By Savita and Helen (Editors)
volunteertales@hotmail.com

We are recently returned volunteers form Honduras (Savita) and Zambia (Helen). We realise that there is currently no anthology of volunteers' experiences overseas. This is a shame, especially since we are in the UN Year of Volunteering, because it would be useful for potential and/or existing overseas volunteers, as well as for an entertaining reading. Due to this, we have got together to publicize our venture and write a draft proposal. We have also built a website - see www.volunteertales.org. - which you are welcome to visit.

Since our work, we have since received over 200 contributions from volunteers. The accounts (stories, poems, emails home, letters) make compelling, intelligent, humorous reading. They range from suffering from a hangover in Vanuatu to a moving account written last year, 20 miles from the Afghan border in Pakistan. Above all, the experiences show that there is no such thing as a volunteer or a host community - volunteering is unequivocally an exchange of ideas, of warmth and of humanity.

We're currently in talks with several publishers who are very interested in the idea, and have been offered partnerships with U.S., French and international volunteering websites who would like to publicize our efforts.

If you are interested in contributing to the anthology, please see our website, which has contact details and sample pieces. This is a book to look out for.