Volunteers' Week 2021: Gratitude from Travel Hands

Image is a Thank You message to the volunteers where Volunteer and VIP are chatting over phone

1 June 2021 to 7 June 2021 is national volunteers’ week in the UK and we would love to use this opportunity to thank our volunteers from VIP World Services and Travel Hands. Your contributions have been an important part of building our business and you are always a big part of our VIP World community.  So, a big THANK YOU to all our volunteers.

We at VIP World aim to provide a community-like and professionally growing environment for anyone working with us. We celebrate and appreciate ideas, thoughts, and differences. With our new service ‘Travel Hands’, we intend to facilitate a
bridge for volunteers to be more sociable with Visually Impaired People community.

What is Travel Hands?

For those who do not know, Travel Hands, a service by VIP World, pairs Visually Impaired People (or VIP as we like to call) with sighted and verified volunteers to walk together towards their similar destinations. Similar technology to Uber but for VIP, we find nearest volunteers to walk together.    

What would you need to do as a Volunteer?

A VIP can submit a trip request that is automatically sent to a volunteer near them, alerting the volunteer to their location. The accepting volunteer will then come and pick the VIP up and walk towards the requested destination together.

We will facilitate & pay the EnhancedDBS check for you as a volunteer for safety reasons and provide you an online training, consisting of a Volunteer Handbook document & a short video instruction on how to assist a VIP in walking, guiding, and resolving small issues that may arise. Followed by a self-assessment test and once you pass, we will pair you up with nearby VIP on their journeys.

How will you make a difference?

To feel the importance of your contribution towards Travel Hands, close your eyes for a minute and imagine going out on the street towards the nearest tube station or a grocery store. Is it something you would like to try by yourself everyday of your life?

In the UK, one person loses sight every 6minutes, and 250 people lose their sight in a day. And the worst part is that about eighty percent of these people do not receive any emotional support to help them through this transformation. Additionally, travelling independently for VIP is unsafe and using public transport is 100% more expensive and 2X time taking as compared to people with sight.

Image showing comparison of price and time taken for VIP and person with sight travelling in London with public transport
Image showing comparison of price and time taken for VIP and person with sight travelling in London with public transport

Your Impact:

Your volunteering help, which is flexible and could be according to your personal schedule, will create a lot of positive impacts:

·      Ensure that VIP save on average30 minutes for every journey undertaken and £100 on travel costs per month.

·      Create new social interactions and explore opportunities in life that VIP never enjoyed before.

·      Reduce carbon emission by reducing the use of taxi and single-mode transportation by VIP.

·      Improve physical and mental health by encouraging walking and social interaction.

For more details and registration, visit https://www.travelhands.co.uk/volunteer

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