UAE families skip fancy summer holidays to help rural communities around the world

Parents and children volunteer to build water tanks, renovate classrooms and look after livestock

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  Jennifer Gillespie, left, and Carlotta Rosa, right, with their families in Vietnam. Photo: Jennifer Gillespie

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  Roan Gillespie, 11, and his sister Fern, 10, help to build a water tank in Hanoi. Photo: Jennifer Gillespie

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  Jennifer Gillespie, right, with her daughter Fern, centre, in Hanoi. Photo: Jennifer Gillespie

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  Pupils from Camps International, an international volunteer travel operator, mix cement for a school project in Borneo. Photo: Camps International

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  Scarlett Keyworth, assistant head teacher at Deira International School, travelled to Kenya with 40 volunteers from her school in June. Photo: Daniel Nasari / Conservation Education Society Kenya

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  Pupils from the UAE volunteer at a school in Tanzania. Photo: Camps International

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  Pupils volunteer in Kenya. Photo: Daniel Nasari / Conservation Education Society Kenya

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  Scarlett Keyworth volunteering in Kenya. Photo: Daniel Nasari / Conservation Education Society Kenya

While many families flock to Europe, Disneyland and luxurious holiday destinations for the summer, some families have volunteered to help communities in rural areas around the world.

Dubai residents Jennifer Gillespie, from the UK, and Carlotta Rosa, from Italy, decided to travel with their families to Vietnam to build a water tank at a school. Both women work in the same company in Dubai.

The mothers and their children spent a week in Hanoi interacting with families, engaging with the culture, and building a water tank, which would be used by pupils at a school in the capital. They returned to the UAE this week.

“I wanted them to learn about people’s daily struggles and the life around them. In the current technologically advanced world, they don't appreciate the world and its people

Dubai resident Jennifer Gillespie

Ms Gillespie, director of human resources for Middle East and Turkey at Xylem, a global water technology company, said her son Roan, 11, and daughter Fern, 10, were excited about the trip.

“We wanted to give our children an experience and an opportunity to see how lucky they are and to help others who don't have access to things we take for granted, such as access to clean drinking water,” Ms Gillespie said.

“We chose to go to Vietnam as our company partners with Planet Water (a non-profit organisation focused on bringing clean water to the world's most impoverished communities) and is one of the locations that we felt was most in need.

“We wanted to give our children the opportunity to put their time towards something which can help them emotionally, physically, socially and intellectually.

"When children have different hobbies other than spending time on gadgets, their lifestyle can be more beneficially balanced.”

Roan said people only realise how fortunate they are when they walk in someone else's shoes, while his sister Fern said she realised how people everywhere need access to clean water.

Ms Rosa's son, Francesco Di Nardo, 14, said it “was an eye-opening experience”.

Ms Gillespie hoped her children would learn real-life skills on the trip.

“I wanted them to learn about people’s daily struggles and the life around them. In the current technologically advanced world, they don't appreciate the world and its people," she said.

“We hope that they learn that being kind and dedicating their time to others is both rewarding and simple to do.”

Scarlett Keyworth, assistant head teacher at Deira International School, travelled to Kenya with 40 volunteers from her school in June. Photo: Daniel Nasari / Conservation Education Society Kenya

Many pupils in the UAE travel to destinations across the globe every year, from Kenya to Cambodia and India to Tanzania, to learn skills not taught in the classroom.

Stuart Rees Jones, founder and chief executive of Camps International, an international volunteer travel operator headquartered in the UK, said people get involved in volunteering because of the feel-good element, while some families want to expose their children to meaningful experiences.

Camps International works with around 100 schools in the Emirates and with close to 1,000 schools globally.

Mr Jones said pupils have worked with them on more than 400 projects, from building schools to installing water supply systems, and working in wildlife, conflict and reef conservation.

“Travel becomes the vehicle for them to develop their life skills. And you don't just leave that to chance … you have to make sure that they understand the purpose of what they're doing,” he said.

“They need to understand why they are building the school in the first place, what the educational challenges are, and what the outcomes are for young people who are now going to have a classroom to sit in.

“Once they understand that and engage with it, then they develop skills such as self esteem. They feel like they earned a place on the trip, built something, or worked on a project."

He said children felt a sense of personal recognition and reward, which boosted their confidence levels, leadership skills, and their ability to work in a team.

Scarlett Keyworth, assistant head teacher at Deira International School, travelled to Kenya with 40 volunteers from her school in June.

The pupils in her group helped to renovate classrooms.

“From my experience, we can teach the children in the classroom, show them statistics and share videos and pictures but it's not just about learning, it's about creating memories and moments that they will never forget," she said.

Volunteering in a rural area gave action and purpose to their learning.

"When we tell them something, they can forget it, but when they're actually out experiencing real life problems, and finding real solutions to problems in communities that are suffering from poverty, they don't forget it," she said

"Their awareness is greater than it will ever be sat in a classroom watching a video clip."

Ms Keyworth said pupils returned from the trips with a greater sense of empathy and a clearer understanding of problems faced by people in different parts of the world.

Rachel Dunn, a pupil at Gems Wellington International School in Dubai, travelled for a week with Camps International to Kenya in March.

She helped to paint classrooms and look after sick goats.

"We also went on safari, helped the community and went to a school for two days, where we also got to play with the children," she said.

"Even though we didn't speak the same language and couldn't talk to each other, we still had a really good time."