The volunteering experience in the UK School Games

It has been an honoured to be one of the volunteers in the UK School Games (UKSG) 2011. The UK school games is a major multi-sport events for junior and senior high school students all over the UK to compete and to prove that they are the best among their peers for their sport branch in the UK. This year, the UKSG was held in Sheffield and involved not less than 5000 altlethes and 1000 volunteers. There were several group of volunteers, which come from different organisations. The organisation where I was affiliating with is called 'International Inspiration', which consists of around 100 young leaders, age 13-18 years old, from 10 different countries. This innitiative has been organised by a collaboration of the British Council, UNICEF, and The UK Youth Sport trust. I was so delighted when the British Council contacted me to be one of the interpreters for one of the Indonesian young leaders who were chosen to participate in the preparation trainings as well as in the volunteering experience in the UKSG 2011.

The International Inspiration is an innitiative and is also part of the pledges made by the UK, when the country was bidding for London Olympic and Paralympic 2012. The innitiative is to create an awareness among International Young Leaders and also the adult chaperons, mainly are the sport school teachers. They were introduced to make the sport as a platform to train young people about leadership and social inclusiveness as well as positive values, such as integrity, fairness, determination, and respect. In addition, the program also strongly emphasises the importance of safeguarding for children and underage young person. All the participants are equiped to know how to be a responsible coach and leaders.

Overall it was a pleasing and meaningful experience, which I think is highly recommended taken by International students who aim to gain as many experience as possible during their time in the UK.