2011 Expedition Team

Name: Scott Sandison

Citizenship: Canada

Role: Programme Director

Since playing hockey for Canada in the Beijing Olympics, Scott has focused his energies on using sport as a tool to help others – whether it's eliminating prejudice against AIDS in Southern Africa, or training young leaders in the UK. Having joined World at Play in December 2010 as Programme Director, Scott is World at Play’s newest addition. With his previous development through sport experience in Africa, North America, Europe and the Caribbean Scott brings with him a wealth of knowledge and skills. Scott’s background in dealing with volunteer organisations and in particular his work as a trainer of trainers with the Kicking AIDS Out! International network will benefit World at Play’s next generation of volunteers.

Name: Danijel Vukancic

Citizenship: USA, and Croatia

Favourite game/sport: Football / Soccer

Best memory involving sport or play: Scoring a winning goal in the playoffs was the best feeling in the world.

Highlight a personal experience you have had in working with youth or any international work that you found particularly inspirational: When I went to Switzerland to visit the headquarters of the United Nations to learn about the various UN organizations and what they do was a very inspirational trip for me.

What are you most excited about going on the World at Play expedition?: Meeting new people, working with kids, and having fun while doing it.

Name: Daniela Mira

Citizenship: Portuguese and on the process of getting the brazilian citizenship (my mom is brazilian)

Favourite game/sport: volleyball, horseriding, trekking

Best memory involving sport or play: I was camping and trekking in Portugal with my friends, and we got lost in the mountains for about 12 hours. Everybody panicked, specially seeing that we were all teenagers, but since we had a monitor somewhere, we soon realized that people were probably already looking for us, and we would be ok. Once everybody relaxed, we built a fire, made beds out of leaves and other things and had one of the coolest night I can remember having. The only rival to this experience is creating a peddypaper route for my cousins, who are 11 and 9, and have them run around trying to find more clues, with their voices rising to levels of excitement unknown to mankind... Priceless!

Highlight a personal experience you have had in working with youth or any international work that you found particularly inspirational: Last year I was teaching english to a class of 4th graders, and the school decided to have a contest between all classes, where they had to do a presentation in english about any cultural aspect of a country of their choice. My kids picked New Zealand, so I taught them some interesting facts to say in english, and we decided on presenting the All Blacks Haka (the Maori dance performed by the champion rugby team of NZ before their games). After weeks of practice, watching those kids perform that dance with such passion was unbelievable. In the end of the contest, they won! And the way they jumped up to perform it again, without anyone asking them to was amazing! It was the result of teamwork between me and them, and one of those moments that make life worth living.

What are you most excited about going on the World at Play expedition? I'm very excited about learning about the culture of the countries we're about to visit. I can't wait to meet the people and work with them, to see the sights in our free time, and to taste their food (I absolutely LOVE food!). Also, I'll admit I'm pretty excited about meeting all the people going on the expedition, as we're going to share something incredible...

Name: Hannah Juneau

Citizenship: Canadian

Favourite game/sport: Running, paddling, basketball

Best memory involving sport or play: Sport4All Day in Kamatipa, Zambia (August 2010) - over 500 children came out of the unplanned settlement of Kamatipa to join in on a sport festival that had poetry, traditional dancing, drumming, singing, football, netball and Kicking Aids Out games. It was organized by the executive committee of Kamatipa New Hope and was an absolutely amazing day

Highlight a personal experience you have had in working with youth or any international work that you found particularly inspirational: In August 2010 I had the opportunity to visit 5 families of the children who are funded to attend school through Kamatipa New Hope, a charitable organization in Zambia my partner and I started in 2008. It was very humbling to learn that each student was so grateful for the opportunity to attend school and how hard they worked to make the most of the education they were receiving. Several of the children were even requesting books and school supplies over footballs or toys - a true indication of what they valued in their life to necessitate a bright future.

What are you most excited about going on the World at Play expedition? I am excited by the opportunity to work with and learn from some very talented and inspirational individuals from across the globe. I look forward to learning, developing a new skill set and being challenged in ways I cannot anticipate. I feel very fortunate to be able to visit, live and work in an area of the world that few get to experience.

Name: Kendra Wergin

Citizenship: United States

Favourite game/sport: Swimming and Field/Floor Hockey

Best memory involving sport or play: During my first year as a swim coach, I watched one of my swimmers drop 15 seconds off her 100-meter breaststroke time - two weeks in a row! It was great to see her get such an incredible return on the effort she'd given over the season. (And although this has nothing to do with me, I will always remember the Mens 4x100 freestyle relay at the 2008 Olympics when the American team overcame the French in the last 25 yards... it was the kind of race that makes you think that anything is possible.)

Highlight a personal experience you have had in working with youth or any international work that you found particularly inspirational:  I worked with disadvantaged youth as a high school Spanish teacher in Washington, D.C. for two years, and I saw my students overcome tremendous setbacks to achieve great things. Poor students in the United States typically get the worst educations, and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to help change that. My students were worth every hour of sleep that I lost as a new teacher in a tough situation and taught me so much about life, love, and perseverance. I'm still in touch with many of my students, and they continue to remind me why I want to be an advocate for kids my whole life.

What are you most excited about going on the World at Play expedition? There are two things about which I'm consistently passionate and vocal: education/working with youth and my family's Croatian heritage. I'm very excited to have the opportunity to combine an opportunity to work with kids with the chance to spend time in the part of world where people share the culture and language of my grandparents. Hopefully I'll come away from the summer with a bit more proficiency in Serbo-Croatian!

Name: Lib Roberts

Citizenship: Welsh

Favourite game/sport: I must admit I’m a bit of a rugby fan and do like watching it but don’t play. Prefer rounder’s, its fun and energetic.

Best memory involving sport or play: Apart from Wales winning the Grand Slam in 2008 and witnessing this (rugby) ☺ I’d say playing football, basketball, tennis, table tennis and any other sport we could play down the local field as a child for hours upon end in the summer months. Sports and play always bring back happy nostalgic memories for me.

Highlight a personal experience you have had in working with youth or any international work that you found particularly inspirational: Whilst carrying out work experience for the Children’s Commissioner for Wales I was privileged to spend some time playing and communicating with beautiful children who`d had unfortunate experiences and to see them relax and have fun for a few hours was amazing. This was a definite inspiration and I’m sure there will be many inspirational moments on this expedition.

What are you most excited about going on the World at Play expedition? I think the whole prospect of the adventure and uncertainty of the expedition excites me the most. I’m really looking forward to meeting special, genuine people on the team as well the children and the people in the places we will be travelling too.

Name: Will Jefferson

Citizenship: British

Favourite game/sport: Cricket (joking, its really HWAH!)

Best memory involving sport or play: Organising a relay race for a group of 40 kids that involved fancy dress, blindfolds, ropes, mountain boards, canoes and a tower of crates.

Highlight a personal experience you have had in working with youth or any international work that you found particularly inspirational: Spending a month setting up an after-school activity program in a primary school based in Kibera Slum, Nairobi. The girls (aged 5-7) were a privilege to work with - incredibly bright and good natured - and they loved to play games.

What are you most excited about going on the World at Play expedition? Learning how to run sessions without speaking the local language! (+ spending 2 months on the road with a fantastic group of people!)

Name: Martha Infray

Citizenship: British and French

Favourite game/sport: Badminton

Best memory involving sport or play: Playing on my own against my sister and her boyfriend and still winning the game! A lot of running but well fun!

Highlight a personal experience you have had in working with youth or any international work that you found particularly inspirational: Teaching English to Thai children in Trang Province was very rewarding, and although I shouldn’t joke about other people’s accent (mine being distinctly French) I couldn’t help but have the giggles when the children were pronouncing legs “leegs”, ten “teen” and never “neever” after my colleague from New Zealand had spent the morning teaching them. The children were wonderful to work with, so keen to learn and so pleasant to work with.

What are you most excited about going on the World at Play expedition? I’m most excited about playing games and sports with the children, getting to meet many interesting people, and experiencing colourful cultures.

Name: Sion Lanini

Citizenship: British, Swiss

Favourite game/sport: Sardines

Best memory involving sport or play: Recently, a group of friends and I stayed in a big old Victorian house in the Scottish Highlands for a weekend. As the evening turned to night and with the house to ourselves, we decided play Sardines - which is like reverse Hide & Seek - in the dark. With all the lights switched off, one person goes to hide and the others go looking for them. If you find the person, you hide with them until the last person finds everyone else. It's so hard not to laugh when you're in a big group hiding in a small space, especially when the people looking for you are close by! Finding places for 8 people to hide wasn't easy, but sometimes the most simple ones work best. One friend crouched next to the sofa and just became part of the furniture - only when there were 4 of them and I'd walked past them three times did I notice!

Highlight a personal experience you have had in working with youth or any international work that you found particularly inspirational: I have been very inspired by the international development charity Practical Action, who work with communities to overcome poverty through skills-building and appropriate technology. I really value the direct contact they have with communities and their small-scale, localised and long-term approach. This supportive way of working is something I hope to see and contribute to in World at Play's work with our partners.

What was it about participating in a previous first expedition that inspired you to get involved a second time? The first expedition felt like we were laying a lot of foundations, both in terms of the children and partner organisations we worked with. I wanted to get involved a second time to revisit some of the groups and to work with new groups with a longer-term vision in mind. I also felt like I wasn't playing enough games and sport in my life, and so wanted to feed my soul with some games and fun :-)

What are you most excited about going on the World at Play expedition?: I can't wait to meet the team, to work together and to enjoy the journey over the next couple of months.