This campaign has now closed

360 international centres, operating in 26 different countries, makes up theBefrienders Worldwide network. Providing emotional support in 22 languages to people experiencing feelings of distress, including those which may lead to suicide. The network is managed by just 1 full time member of staff who coordinates the network . This vital programme lacks basic resources, often due to lack of in-country finance. In order to continue to deliver this service at the highest level and to develop our network further, we aim to provide information tools to all centres, allow for greater information sharing and provide greater international support for our volunteers.

100%
Categories

  • Community Support & Development Community Support & Development
  • Health/Wellbeing Health/​Wellbeing
  • Other Other
  • Beneficiaries

    • Children (3-18) Children (3-18)
    • Older People Older People
    • Women & Girls Women & Girls
    • Young People (18-30) Young People (18-30)
    • Other Other

    Situation

    Part of the Chad Varah Appeal (named in honour of our visionary founder) this project will develop our service worldwide and ensure that callers can get the level of support they deserve. In 2003 Samaritans took over maintaining and supporting the Befrienders Worldwide network. Currently running on a limited budget there has been no chance to develop the service to any great level or to prepare for the future of the programme. This vital project will look at areas to improve our service worldwide: Website - We will: fix the technical errors in our current website, make navigation easier regardless technical skills or native language, provide an online forum for sharing information, improve online donations functions to allow future funding Materials - We will: Provide every worldwide centre with an offline ‘Guide to Volunteering’ to ensure best practice across the network, provide a physical toolkit in home language- particularly crucial for developing nations Learning - We will: focus on “twinning” more international centres with established UK centres to provide two-way mentoring, provide a bursary for an exchange programme to allow representatives to travel to sister centres to share knowledge, host an annual conference and undertake research into our impact on an international level

    Solution

    100%
    Categories

  • Community Support & Development Community Support & Development
  • Health/Wellbeing Health/​Wellbeing
  • Other Other
  • Beneficiaries

    • Children (3-18) Children (3-18)
    • Older People Older People
    • Women & Girls Women & Girls
    • Young People (18-30) Young People (18-30)
    • Other Other