Platform2 is a global volunteering scheme for 18 to 25 year olds who wouldn't otherwise be able to visit a developing country and get involved with global issues of justice and poverty. It is funded by UKaid from the Department for International Development. and run by Christian Aid and BUNAC.

Our last groups of volunteers depart from the UK in mid-October 2010.

As the application deadline for those departures has already passed, we are no longer accepting applications to take part in Platform2. However, if you would like to consider a self-financed volunteer abroad experience, we recommend that you contact Platform2's partner organisation BUNAC. For more information, please visit their website: www.bunacvolunteer.org.

A vital part of the programme is our returned volunteers creatively telling their story once back in the UK, and raising awareness of the global development issues they encountered while overseas. These activities are continuing.

We will soon be transforming this web site to show case the activities of returned volunteers and the global development issues involved.

Read about our volunteers' experiences and have a look at our about section where some frequently asked questions are answered.

"I didn't think that people like me could do something like this. I thought it was just for people who were rich… I'd never been on an airplane before. The farthest I'd been was Wales."

Charlotte Singleton, a volunteer youth worker from Manchester, spent 10 weeks teaching in a school in Himachal Pradesh, northern India.

"The people were so amazing – so warm, so welcoming. That's why so many of us want to go back... They talk so highly of all the things we've done for them. We think it was nothing, but they think it's amazing that we took time out to do something for them."

Muna Sheikh, a law student form east London, spent 10 weeks working in a community in Ventanilla, Peru.

"Over there everybody was connected and out to help each other get by. They were all in the same boat. Here, everyone is trying to get into their own boat and sail their own course. Over there they know that if they don't build a big boat together, they're not going nowhere. The people of Bledi Chedi showed me what the true essence of community is and I think that people could do with connecting to that – that sense of common unity."

Shaun Welch, a welder and artist from Birmingham, spent 10 weeks working in the Volta region of north-east Ghana.