About The Site
What? Where? Why?
In July 2006 I gave up the type of life a lot of people in the UK lead, (car, big TV etc) to go and work for Voluntary Service Overseas, a charity who send skilled workers to developing countries. I packed up my entire life into two bags and sold everything I could. My placement is a vocational school for disabled and impoverished children in Ghana.
The reason I am doing this is I feel that, particularly in the UK, we have started to devolve. In my career so far, I have often been advised, ‘you have to think of yourself’, if you want to get ahead. I disagree. My progression is irrelevant, ours, however, is crucial.
Our Evolution must involve a change of attitude towards materialism and the way we treat other people.
EDIT: In July 2007 I came back!
The Shortest Poem in the World…. (For the curious)
…used to be ‘Adam Had ‘em’. That was until Muhammad Ali famously came up with a shorter one. While at a university lecture a student shouted out ‘Ali, give us a poem!’.
‘You want a poem? I’ll give you a poem……………Me……..We.’
‘Last Chance to See’
Is the name of my favourite book. It is written by Douglas Adams, but has nothing to do with hitchhiking.
‘Be the Change you Want to See’
Is a quotation from Mahatma Ghandi.
‘We all shit in a hole.’
Is a quotation from my window cleaner.
BY EMAIL 
or RSS feed 
Hello Jon
Nice piece and peace of writing. I am going to be your fan soon. I can also contribute my writings soon when I be there in Ghana as VSO voluneer.
Hi Jon,
What happening where are you hows it going? We are all thinking of you and wondering. Well? Zambia has been confirmed!
How can we keep in touch?
take care,
let us know
Fiona
Hi Jon,
Came here via the wordpress forums page where I was trying to find out what RSS means! I haven’t figured that out but I came to this site. You must be in Ghana now but this is to give you my best wishes for all the work you are doing.
I agree with you. People need to give.
Hi Jon!
Just plopping a post down to see how you are and how things are going. Haven’t seen you in a long time prior to uni and all those lans, but hey I thought I would drop you a post. Tried to email you some time last year when I had finished uni and I think I was starting working at PartyGaming.
Things slipped out of place for lots of people working there sadly, and now I’ve joined the ranks of JustGiving!
So anyways I think I promised in my email I would help out as soon as I was settled so now I have a full time-ish contract I’m more than happy to help out.
I saw before you had some books you wanted sending and stuff like that - but wasn’t sure if you wanted them more than the donations to your personal fundraising site! Or if you wanted a bit of both?
Anyways drop me an email if you have a chance - kai@justgiving.com !
Take care and don’t enjoy that weather too much! Its rained heavy this mornin and we’re all soaked in the office.
Cheerio pal!
Kai - hey mate - nice to see you have a job somewhere worth it. Can you get me a job there for when I return? :p
I don’t have enough inet access to look after justgiving donations for now so I am no longer trying to raise funds for VSO.
If you want to send me something you can either send me books, films, tv on dvd, food! or some IT kit for my poorly equipped classroom (see the GEEK APPEAL) - all welcome.
Cheers
Jon
Hey Sloopy!
Thanks for replying! And yeah JustGiving are an amazingly cool group of people and I’m already feeling like part of the family after just one week.
We all work very hard, play hard and really aim to make a difference. Give me a bell/email near to when you’re coming back and if we have any openings for you I’ll be sure to forward your CV and put in a good word for you!
One little thing when you’re next online can you post a little thing about what you’ve been doing and how things are progressing! I’m going to put you on the JustGiving blog if that’s okay with you and let everyone know about your amazing work.
Speak soon.
Hi Jonathan,what fantastic work you are doing,I’m feeling so proud of my very distent coiusin.I feel like you and whant to do more in the world to grow and to develop in confort and happiness.I am going to India to build for Habitat4Humanity. When I get back I will rally round my office to collect supplies to send over to your IT school.I’m only going to be away for 2 weeks.Annie told me about your work and I think its amazing,well done Jonathan.
I will be in touch
lots of love Sarah-Jane
(hopefully you remember who I am)
Hi Jonathan, great site. And many interesting thoughts. At some point you mentioned the possibility of making some kind of business selling local products via internet. What became of that? I live in Denmark and I am married to a Ghanesian woman from the Ho area. That is how I came across your site. C
Hi
My name is Lesedi, I live in the United States and am 17 years old. After graduating high school, two good friends and I are hoping to volunteer in Ghana for a month or so. Right now we are trying to decide which program is right for us and what exactly it is we are looking for. I was hoping that perhaps you could offer us some advice as far as what to expect and what to look for in a volunteering organization. Thanks so much for your time.
Lesedi
Jon where are you? Are you happy? I’m so computer literate I can’t work out how old this site is. WHATS HAPPENNING???
Fifi
11 June 08
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