Helping Orphan Children

In the early 1990s some students wanted a break from study – a "gap year", although the term wasn't yet in common use. They approached their geography professor, Peter Slowe, about travelling and working in Eastern Europe. It was hard to find opportunities for travel combined with work experience, so Peter set about arranging for the students to go and teach English in Romania where he knew some fellow geographers. This was how Projects Abroad began in 1992.

Until 1997, we were a small, family-run organisation with just two part-time staff sending university students to teach English in Eastern Europe. But with more and more people taking time out on academic and work-related breaks, and with many developing countries in need of self-funded volunteers, our organised volunteer travel programmes started to mushroom around the world. Our volunteers can still teach English in Eastern Europe, but can also do many other types of work in many other places.