Despite the COVID19 pandemic, over 200 students participated in this year’s Student Volunteering Week which took place entirely online. The national event, which has been running for 20 years, was delivered in partnership between the University and the Students’ Union Volunteering Teams.

In celebration of student volunteers, the team sent out over 3,850 Thank You e-cards to show their appreciation – a new record for the team!

Across the week, students logged online to complete 140 hours of volunteering, including writing letters to seriously ill children through the charity PostPals. They also contributed 81 hours of community mapping to help orthopaedic surgeons reach those in need of healthcare and prosthetic limbs in Northern Uganda.

As well as remote volunteering, the event saw talks from leading not for profit organisations including Want Not Waste, Healthy Me, Healthy Communities, Azizi Life and Incredible Edible Manchester. Topics covered a wide range of interests from international volunteering and student safety to community volunteering, fast fashion, commonwealth games volunteering and volunteering for careers.

Watch the ‘Thank You’ video from some of the organisations involved.

Students who missed Student Volunteering Week can still get involved with volunteering on our Volunteer Hub.