[UK] Indonesian volunteers on scheme to help poor in Britain

from The Hindu

Volunteers from Indonesia are being deployed to help fight poverty, drug and alcohol abuse in one of Britain's biggest cities.

Nine Indonesians between 17 to 25 years of age have been selected by Britain's Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), a charity organistaion, to work alongside British volunteers in areas of Glasgow infested with social evils, The Sunday Times reported.

They will work in Maryhill and Milton areas for three months under VSO's Global Xchange scheme.

The areas are among the most socially deprived in the UK and have life expectancy rates that are below those of the volunteers homeland.

The average life expectancy in Indonesia is 66, whereas men born in Maryhill and Milton have life expectancies of below 60, the report said.

The volunters have been asked to brace themselves to face the harsh life of inner-city Scotland, Rebecca Metcalfe, the project supervisor said.

"They see the West, as very glamorous with everyone being affluent and having access to high-technology gadgets. But the next three months are really going to challenge those preconceptions," she was quoted as saying in the report.

The visitors, who are members of the Indonesian Scout Association, will live with families in Glasgow during their stay.

"They have been told that there are areas of the city, where there are problems of drink and drug abuse and they have been briefed about the countrys growing secularisation," according to Metcalfe.