The GapGuru team boasts a wealth of experience when it comes to gap travel. Every member of our UK and overseas team shares a passion for travel and volunteering abroad, and together we give you the kind of expert advice and comprehensive support you need to make the most of your time off. Meet the GapGuru team below!
Overseas Team
Cambodia
Charlotte
Location: Battambang
Background: Charlotte was born and grew up in London, England. She fell in love with Cambodia on her gap year and proceeded to study Southeast Asian art and culture for many years at university. After graduating she decided to make Cambodia her home along with her fiancé and two dogs, Willow and Chester. Before becoming a GapGuru coordinator she traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia, taught as a Grade 1 Form Teacher in Phnom Penh, continued her personal studies on the architecture at Angkor Wat, and learnt Khmer.
Interests: Art, music, travel
What’s the best part of your job? “I get to meet new people and share my love of Cambodia with them. Furthermore, seeing the impact that volunteers can make to the local community provides me with a great sense of job satisfaction.”
Why take a gap year in Cambodia? “Cambodia is a beautiful country with a rich and diverse history and culture. The people are extremely friendly and their joy for life is infectious. The locals are always enthusiastic about showing volunteers their country, practicing their English with them, and dancing and singing all day and most of the night!”
India
Hema
Location: Bangalore
Background: Hema was born in Madras (now Chennai), but saw much of India as a child, as her father was an officer in the Indian Air Force. After a short spell in the UK, Hema completed her schooling in Bangalore, where she now lives with her husband. Hema has been actively involved with development work supporting several NGOs in Bangalore.
Interests: Arts and crafts, cooking, flower arrangement
What’s the best part of your job? “I like being able to help so many organisations and to see that both the project and the volunteer benefit from the experience. It also gives me the opportunity to meet some wonderful people and watch them grow.”
Why take a gap year in Bangalore? “There is always a lot that an individual can do to make a worthwhile contribution in Bangalore. At the same time it’s a fun city and gap year volunteers and interns can unwind and enjoy themselves after an intensive day.”
Kathryn
Location: Delhi
Background: Kathryn grew up in America and studied Forestry at university before moving abroad to support sustainable development and environmental conservation in the developing world. She has worked in countries as wide-ranging as Paraguay, Madagascar and Sierra Leone and is now learning Hindi in her role as GapGuru coordinator in Delhi.
Interests: International development, languages, music, dancing
Why take a gap year in Delhi?: “I am a lifelong promoter of gap year volunteering because I believe that it is the perfect win-win situation: the organisation wins because it gets new ideas and energy from the volunteers, and the individual wins through the satisfaction of helping where the need is greatest.”
Santa Rai
Location: Kalimpong/Darjeeling
Background: Santa Rai was brought up in Kalimpong but moved abroad after finishing his education. He eventually returned to Kalimpong to get involved with the local community and took up his role as a GapGuru coordinator.
What’s the best part of your job?: “I feel very proud of the work that I do. The community here is poor, underdeveloped and needs support. The gap year volunteers bring with them new ideas and experiences, and work with great dedication to promote sustainable development.”
Why take a gap year in Kalimpong?: “I have seen gap year volunteers return to projects for a third and fourth time. This is what makes me believe that the volunteers and the community build a special bond that makes volunteers travel thousands of miles and come time and again.”
Mandira
Location: Chennai
Background: Mandira has lived in Chennai for 35 years, so knows the city inside out. Her family have spread out from Chennai and she has two daughters living in the USA.
What’s the best part of your job? “I enjoy meeting and interacting with all the gap year volunteers and interns and exchanging ideas.”
Why take a gap year in Chennai? “Chennai is a popular destination due to the combination of gap year projects, the beach and the rich culture of South India.”
Ranu
Location: Kolkata
Background: Ranu has in-depth experience of working in the volunteer sector, having worked for the Institute of Cerebral Palsy for 33 years. Before this she studied her Masters in Education in the USA. Ranu is extremely family-orientated and is a proud mother and grandmother to 3 daughters and 5 grandchildren.
Interests: Travel, entertaining guests, pampering her grandchildren!
Why take a gap year in Kolkata? “Kolkata is a great place for visitors; people are friendly, ever-ready to help. It has some interesting places to visit on weekends and those interested in old architecture will enjoy visiting the city’s temples and palaces.”
Tanzania
Sarah
Location: Arusha
Background: Sarah was born in London and studied and worked in the UK before volunteering in Uganda, where she lived and worked for 4 years. Having acquired a taste for African development work, Sarah returned to the UK only briefly before joining our GapGuru team in Tanzania.
Interests: International development
What’s the best part of your job? “Tanzania is a nice place to live and work and my job is a great mix of working with people and managing an organisation”
Why take a gap year in Tanzania? “Our partners are so enthusiastic and really want to change things. As a gap year volunteer it is great to see the impact just a small input can have. If you want to get a different perspective on developing countries and get behind the media image of Africa, then this is the place to come.”
Daniphord
Location: Arusha
Background: Daniphord was born in Tanzania’s capital, Dodoma, where he farmed for many years before moving to Arusha. Here he learnt English and began running classes to teach others. Daniphord has been an HIV grants coordinator and is now Sarah’s Deputy, managing the wide range of GapGuru volunteer programmes in Tanzania.
Interests: Reading, films, music.
What’s the best part of your job? “Our Tanzania team enjoys working side-by-side with gap year volunteers and we share our experiences at fortnightly meetings. Personally I most enjoy giving business training to HIV grant recipients.”
Why take a gap year in Tanzania? “People in the local community value the support given by gap year volunteers. Their contribution helps significantly in improving education and livelihoods in local communities.”
Nepal
Ram
Location: Kathmandu Background: Ram was born and grew up in Kathmandu. He studied Economic and Political Science in Nepal before continuing his studies in Denmark. Ram has since returned to Nepal where he lives with his wife and son.
Interests: Travel, trekking, social work.
What’s the best part of your job? “I am very interested in different cultures and I enjoy meeting people from different countries.”
Why take a gap year in Nepal? “Nepal is rich in its beauty and cultural diversity. Tourists come here for trekking, climbing, white water rafting and safaris, and Nepalese people are well known for their friendliness.”
Ecuador
Marianne
Location: Puerto López
Background: Marianne grew up in Florida, USA before going to college in Rhode Island where she studied Coastal Ecology and Resource Management. She came to Ecuador as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1997 and has since made it her home, setting up a fair-trade craft company in the process.
Interests: Hiking, swimming, reading.
What’s the best part of your job? “Watching gap year travellers fall in love with their host families. Keeping them safe and healthy and doing everything possible to ensure that they have a positive, enriching experience.”
Why take a gap year in Puerto López? “Puerto López is a rural fishing village rich with culture and its natural and cultural attractions make it a major tourist destination. Puerto López’s economy depends heavily on tourism and the ability to speak English is very important. Those individuals who speak English usually fare much better than those who do not and there is a great deal of enthusiasm amongst the population to learn the English language.”
Carolina
Location: Quito
Background: Carolina was born in Quito and has lived in Ecuador’s capital city her whole life. She now lives with her parents and brother. Before becoming a GapGuru coordinator, Carolina worked as a psychologist for children and adults.
Interests: Travel, meeting new people, spending time with family and friends.
What’s the best part of your job? “What I enjoy most about this job, is realising that gap year travellers can understand the reality of my country. While they are working, they can learn not just how to speak Spanish, but also how to help people in the best way. I really enjoy my job, because I can work in a team and help my country.”
Why take a gap year in Ecuador ? “What makes travelling here very special is the people, the landscape and the weather. You can find very nice people here and we have beautiful landscapes. There are mountains here in Quito and if you want to travel, you just decide if you prefer go to the beach, to the jungle or to the Galapagos Islands! Ecuador is a small country and because of this you can make the most of your time here. Finally, you have perfect weather, with warm days and little rain.”
Sri Lanka
Dhammike
Location: Kandy
Background: Dhammike was born and raised in Kandy, and now lives there with his wife. He became a GapGuru volunteer coordinator after a long career in hospitality, but has always been involved in volunteer organisations in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Nepal.
Interests: Community development, volunteering
What’s the best part of your job? “No matter what project we work on I always feel that we have helped develop something for the benefit of the wider community. Working with gap year volunteers from all over the world means that there is a huge amount of variety in my work and I always gain different perspectives from each volunteer.”
Why take a gap year in Sri Lanka? “Sri Lanka is such a diverse and culturally rich country. Because it is a developing nation there are many different opportunities to suit every type of volunteer, whether they are interested in teaching, healthcare, conservation or construction.”
Romania
Erno
Location: Miercurea Ciuc Background: Erno was born and grew up in the Romanian city of Targu Mures. After studying at university there he moved to Budapest then to Odorheiu-Secuiesc, where he now lives with his family. Erno is currently working as history teacher at a local school and has been our Romania gap year coordinator since September 2011.
Interests: Football, basketball, travel.
What’s the best part of your job? “I really enjoy my work because I can help the local community and particularly children and young people. That’s why I am glad to be the local coordinator of GapGuru.”
Why take a gap year in Romania? “I think that Transylvania is the greatest area of Romania and there are a lot of possibilities for gap year volunteers to work, travel and have fun here.”
Chile
Anita
Location: Elqui Valley Background: Anita grew up and studied in Copiapo in northern Chile. She now spends her weekdays teaching English in Pisco Elqui and heads to the coast on weekends to visit her family in La Serena. Anita has been a Chile gap year coordinator since March 2009.
Interests: Reading, movies, socialising with friends.
What’s the best part of your job? “I love bringing gap year volunteers into the classroom. To share everyday with my students is wonderful. They are always happy and most important, my students always want to work and learn.”
Why take a gap year in Chile? “Gap year volunteers really help us in our classes. I think it is good for our students to listen to a native English speaker. They have the opportunity to practice English with them and volunteers can share their experiences with them.”
Yali
Location: Santiago Background: Yali was born in Nicaragua and moved to Chile at a young age. Having grown up and studied in Santiago, Yali completed her graduate studies in Miami, USA, where she first began teaching English and Spanish. She now teaches in Santiago and lives with her husband and their English bulldog! Yali has been a GapGuru coordinator since July 2010.
Interests: Travel, photography, education.
What’s the best part of your job? “Because I work in Santiago, travelling to the GapGuru projects in the Elqui Valley every month is more like a gift than just another part of my job! I enjoy listening to students talking in English, singing and working in groups. The teachers are really enthusiastic, know their students really well and give every day of work to improve the chances in life for all of them.”
Why take a gap year in Chile? “The setting is outstanding, especially for people more used to city life. The Elqui Valley has little towns up in the mountains with friendly locals who work in vineyards and tourism. The region is well known for its amazing clear sky that will definitely leave gap year volunteers awake during the starry nights! The children love to learn English from GapGuru volunteers and with their visit the whole community is engaged in learning a foreign language.”
South Africa
Amy
Location: Cape Town Background: Amy was born in Cape Town but travelled throughout South Africa as a child. Having settled back in Cape Town she has lived in and around the city ever since, and was teaching there for 4 years before recently moving out to the Winelands with her fiance. Amy has been the South Africa gap year coordinator since 2011.
Interests: Reading, movies, socialising with friends.
What’s the best part of your job? “I love the people I work with so coming to work is always a pleasure - we have a wonderful team! I enjoy the planning and problem-solving as well as the day-to-day interaction with gap year volunteers.”
Why take a gap year in South Africa? “South Africa is incredibly beautiful. It has a great climate and very warm, friendly people. The landscape has many different things – mountain, grasslands, beach, sea, rivers, fynbos.”