What was Global Xchange?

Global Xchange was an innovative exchange scheme for young volunteers in Central and South Asia and the UK. It provided a unique exchange experience to the young volunteers to live and work together in each other’s countries and experience the diverse culture with issues that young people face in their respective communities.

We partnered with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), Pattan Development Organisation (PDO) and Community Service Volunteers (CSV) for this programme.

Brief background

Global Xchange created many active global citizens since 2004. So far 24 exchanges have taken place in 15 countries: Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Philippines, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Malawi, Ghana, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Mongolia and the UK.

These exchanges involved 440 volunteers, 320 host homes, 220 volunteer placements and 40 communities globally. The first nine exchanges showed that Global Xchange reached about 5.5 million people.

Who participated?

Young volunteers between 18 to 25 years who were passionate about learning and working with others participated in the programme.

Why did they volunteer?

We all know that volunteering means giving your time, energy and skills to help other people, communities and societies. But volunteering helped them by:

• experiencing the real world through hands-on work and meeting different people
• developing new skills like teamworking when they work together with others to achieve a goal
• feeling motivated with a high sense of achievement
• Boosting their career with new skills and knowledge – a career change perhaps?
• discovering new hobbies, interests, talents
• building networking opportunities
• Inspiring others around them!

What was the exchange all about?

Volunteers spent three months working in their native communities and three months working in the UK. The chance to live in a host home and work together for a total of six months was an amazing education for the young volunteers. They built close relationships with each other and experienced what it meant to be a young person in different country.

By immersing themselves in each other’s countries and cultures they developed important skills to contribute in their local communities.

This experience gave them the insights, knowledge and awareness that they will never get from books.

How long did each exchange last?

Six months.

When will it happen again?

We aren’t planning on having another Global Xchange programme any time soon in Pakistan yet.