Year 13 student and scholar, Rada Pandeva has been telling the BBC about her volunteering work during the pandemic.
During Lockdown 3.0, Rada responded to an advert on Instagram from an organisation called Volunteering Matters who were looking for volunteers who spoke different languages to help migrant families with their language skills.
She emailed in and was asked if she could help Bulgrian families living in the UK with their conversational English. She was then asked to help a Bulgarian family living in Ipswich with weekly lessons, which is why she was approached by BBC Radio Suffolk to talk about her experiences.
Rada, who is also a Language Leader at Shiplake, helping Lower School pupils with their Spanish, is now part of a team of eight volunteers from Portugal, Italy, Poland, Serbia and Spain who are helping parents with school aged children improve their English.
Every Monday she spends an hour teaching English conversation and grammar. She said some of the families have been in the UK for 15 years, but because of the lack of opportunity to improve their English and the language barrier they have been unable to improve until now, but they haven’t given up and are willing to keep going.
Rada said about her recent interview: “I really welcomed the opportunity to talk about something I really enjoy and deeply love. I would encourage every young person to give volunteering a go. You get a real sense of fulfilment and meaning from it because you are helping people.
“When I started volunteering, I was 15 working in sporting and cultural initiatives. It has helped me to become the person I am today.”
Mrs Justine Parrott, Head of MFL, said: “I hope that this story might be a source of inspiration to our students, as Rada is very much a celebrity in the languages department and recognised for the generosity with which she gives her time and knowledge to support our students. She also volunteers within the department one lunch time a week. I really don't know how she finds the time. We are very proud of her!”
You can listen to the interview here. It starts at 1:25:00, and Rada appears at 1:42:00.
Rada is currently studying Geography, Maths, Psychology and Spanish at A Level and hopes to go on to study Marine Science at Exeter University in September. Marine conservation is another passion of Rada’s and she is currently working on a project to help educate younger pupils about the subject, and share some of the fantastic work that is being done to save our oceans and sea life.
