For years, gap years have been synonymous with cheap hostels, cheap food, and even cheaper drinks, but one Haslemere-based business has been proving this assumption wrong for decades. 

Africa & Asia Venture (AV) specialises in summer and gap year volunteering programmes for 17 to 25-year-olds and is celebrating an important milestone – thirty years since its first volunteer project.

Founder Nigel Warren said: “Who would have thought that the small business Peter and I established with a song and a prayer 30 years ago would still be providing opportunities for young volunteers to spread their wings through helping rural communities in far-flung countries, from East, Central, and Southern Africa to the Himalayan regions of India, Sikkim, and Nepal.

“It is immensely gratifying to recognise the extent of the impact the Africa & Asia Venture projects have had on both the volunteer students and their hosting communities, and how in so many cases it mapped their futures. My grateful thanks to all those, past and present, who helped make AV such an enjoyable and successful little company, and not least to the thousands of young volunteers and their parents who trusted us to provide what we did.”

Andrew Mackenzie added: “The relevance and value to young people of the meaningful gap year experience offered by the likes of AV has never been greater.”

Some AV past volunteers have gone on to form their own charities to support communities in Africa and Asia, including African Promise, St Anthony’s Nursery School, and Inspire Malawi.