July 2014

Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

First successful NSP completion
in Playa del Carmen, Community projects Mexico

Objective
To empower local community members and contribute to their personal development by
building their capacities and training on key issues within their surroundings.
Summary
On the 27th of May we accepted our first National Scholar, Karla, who worked with us for 2
months. Karla is a student with only half a year to go before completing her university degree. As part of this degree, she had to undertake a social service- type placement, which
lead her to GVI.
Karla was responsible for volunteers, worked in all three of our projects in the community
segment and was in-charge of delivering Green Action classes to the children at the
Ludoteca. She also participated in extra activities that GVI was able to participate in through
local partners.
Overall Karla was a great member of the team who worked hard, with a heart of gold and
was an asset to the lives of the volunteers and staff during her time here.

Report
The National Scholar program through the GVI Charitable Trust initiative allows a student or
adult from the region where GVI is based to be apart of the project to gain skills, knowledge
and opportunities that may lead to long term improvements for them, their local community
and environment 1. The problem GVI identifies is that there are limitations to the access of
education and training in some countries in which they operate 2. Therefore, the solution was
to create scholarships for students and young adults to ensure the skills and training can be
passed on to national personnel.
So far, 25,092 local people have been trained through classes & programs3 from around the
world. This program has been utilized in the Seychelles, Mombasa, Laos, Fiji, Nepal, Guatemala, India and more4. Although this is not the first time the National Scholarship program

http://gvi.org/what-we-do/the-projects/gvi-charitable-trust-national-scholarship-program, 8
August 2014
2
http://gvi.org/what-we-do/the-projects/gvi-charitable-trust-national-scholarship-program, 8
August 2014
3
ibid.
4
http://gvi.org/gvi-ct-national-scholarships-program- update, 8 August 2014
GVI.2014.2

has hit Mexico 5, it is the first for our young Community development projects in Playa del
Carmen.
Karla is from Mexico City and is 6 months away from completing her degree from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico city and as part of her social service; she applied for a position with GVI Mexico.
Karla was able to complete her two months working in all three projects that make up the
Community projects; childcare, healthcare and vets. She has been in charge of preparing
and delivering, in collaboration with volunteers, Green Action classes to the children at the
Ludoteca. She has learnt to perform physical therapy, occupational therapy, equine therapy
and aqua therapy at the health care project. At the vets, she has completed and is certified
with Veterinary assistant training from Cocos Cat rescue and IFAW.

Figure 1. Karla working at the Ludoteca, Equine Therapy and Coco's Cat Rescue

In addition to this, she has completed an Emergency First Responder and Secondary response training for adults and children. She has also participated in the Environment Expo
with GVI where all local organizations presented talks, ideas and their cause to the community of Playa del Carmen.

Figure 2. Karla and Nandita (a fellow volunteer) working at the Environment Expo

Karla has contributed an impressive amount to our work here at GVI but the most memorable is the energy and life she brought into the house. She helped those who were eager to
learn Spanish, she made others understand her culture and she brought much laughter and
fun times to the volunteers and staff members. As much as GVI could give her in terms of
training and developing skills, she gave it back through her energy, dedication and under-

http://gvi.org/national-scholar-case-study, 8 August 2014

GVI.2014.2

standing. She made bonds with the children, our partners but most of all with our volunteers
and staff.
Congratulations Karla, you are our achievement of the month. We wish her nothing but the
best with the rest of her school, and for whats ahead in her life.

Figure3. Karla doing what she does best at the ludoteca.

If you would like to find out more about what we do:

http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/volunteer-health-project-mexico/
Or the National Scholarship program:
http://gvi.org/our-impacts/gvi-charitable-trust-national-scholarship-program

GVI.2014.2