The Knowlson Trust Travel Award

"I travelled to Bolivia as a volunteer of the animal charity ‘Inti Wara Yassi (IWY).’ IWY is an established charity in Bolivia, which aims to raise awareness and rescue animals abused by the illegal pet trade. Whenever possible, animals are rehabilitated back into the rainforest, although injury or years of domestication often makes this impossible. The charity runs three parks, where these animals which cannot be rehabilitated, can live out the remainder of their lives. The parks rely on volunteers to construct buildings and cages and to care for the animals. The volunteer project was split into two halves; three weeks at Parque Jacj Cuisi and three weeks at Parque Ambue Ari. Jacj Cuisi is the newest sanctuary covering 300 hectares of rainforest north of Rurrenabaque. A naïve park means work mainly consists of construction to help build-up the infrastructure. Our assignment was a 15m x 20m cage for a jungle Puma, other projects included the quarantine and the first IWY veterinary centre. Ambue Ari is considered the ‘Cat Park,’ which is found five hours north-west of Santa Cruz. Parque Ambue Ari is hectic in comparison due to its time-established and reputation with travellers around Bolivia; with up to 70 volunteers during the summer months compared with the 15 volunteers at Jacj Cuisi. At Ambue Ari our days were spent working with one of the 25 large cats taking refuge at the sanctuary." - Carmen

"In February I was fortunate enough to be offered a place on a highly competitive three-week long Mandarin Chinese language course in Hangzhou, China. Having previously applied and been rejected, I was desperate to make the most of the opportunity. Teaching and accommodation were paid for, but the cost of flights, visas, food, insurance, and vaccinations was still pretty enormous. Thankfully, I was granted a Knowlson Trust Travel award of £200 which, combined with my savings, allowed me to complete the trip.

The cheapest flights involved stopping in Moscow on the way, so before I left I attended a talk by the university drama department about a Beijing opera interpretation of a short story by the Russian writer Chekhov – it seemed too relevant to miss! After some research and teaching myself my first words of Russian, I left on 22nd March, arriving in China on 25th.

The course was very intensive, starting at 8am every day, with four different teachers: for speaking, listening, reading and grammar. The teachers were all excellent – lessons were fun but pretty difficult! – and many other events were also organised for us. For example we saw the pretty water village of Wuzhen; robots playing football in the university labs; Coca-Cola being bottled in the nearby factory; and the bamboo forest where 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' was filmed!

Naturally, the culture was exciting enough on its own – we ate pigs’ brains and chicken feet; crammed onto hectic, noisy trains; practiced Tai Chi and Wushu (martial arts); and experienced the ever-growing hype for the Shanghai World Expo.

The experience was difficult but rewarding, hectic but fun, and certainly widened my understanding of foreign cultures. What’s more, it dramatically improved my Mandarin, and connections I made may prove very useful when I come to jobseeking or postgraduate study.

Thanks!" - William

"This summer I received £200 from the Knowlson Trust Travel awards which allowed me to fund a trip to The Colobus Trust in Kenya. The Trust is a Kenyan charity that works with local people and volunteers to protect primates such as Vervets, Sykes, Baboons and the endangered Colobus monkey. It is located on Diani beach near the second biggest town in Kenya, Mombasa. The main tasks as a volunteer were to help with primate care by cleaning cages, bottle feeding the baby Vervets and washing the monkeys with anti-fungal shampoo. We also helped with protection of monkeys outside the trust by building ‘colobridges’ which were used by the monkeys to cross the road, de-snaring in the surrounding forest and encouraging reforestation by planting trees. The Colobus Trust relies on funding from the volunteers and local businesses. To help raise funds for the trust we held a fundraising night with music and games for the locals and tourists. Through this night we managed to raise £800. Other methods of raising money included asking the managers of surrounding hotels to support us directly by donating money or by donating gifts which were then auctioned or used in raffles. The trust also raises money by giving tours to tourists around the trust and along the ‘Colobus trail’ in the forest. Giving tours helps the full time African staff too as they are required to learn several languages such as French, German and Spanish. One of my main concerns about volunteering abroad was to find an organisation which is genuinely making a difference and isn’t just an experience for tourists. I feel that the Colobus Trust is a charity that maximises the volunteers help and funding. Much of the work we do, such as colobridges building, has an immediate impact as well as a long term effect." - Verity

"I have always wanted to travel to a distance place, where the culture, food, language and traditions are completely different to what we know here in the UK. Thanks to the help I received from the Bristol Knowlson Trust Travel Awards, I was fortunate enough to make Nepal my destination. I spent most of my time in the third largest city in Nepal, called Pokhara. It is a beautiful tourist destination and is home to the famous Phewa Lake and breathtaking Annapurna mountain range.

In Pokhara, I spent two weeks doing voluntary dental work in a private Indian funded hospital, called Manipal hospital. This hospital was huge compared to any other building in the city and was well equipped with a lot of recourses. I was working in the dental department which included a team of dentists, hygienists, an orthodontist and a maxillofacial surgeon. I spent most of my time doing check-ups for the Nepalese people and providing the appropriate treatment, such as fillings, extractions and so on. I also spent time with the maxillofacial surgeon who showed me many cases of oral cancers, trauma and a variety of oral diseases. He allowed me to examine these patients and get the hands on experience I was so eager for.

Patient management in Nepal is completely different to the UK. This is because dentistry in UK is very much focussed on prevention and the system encourages people to attend on a regular basis for check-ups. However, in Nepal, patients only attend the hospital when they are in severe pain. They have very little understanding of dental hygiene and leave their oral care as a low priority. I saw many cases of extreme tooth decay which I would rarely expect to see in the UK.

Whilst working with and treating Nepalese people, I learnt so much about their culture, religion and traditions. I was really impressed with their honesty, kindness and hospitality towards me as a foreigner. They welcomed me into their culture and showed me a different way of living. I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Nepal and hope to go back there again to do more voluntary work with the Nepalese people." - Yasmin

"Thanks to a contribution from the University of Bristol Knowlson Trust Travel Awards, I was able to afford the cost of a six week expedition that I lead to Peru in the summer of 2010. I was struggling to find the money to cover the remaining cost of the expedition fee as a result of spending the money I'd saved on living costs.

I, along with two other leaders, organised the expedition and 17 months of training for a team of 15 Explorer Scouts, aged between 15 and 20. The expedition included a two week community project building a lunchroom for an orphanage, a six day trek along the Inca Trail to the world famous ruins of Machu Picchu and experiencing the local culture and taking in the sights of Peru, during a tour of the south of the country.

The trip provided me with a vast variety of skills and experiences that I wouldn't otherwise have gained, from studying at university alone. I was the expedition treasurer in charge of the £54,000 budget, responsible for recruiting the team, buying international flights for 18 people, and dealing with problems such as replacing a lost passport, in country, days before the team were due to fly home.

The trip has provided me with a vast amount of memories and experiences, and in doing so has benefitted the young people that I took with me in a similar way. The trip has boosted my confidence, and re-instilled a belief that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. I am now looking forward to working hard on my degree for the final eight months and what the future holds for me after that. I couldn't have done all of this without the help of the Knowlson Trust - thank you.

For more information you can find the Peru 2010 expedition blog that we kept up to date whilst we were away." - Alex

"In the summer of 2010 I travelled to Sri Lanka, having received a Knowlson Trust Travel award. For two and a half weeks I, and my friend Beth, volunteered at Boossa School and the Rosie May Home, then we spent a week not working to see a bit more of the country.

While we were working, we spent our mornings teaching conversational English at Boossa School, covering topics such as travel, food, giving directions, weather and animals. We mainly taught ages 11-16 years, in classes of about 10 children. It was sometimes difficult with the language barrier, as we didn’t speak their language, and it was hard to get instructions across to them, but it was a good challenge. We tried to make our lessons as fun and interactive as possible as, from what we observed, pupils were used to the teacher sitting at the front and setting written work, so we got them shouting out answers and running around the classroom.

In our afternoons we went to the Rosie May Home, a home for girls set up after the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 for orphans and economic orphans. There are currently 12 girls there, ranging from age 5 to 15, some of whom are sisters and they are looked after by a matron, assistant matron, and two other helpers. While we were there we played with the girls in the garden - they really enjoyed games like netball and badminton and got quite competitive! We also helped them with their English reading; the older girls read aloud to us and we read to the younger ones, as Matron doesn’t have good enough English to be able to do this with them, and we made paper snowflakes and fairy cakes!

I really enjoyed my time in Sri Lanka, especially getting to know the Rosie May girls and the challenge of teaching. Hopefully I will get the opportunity to do something similar again soon!" - Hannah.