The Himalayan Education Lifeline Programme (HELP) runs in the family. What inspired you to join the team at HELP?
As creator of HELP's website in 2002, I was involved in the initial development steps, so in a sense I have always been part of the HELP team. Though not a member of the HELP Board, I helped with editing and tweaking the website, and general IT troubleshooting. I decided to become more involved in 2014, as managing all the aspects of the programme had become too much work for one person.
Ben at work on the road
What challenges have you faced with keeping the HELP website up-to-date and user friendly over the years?
We have had two major redesigns since we started, which is not a lot considering the length of time it has been running (16 years). While mainly due to time commitments, the first version (although looking very dated by the time it was updated!) fulfilled its job of providing visitors with information about HELP and allowing them to apply to volunteer, donate, or sponsor. The main reason we updated recently was because the original design was not mobile-friendly. Also changing to use Wordpress as a CMS, has made editing much easier for the other team members.
You now work as HELP’s Director of the Sponsorship Programme. What projects and responsibilities do you work on in this role?
I am responsible for handling sponsorship requests, inquiries, following up on payments, and letting sponsors know how their sponsored children are progressing.
Can you tell us about HELP’s sponsorship programme?
Our sponsorship programme is limited, not because there is low demand, but because of the time our small team has available to administer it. We have an ever-changing number of sponsored young people and sponsors (some people sponsor more than one child; some students are supported by multiple sponsors).
At the moment we have about 40 sponsors supporting the education of roughly 50 young people. We send all the money we receive to the children (via their HELP Representative), usually on an annual basis to keep down transaction costs. We try and get reports of the children's academic progress, interests, and/or personal life updates to the sponsor at least once a year. Also when we have monitoring visits or a volunteer going close by, we also try and meet the child in person to get an update and take photos.
You have a lot of international non-profit work experience, and you’re currently located in Myanmar. How have these experiences influenced you personally and professionally?
Working in international development is an eye-opener because you get to see how issues that look simple to fix from afar are almost always more complicated and harder to fix when viewed from close up.
Ben hiking in the foothills of the Himalayas, in Nepal
Do you have any advice you can share with individuals who are on the fence about spending time abroad?
It is a cliché but it is an eye-opening experience. It is fascinating, and in some cases humbling, that our lives can be so utterly defined by the country and circumstances we are born into.
What is the biggest lesson you have learned while abroad?
That people everywhere are really very similar. Wherever I've been, in very different cultures, and in different walks of life people have very similar motivations and patterns of behaviour.
What does meaningful travel mean to you?
Traveling with more in mind than self-fulfilment and ticking off highlights in a guidebook. I've found that traveling for an extended period of time without doing something that affects people's lives positively gets dull fast!
What hopes do you have for the future of HELP sponsorship programme and the website?
It would be great to increase the number of children we have sponsored, since there are obviously a lot more that we could be supporting, but this is challenging because of the time it takes to manage each sponsor and child.
The website is under continual review to ensure it is achieving its purpose. Hopefully, we won't need to do a major update for a few years!
