British Council-Non profit organisations

Transcript of the podcast

Interviewer: Well, thanks very much for coming along today. I’d like to start off by finding out a little bit about yourself and your reasons for applying for our overseas volunteer scheme. Tell me first of all, how did you hear about us

Volunteer: er, well it was through a friend, actually, who got involved with your organisation a couple of years ago. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a while, and I suppose she gave me the courage to actually take the plunge

Interviewer: Word of mouth is one of the commoner ways people find out about us. We don’t spend huge amounts on advertising campaigns and the like. So why community work in particular

Volunteer: Well I’ve had a bit of experience in my home town getting involved in various projects during school holidays, and while I was at university as well

?…Interviewer: Oh yes

Volunteer: One was working with the elderly in care homes, listening to their life storiesthat was part of an oral history project funded by the local authority. And then another time I worked on a scheme for exprisoners to improve their reading and writing. Oh and I’ve worked on building sites off and on since I left school

?Interviewer: But you’ve never lived or worked abroad before

Volunteer: Only travelling with friends. Interrrailing in Europe, just what a lot of young people do in their gap year

?Interviewer: So Costa Rica would be a real change

!Volunteer: Absolutely

?Interviewer: And why Central America

Volunteer: Well I have to admit there are selfish reasons. I want to improve my Spanish. I got a GSCE at school but never really had the chance to use it. But it’s more than that, I feel I want to put the experience I’ve had to better use

Interviewer: How do you feel about living so far from home comforts? You know you’ll be spending three months of the year in quite an isolated community in the mountains. Conditions will be pretty basic

Volunteer: To be frank, I’m a little nervous, but I think I’m quite adaptable and independent

Interviewer: And you’re in good shape, I presume? The building project can be quite physically demanding. Plus you’ll be at altitude as well which takes a bit of getting used to

Volunteer: Oh, I’m an outdoor sort of person. I still do quite a lot of sport and mountainclimbing, so I think I’ll be able to cope with that side of things

Interviewer: OK let’s move on to accommodation arrangements. As you know most of volunteers stay with local families

Answers