A quiet read of Nursery World and one phone call changed 31-year-old Jane Greig's life forever.
A few months later, in July 1999, she found herself leaving her job as a hospital play specialist
in Tayside and boarding a plane to Albania. Her new challenge to help in an orphanage built and founded by the charity, Hopes and Homes for Children.
I saw an advertisement for volunteers in Nursery World, thought I might like to do it and rang the charity's co-founder, Caroline Cook,' says Jane. She was so enthusiastic about it that by the end of the phone call, I was determined I would go. It's a decision I've never regretted.'
Hope and Homes for Children (HHFC) was founded by Colonel Mark Cook and his wife Caroline in 1994 and is dedicated to providing a family, a home and a future for young victims of war and disaster (see box).
As it is a relatively new charity, cash is tight. Being a new volunteer, Jane was faced not just with a four-month posting to Albania, but having to raise the funds to get herself there. And while her employer in Britain agreed to give her unpaid leave, she had to find the money to cover her stay.
It might sound daunting, but I relish a challenge, and I was just so determined I was going there was no question of me not being able to do what was necessary to get me there,'says Jane. We were able to 'borrow' another play specialist from a local hospital. Then the local paper covered it and the cheques came rolling in! I also got sponsorship money from a local business and after two months I'd raised around 2,000 enough to cover my flight and living expenses.'
On arrival, Jane found a beautiful orphanage, but a huge task ahead with the children. The orphanage is near Durres, which is a large town in quite a poor area with lots of typical East European blocks of flats, says Jane. Before Hope and Homes got to them, the children had been living in another orphanage in appalling conditions. The new building is bright and spacious, but the children were already very institutionalised. My main task was to help break some of the routine, get them doing 'normal' things and develop emotional and social skills. In that sense, the work was not much different to what I'd already done back home.
We noticed one unhappy little boy who didn't speak at all but discovered he used to speak very well until his father stopped coming to visit. He was the oldest of the 'toddlers' group, so we moved him in with older children and worked directly with him. By the time I left, he was a completely different boy, talking and mixing with the other children. That gives you a lot of satisfaction.
Support came from other HHFC workers already there, and local Albanian child carers. You not only have to be able to work as a team, you must take time to understand local culture, says Jane. There are lots of other agencies working in Albania and I made lots of friends. I also had a nice flat above the orphanage, so living there was pleasant. However, language was a problem, she says, although HHFC provides tapes and books to help volunteers.
Jane describes coming home as devastating. I wanted to get on the next plane back, she says. Not only do I miss the children, the work and friends, it puts your own life into perspective and you realise how unimportant your own problems are and how unimportant material things are. If there's anyone out there thinking of doing this, I'd say, just do it. You won't regret it.'
While HHFC is a new charity, Voluntary Service Overseas is a long-established organisation that can pay its volunteers, though it demands longer-term commitments. Its 42 years of experience in developing countries also means it has strong links with other agencies.
Thirty-three-year-old painter and special needs play therapist Theresa Casey is now halfway through a two-year project in Bangkok, Thailand, working as a VSO volunteer for another organisation called the Foundation for Child Development.
Theresa already had some work experience overseas but had done nothing long-term. I'd always been interested in the international perspective and the feeling that children around the world are very much the same, but childhood isn't. I wanted to give a more substantial commitment to working abroad, so I contacted VSO. By March 1999 she had swapped her job in a special needs adventure play centre in Edinburgh for one with a creative play project in the centre of Bangkok's slum community.
'I spent 10 weeks in language training and visiting other projects before actually starting work,' she says. This gives you a chance to understand the culture particularly the different perspective on work and child labour.'
Poverty means children must work to support their family's income. They are also susceptible to the dangers of drugs and prostitution. The project helps guard against the latter, but the need to work is inescapable,' says Theresa.
Families often take in washing, so children help with that, or they go out and sell water, candies or food.'
There is one 10-year-old girl I work with who gets up at 5am, does some washing, then goes to school. She comes to our centre straight after school, but is called away early to sell water in the station nearby until midnight. She is a very angry and tired little girl with low self-esteem. To her, it is more important to be working than to have any life of her own.
Another young girl painted a picture of a heart with a face in the middle with a down-turned mouth when she first came to us. Underneath it she wrote, 'My life is sad.
We can't always do much about the children's personal circumstances, but we can help by shoring up their self-esteem and letting them know they are important as individuals. The centre provides them with a means of expression for the first time in their lives. It's not that their families don't care, but poverty and work get in the way of healthy social development.'
On a personal level, volunteers experience another culture. Living conditions are basic but good VSO guarantees your own private space. I go to films, eat out after work with colleagues and on days off I visit friends.
It is a big commitment timewise, but I used to get angry and frustrated thinking about some of these problems and that doesn't take you anywhere. Now at least I feel I'm doing what I can, no matter how small.' NW
