In Harriet Gregory’s final year as an Ashbourne YFC member in Derbyshire, she finally applied for a YFC Travel trip to volunteer in Sri Lanka, and now wishes she’d taken advantage of the opportunities sooner.
I have never been to Sri Lanka or South Asia before so I was drawn towards the location and I was intrigued by the volunteering side to it as well. Two weeks seemed to be the perfect timescale. I thought it would be a great opportunity not to turn down!
I was surprised by the difference between the rural parts compared to the city. In the countryside they didn’t even have any electricity at the school – it was very rural and underdeveloped.
But when we went to see the farming side, it was amazing how they looked at having a circular food supply chain, where everything is sustainable. The farm owner really cares about his farm and is constantly trying to improve his processes and continuously researching new ideas.
The farm owner talked about how he used wastes to turn into other income streams to enhance yields and to support sustainable farming.
There was hardly any machinery – it was very basic and all done by hand. They had a lot more staff than we have in the UK. The farm had roughly 35 people, and they only had 50 acres!
The farmer had lots of little projects whereas in the UK, most farms stick to one or two sectors such as beef and sheep or dairy and arable. He had chickens, papaya, passion fruit, goats, pigs, dairy, buffalo and vermicomposting systems that use worms to decompose waste to make nutrient rich compost.
He had so many projects on such a small farm. It was so good to have an insight to all those little methods, and we brought home a lot of information, which I hope to utilise on our farm.
I farm with my partner and we have beef, sheep and a few chickens. I hope to integrate a vermicomposting system which we can combine with the livestock manure to make a nutrient rich compost.
I also plan to introduce a system of producing maggots as a protein feed for the chickens. We have quite a few flowers around the farm and we noted that dried marigold flowers are used as chicken feed. The yellow marigold petals enhanced the colour of the egg yolk, which I found fascinating.
The school only had basic facilities and they made do with what they had. The chairs and tables were very dated and they didn’t have much stationary to use either.
However, they had a big outdoor playing area and the children loved being outside. They were very skilled at cricket and I’ve never seen a child that young throw a ball that hard! They do it day in and day out, it’s incredible.
I think helping with creating a little vegetable patch at the school will help to educate the children on where their food comes from and what they can grow in their climate. We planted chillis, capsicums, aubergines, beans, okra – popular plants in Sri Lanka. It will be good for educating them on how to look after the crops.
Painting the school made such a difference too. It lifts your spirits when you come to a freshly painted school, even the teachers and parents appreciated that as well.
We did a few English lessons – their English wasn’t great but the older kids were able to translate a bit better. They were really engaged with the lessons and we all had a great time learning about their culture as well.
We helped at the farm, planting papaya trees, hand pollinating passion fruits, harvesting radishes and helping with candling eggs.
I found that interesting as we have eggs on our farm and it’s just a different method to how they do it. We spend ages just looking up eggs with our phone torches. Their method is so much quicker using a tin can with a lightbulb on the end, and they just go up and down so quickly. It was a brilliant idea!
Definitely go for it! You won’t regret it. It’s one of the best experiences I have had. It’s really eye-opening to experience what farming is like in other countries and it’s also really rewarding. You feel like you have made a difference. It’s so nice to see those children’s faces light up and I have definitely made really great friends.
I am going to try and give presentations to our club to push the travel opportunities that are available. We haven’t had anyone from Ashbourne go on a travel experience for a few years. I think they will want to see first-hand what a difference you can make and the volunteering trip is probably the best one.
NFYFC’s volunteering trips are organised with Projects Abroad and are created to involve rural and farm settings where possible. Look out for the 2026 trips advertised in September.