their first day back, we can purchase school uniforms / shoes / educational material.



We have our work cut out for us for this project over the coming months and looking forward to it.


As mentioned previously, the amount of help that we will be able to provide depends on the amount and speed of incoming funds.

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This Kamala School Fund for the children of Kamala project will collect your donations, and such funds will be used directly by us to help rebuild a future for the local kids.

We will avoid any bureaucratic involvement and promise you that every cent will be directly spent on reconstruction of the structures that were totally demolished by the tsunami wave.

We will contribute to the rebuilding of the local school, kindergarten and playground, and start recreating a future for the local kids who represent the hope and spirit of this village.

How much we can do will depend on the amount of incoming funds, so please do not hesitate to contact your friends and ask for their help in this process, as every bit will be wisely used and not a cent will be wasted, this I pledge to you.

I have opened a separate bank account for this appeal, details are as follows:
Sorry, This is a non tax deductible Fund.

Bank of Ayudhya (Thailand)
Chaweng Beach Branch
Account Name: Mr Charles Dwyer for Kamala School Fund
Account # : 423-1-10682-2
SWIFT CODE: AYUDTHBK


Thank you all,
Charles Dwyer