Anyone with a few hours a week to spare can join Workaid's friendly team of volunteers - either in our Amersham workshop or as an area organiser anywhere in the UK.

Our main workshop always needs more people to: clean and refurbish tools; service sewing machines, knitting machines, typewriters and duplicators; pack equipment for shipping; load the containers and drive our collections van. Volunteers with DIY or engineering skills are particularly welcome for working on the more complicated machinery but training can be given and enthusiasm is the only qualification needed. Many of our volunteers are retired or redundant and find that coming to the workshop gives them a new sense of purpose as well as a new circle of friends.Visitors are always welcome. For directions to our workshop, click here

If you don't live within travelling distance of our main workshop but would still like to refurbish equipment for us, we may be able to put you in touch with one of the satellite workshops that we are currently setting up in other parts of the UK. And if there is no workshop in your area, perhaps you would like to start one with a small group of friends? For further information, contact our administrator Bill Duperouzel by phone or email.or use our ONLINE FORM

We also need more volunteers to collect and store tools and equipment for us. We currently have a network of 100 area organisers throughout the UK - from Brighton to Edinburgh and from Cornwall to Great Yarmouth - but the majority are concentrated in the South East so we are looking to improve our coverage in other areas.

To become an area organiser, you need a storage area such as a large shed or garage where you can keep donated items until our van driver is able to collect them. You must also be happy for your name, address and phone number to be kept on file in the Workaid office, so members of the public who contact us with offers of tools can be put in touch with you. Ideally, area organisers should be contactable during the day but an evenings/weekends only phone number is fine as long as you are happy to be contacted at these times. You can chose whether you are willing to travel to collect donated items or whether they should be brought to you.

Some area organisers simply collect and store tools for us. Others are active on Workaid's behalf in their local communities - publicising our work and fund-raising for us. How much time and commitment you give is up to you. All you really need is a small storage area and a willingness to deal with members of the public.

Whether you become a workshop volunteer or an area organiser, you will have the satisfaction of being part of a charity which is helping to improve the lives of thousands of people in developing countries and providing a valuable recycling service in the UK.



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