Kenya

This time last year Kenyans were getting ready for change. The then Prime Minister Kibaki, had been in power for the last 40 years and had presided over the most stable political situation in Africa. However this was not to last through the December 2007 elections. The results were extremely close between Kibaki and his opponent Odinga, with each having a sudden increase in votes causing voters to cite corruption in both camps. This resulted in mass protests throughout the country lasting for weeks. 260,000 people were left displaced and many more fearing for their safety. Since then the global community has assisted Kenya with the formation of a power-sharing government which has helped the country back.

One of the main casualties of the protests was the Kenyan tourism industry. When the violence broke, the Foreign Office advised against Britons travelling to the country. Oyster had five volunteers due to go to Kenya at the beginning of January and at the last minute we had to cancel their trip. Luckily we were able to find them similar projects in Tanzania and all had a fantastic experience. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week we ran our biggest briefing course of the year. In total we had 31 volunteers all off to a variety of countries to work on a variety of projects in January.

We had people set to go to Nepal, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia for between 3 and 6 months. I am extremely jealous and reminds me of my Pre Departure Course back in 2003 when I was nervously getting ready to head to Tanzania!

The two days are always great fun, go very quickly and are pretty tiring for all involved (especially those that had travelled to us from afar!)

For those readers that attended the course: I would like to extend a thank you to all of you that worked hard on giving some great talks about the various aspects of your countries and also for participating so well in all of the sessions.

If you are considering taking a Gap Year, then please do consider going with an organisation that briefs you thoroughly before departure. Personally, I think it is so important to be fully prepared and understand the health, safety and cultural issues relevant to the country you are travelling to.

Finally a big thanks to Leah and Lucy – our returned volunteer helpers and also Dick Glynne Jones.