JVN Blog

Avrom Glickman tells us in his own words how he used volunteering as a means to improve the lives of people on the other side of the world…

I have never been a person with a life plan and so when I stopped working full time I was very unclear how I was going to spend my retirement years. There were so many different options. There was then a period of experimentation during which I explored a number of options, some of which inevitably were more successful than others. In truth I am still open to new possibilities and will continue to investigate these as they arise.

I remember telling an acquaintance that I was looking for a new challenge and he mentioned JVN which I had not heard of before. I contacted the organisation and was invited in. We had a discussion where I explained that I did not want a clerical, admin or shop assistant type of role but rather one that challenged the little grey cells. I said that I was interested, among other things, in education, politics, history and foreign travel. All my details were efficiently noted and I left the office with an open mind.

To my great surprise, I had a telephone call that very same evening from Yossi Ives, the Chief Executive of Tag International Development, asking me I was interested in acting as Manager of their Kenya project after a recommendation from JVN. The proposal certainly ticked all the right boxes for me. I had spent much of my working life as a Project Manager. I was very interested in learning about a foreign culture and in helping a poor community to improve their living conditions.

Soon after that I met Yossi and his colleague Marina who told me much more about the project. The main focus was on improving the education and life opportunities for school age girls in a particular rural community near Lake Victoria. One of my first tasks was to find a partner to work with and after some research we teamed up with a UK-based charity called Team Kenya. The next stage was for me to help draw up a project plan which was inevitably quite complex. After that the job has been to help monitor, implement and at times adapt this plan, as well as to help write regular reports to our donor.

The great pleasure for me has been to learn much more about life in rural Kenya and to work very closely with a very wide range of really interesting people. These include the Team Kenya and Tag people, a range of Israelis who have been helping on the project and the local Kenya based personnel. And, more importantly, through this project we have significantly improved the quality of life of our Kenya community. We have been instrumental in installing clean water systems for drinking, sanitation and farming. We have been very active in reducing the gender related abuses that take place in the community. And we have introduced a range of initiatives that will make them self-sufficient in food and help them to set up small businesses so that they can generate new sources of income.

This activity is always interesting and often challenging, especially in dealing with a culture so different from our own. And so this is a win-win situation. As a result of all of us involved in this project, we have made a real, substantive difference to the quality of life of a very poor subsistence level community in Kenya. And it has been hugely rewarding for me personally in terms of my education and development. I am therefore very grateful to JVN for introducing me to this great opportunity and to Tag for including me in the project team.

You’re very welcome Avrom and keep up the fantastic work! If you have been inspired by Avrom’s story and are interesting in taking a look at the sort of volunteering that might suit you, click here to search for your preferences. Think Volunteering, Think JVN!