National Scholarship Program in Australia

Dear Supporter,

We are very excited to report that we have our first scholar from our partnership with Young People Without Borders, a section of the Federation of Young Australians!

Tys is a 17 year old, soon to be high school graduate from Australia who has been selected to volunteer on childcare projects in Nepal for 6 months in 2015. Tys is an aspiring journalist looking to use his skills to spark change in less fortunate parts of our world.

"I basically came across this program through High Resolves which I did at school. In this program we contributed to the community initially a school action project, where we focused on raising awareness for a clean and sustainable school environment and finally a community action project. We visited and talked to other schools and raised a much higher profile of what we were doing at our own school. At the end of each year, both projects culminated in the High Resolves Summit, where every school taking part in New South Wales came together and shared their projects, as well as listen to some notable speakers about issues relevant to the organisation's plight.

This has been further emphasised by the unique opportunity of having been selected to visit a remote indigenous community in rural NSW, and therefore witness the poverty that takes place in my own country."

I now have the belief that volunteering in a developing country would be the best thing I can do at this point in my life. I have come to have the view that the concept of being a global citizen is of absolute importance."

The National Scholarship Program (NSP) is the flagship initiative for the GVI Charitable Trust providing opportunities and training for disadvantaged individuals to allow personal development, team work, leadership and open up further opportunities. The program is also focused upon creating a sense of responsibility both locally and globally and offering beneficiaries the tools to make a difference to their own lives, their community and impact upon global issues, which we hope will be the case for Tys.

Thank you for your support in making this happen.

All the best

GVI Charitable Trust

Links:

• http://www.gvi.org

Dear Supporter,

Today's youth face an opportunity divide–a gap between those who have access to the skills and training they need to be successful, and those who do not. 

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), some 200 million people are unemployed, 75 million of which are between the ages of 15 and 24. Both developed nations and emerging economies alike are struggling to create pathways to employment for their young citizens. The skills mismatch in youth labor markets is an underlying cause of this persistent and growing trend. Almost 45 percent of young people said that their current jobs were not related to their studies, and of these more than half viewed their jobs as temporary and said they were planning to leave (America and the Global Economy, 2013).

The GVI Charitable Trust National Scholarship Programs provide opportunities for students and adults in the regions where we work to receive support and access to education, training and opportunities that may lead to long term improvements for them, their local community and environment. Alumni from the National Scholarship Program have gone on to make considerable achievements, including higher degrees, and participate in and lead humanitarian and conservation initiatives around the world, achieving positions such as Directors, Senior Researchers, Head Rangers and Community Teachers. 

Thank you for continuing to support this project in 2014.

All the best

Sophie Birkett

Charitable Trust manager