Can you tell us about your journey from participating in SLV.Global’s 12 week Graduate Mental Health Placement to working as part of the SLV Global team?
I decided to apply to join the 12-week Mental Health placement when I was in my final year studying for my exams. I was at a crossroads where I was unsure what I wanted to do once I graduated, I just knew that I want to explore, and do something worthwhile—then SLV.Global came along!
On the top of Lipton’s Seat amongst the tea plantations, during my weekend adventures in Sri Lanka
I joined the team in Sri Lanka in January 2014, in the midst of my Masters degree applications, and I came home from my placement wanting to get as involved in SLV.Global as I could! I really respected their aims, and ethical values, and I wanted to be a bigger part of it.
As soon as I came home I decided to make the move to London, and apply to work in the SLV.Global London office whilst doing my MSc War & Psychiatry at King’s College London. I started as a part-time Happiness Officer, and now three years on I have become the SLV.Global Communications Manager!
What are you currently working on through your role as the Communications Manager?
We are constantly updating our system to make it as user-friendly as possible, and making sure the information we give out to our future volunteers is correct, and as helpful as possible. That is a huge part of my role as Communications Manager and a continuous task. However, I still love speaking to volunteers as much as possible and being able to help them with any issues or queries they may have.
Meditation Workshop at an ashram in Bali, alongside my colleagues and Swami Anand Krishna
How was your experience setting up the pilot placement in Bali and meeting many of the volunteers you have interviewed?
It was an amazing opportunity to be part of the development of the Mental Health placement in Bali back in 2016, and to see how much hard work goes into the set-up of a program. When the first teams arrived you could tell everyone was so excited to get stuck into the projects. Additionally, it was great to finally put some faces to the names! In the SLV.London office, we are liaising with volunteers from when they apply, all the way through to when they return from their placement, so it was lovely to see them enjoying their time out in Indonesia!
What is your favorite part of your job?
I love hearing about the positive impact our volunteers are having in Bali and Sri Lanka, and knowing that we helped send the people to the right country and placement type to suit their experience. All of our volunteer alumni get a reference from us to highlight some of the incredible work they were involved in, so we also love to showcase the amazing things our SLVeterans have gone on to do. To know that we have not only helped the service users in Sri Lanka and Bali, but that we also helped our volunteers get that experience to help them progress their careers, is really rewarding.
How does your Master’s Degree in War and Psychiatry influence your work today?
On top of the time management skills I gained from my Master’s, it really helped me to learn more about different cultures. Throughout my Master’s degree, a lot of the focus was on cross-cultural perspectives surrounding conflict and trauma, and also the effects of this on mental health. Sri Lanka, in particular, is a country still coming to terms with its past. After a civil war lasting over 25 years and a destructive tsunami in 2004, many people in Sri Lanka are still feeling the aftereffects.
Myself and fellow volunteer in a saris on our final night of our Sri Lankan Mental Health placement
What qualities make up the best candidates for SLV volunteers?
From my experience as a volunteer myself, and speaking to hundreds of volunteers over the phone, I think the most important quality is that someone has a passion for Global Mental Health! We have found that really passionate people are always eager to learn new skills, and bring loads of enthusiasm to the projects!
If you could participate in any SLV program, which would you choose and why?
That’s a tough question! I have been lucky enough to have been a volunteer in Sri Lanka, and to have worked in Bali, so I would LOVE to do the Clinical & Ancient Psychology Program in India! I think learning from psychiatrists and psychologists at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience would be an incredible opportunity, but I also think doing things like Laughter Yoga and mindfulness in such a beautiful setting would be amazing. Our feedback has been great from team members who have come back, so I think India is next on my list.
Why should a potential volunteer choose an SLV program over other providers?
What impressed me about SLV.Global before I went on the placement in Sri Lanka, were their strong values and ethical standards that SLV.Global uphold.
Our volunteers are there to support the local communities and bolster the resources that are already in place, rather than take opportunities away from the local people.
We run placements which are as beneficial as possible for the people we work with, and we want to avoid ‘voluntourism’ in every aspect of our placements. The service users we work with don’t form unhealthy attachments to our volunteers, and we don’t allow volunteers to take any photos or video at any of our projects or of children in the community as this can be exploitative. The ethics are of huge importance when volunteers are choosing which volunteer provider to travel with.
Part of the team in the SLV.London office eating some ice-creams in the hot weather
What advice would you share with prospective volunteers?
Research! Research the country, and the culture you are thinking about joining us on, but also research some good ideas for the project sessions before you go. The best resource to bring out with you on placement is ideas! Also I fully recommend any prospective volunteers call the office if they have questions before they fly. We are here to help you, and as we have all been on a placement as a volunteer ourselves, we are very good at reassuring and pre-departure worries.
What hopes do you have for the future of SLV.Global and your role as part of the team?
We started out as a small company, and we still are, but we are going really quickly. We are currently looking to extend our reach further to recruit more volunteers from all over the world, and to develop our partnerships with other universities and institutions. This will mean that we not only will be interviewing and processing many more applicants, but we will need to be helping them with all the pre-departure support too. To know that our reach will be spreading to other corners of the world, as we send even more volunteers out to Bali, Sri Lanka, and India, feels so exciting!
