Volunteering
Help our young people and help make a real difference!
Volunteering in Argentina
If you are able to get to Salta under your own steam, we would be really pleased to have you join us for as long as you are able to help.
Any skills are useful and we will do what we can to help you with accommodation and to show you the sights of this very beautiful area.
As you will be working with young people, and as part of our Safeguarding Policy, you will need to undergo a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check before you leave the U.K.
Just contact us at enquiries@davidmatherfoundation.org and we will discuss with you the kind of activities that you could be involved with and how you can make a difference.
Volunteering in the UK
We need a whole range of help to achieve our very challenging objectives:
- Recruiting & working with schools
- Developing ICT solutions to communication issues
- Marketing the charity
- Writing bids to other fund providers
- Recruiting and working with Universities
- Recruiting and working with businesses
- Generally having brilliant ideas!
Contact us at enquiries@davidmatherfoundation.org and discover how not getting paid can be really rewarding!
Andy & Sarah’s story – a great example of how people can help by volunteering for the David Mather Foundation
On day one we met Raul, the Foundation´s only full-time employee, and our guide for the next 2 weeks. We drove in the 50-year-old David Mather Foundation Jeep to see the 2 schools that 12 of the teenagers of the foundation come from. The first school Fe y Alegria (Faith & Joy) was in an area of the city called Solidaridad. As we got closer to the school the asphalt road became a dirt track and the smart houses of the city centre gave way to more basic dwellings; tiny houses with corrugated-iron roofs. The poverty was self-evident.
From the outside the school looked much the same as a school in the UK except about half the size. The inside was different though – of the wall displays, maps, signs, pictures etc that you would normally find on the wall of any British school there was nothing. As the school secretary showed us round she explained that the school had stopped putting anything even remotely valuable up in the school as whenever they did it got stolen straight away. There was a room with computers, but it was locked whenever not in use and had bars on the door to deter thieves.
The second school was called Miguel Ragone (named after a past president of Argentina), in an area of the city called Autodromo. This was a public school that had been open for 4 years. Despite the length of time it had been open there was no telephone anywhere in the school, and no computers – all the administration was done on paper. Neither of the 2 schools currently has an internet connection. The Foundation is currently petitioning the government to provide these amenities in the school but as Raul said “nothing happens quickly in Argentina”. Only one of the 14 teenagers in the Foundation had a computer at home. They are considering, if the government provides a phone-line in these schools, paying for the connection themselves – but this would be a costly last resort. Miguel Ragone school was also noticeably bare in comparison to any British school.
For the rest of the week we did some admin work and wrote a speech that we then had to translate into Spanish to give to the teenagers on the Friday. We were both excited about meeting the kids for the first time, and nervous about having to deliver a speech in a language that despite a week´s worth of lessons we´re still pretty rubbish at. That said it went quite well, we talked about the fundraising events that had happened in the last year as well those planned (e.g. the three peaks challenge), the importance of the foundation for us, and the importance for them of using the opportunity that all the work of the foundation had provided. We told the children a bit about Dave which, as Gareth said, helps them to realize that the Foundation is in memory of a real person. Also for Friday we had prepared a folder with some basic stationary (and a DMF logo sticker on the front naturally) to give to each of them.
They were nervous at first but then opened up, and were pretty much the same as British teenagers (i.e. the boys didn´t talk much and mumbled when they did, and the girls talked lots and mostly about Robert Pattinson star of the ´Twilight´ films). Everyone filled in a basic questionnaire with information on what subjects they wanted to study and what they felt obstacles to this were. The last question was ´What does the David Mather Foundation mean to you?´ One boy wrote “The Foundation is like a friend that gives you a helping hand, but not just any helping hand”. A better endorsement of the work of the foundation you couldn´t hope to receive.
What was also evident from this meeting and from subsequent ones how well Raul got on with the children and how enthusiastic he is about the work of the foundation. He clearly has a really good relationship both with the children and their families.
Talking to Raul afterwards, we got more of an idea about some of the obstacles the teenagers will face, and the plans the foundation has to alleviate these problems. For example most undergraduate degrees in Argentina last 5 years at least (more specialized courses like medicine can last up to 11). Also the University of Salta doesn´t offer a course in medicine so if anyone wanted to study this they would need to do so at Cordoba University, an 11 hour drive from Salta. The foundation would therefore need to help fund their living costs. Even the costs of photocopying – something that is taken for granted in UK universities – would need to be subsidized by the foundation.
More then one of the teenagers had written in the questionnaire that they found it hard to work at home due to noise and distractions. There is a plan to (if possible) rent a property close to the schools so that the teenagers would have a quite environment to work. Also if possible the foundation would like to provide a photocopier in this property to negate the costs to the children of copying large sections of textbooks, often a necessity when at university. Also at the moment when everyone meets up on Tuesdays and Fridays they have to take taxis, so there is a plan to purchase a minibus to make transporting the kids easier.
On the following Tuesday we helped the kids fill in Facebook-style profiles, which could be shown to the English students they will be put in touch with. We (Sarah mostly, due to her superior Spanish) helped them with the English translations to their favorite films etc. Again this helped us get to know the kids and to show us just how much like English teenagers they were with the same interests in films, music etc. At one point we couldn´t translate the TV show ´Espongia´ and the boy then drew a great picture of Spongebob to show us what he meant.
Our last contact with the teenagers was when we were invited to dinner by the father of one of the girls; Rosanna. Her father had been a cook for the Argentinian army during the Falklands war, so we were slightly nervous about meeting him. We need not have worried, he was very friendly (and made fantastic empanadas). After a brief interrogation about all things Falklands-related, he spoke about the foundation and what it meant for him. Later on in the night he spoke about how proud he was of how Rosanna is doing at school, and got her to dig out old school reports so we could see her good grades. Again it was a moment that filled us with hope for the work of the foundation, and enthusiasm to take part in fundraising activities when we get back to the UK.
Overall the time we spent in Salta has made us both proud of the work that the foundation is doing, but at the same time opened our eyes to the need for future long-term fundraising in the UK. We would advise anyone who can to come to Salta and see for themselves the results that are being reaped from the money raised in the UK.
