Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

A valuable link
By Marisa de Silva
“To see the smiles on their faces and know that they’re enjoying themselves was for me the most amazing thing,” said Edwina Nesthead (24), a former volunteer with ‘Link Overseas Exchange’ about the children she taught during her stint here. Link, founded by a Scottish family in1992, is a small non-profit organisation, based in Scotland, which gives volunteers an opportunity to live and work overseas. Currently Link volunteers work in Sri Lanka, India and China.

The average Link volunteer after having obtained a placement in one of the countries for a duration of 6 months, would after meeting the country representatives, be sent out in pairs to various placements around the country, primarily to rural areas. Volunteers usually teach conversational English, sports, arts and crafts, music and drama, whilst also helping in social welfare projects. Placements for volunteers are carefully researched by Link.

Sri Lankan Link representatives, Nigel and Margie Billimoria, provide volunteers their home away from home. The couple, having had quite a large family welcome the young people constantly trooping in and out of their home. The entire group of 14 volunteers met at ‘Link HQ’ in Sri Lanka (the Billimoria residence) last weekend and shared their experiences with us.

Having always wanted to be a volunteer, Edwina said that after about a year of raising funds and collecting donations, she finally managed to get enough money to fund her placement in Sri Lanka. She was assigned to help out at the Sumaga Community Services Complex in Baddegama. She hopes to start saving money once she gets back home to return to Sri Lanka as soon as she can.

Jo Taylor (18) is here on his ‘gap year’ between school and University. Jo had opted for Sri Lanka since he heard that it was sports-oriented. “I figured that I could teach the kids how to play football and basketball,” he said enthusiastically. He and his partner managed to teach the boys football and rugby and in the process learnt how to play cricket too. He is at ‘Christhodaya’ in Kurunegala with boys of diverse ethnic backgrounds.

Pamela Cruickshank (22), and her partner usually divide their time between helping to improve the conversational skills of the staff at the Hotel Sigiriya, teaching English at the Sigiriya Central College and at the Diya Kapilla Village School, also in the vicinity. “It’s unfortunate that although those we teach have different talents, their inability to speak English has held them back,” said Pamela.

Most of the staff are enthusiastic and picked up quickly, she adds. Fiona Caldow (18) says that she’s getting quite used to constant chants of “Sudhu akka”. She adds that her experience here has been so novel that her main problem now is having to go back home. “I’m not leaving till all my money runs out. I will be back as soon as I manage to collect enough funds to do so,” she says passionately.

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