But Cecilia Fletcher, a former teacher from Featherstone, decided to embark on a eye-opening adventure training teachers in Zambia and the Maldives through the Voluntary Service Organisation (VSO).


In February 2000, Cecilia – who was then 56 – left the UK for Serenje in the north of Zambia, where she worked as a lecture in education at the Malcolm Moffat Teaching College for 15 months and then, in January 2003, travelled to the Maldivian island of Gaaf Dhaal where she spent a year working as a primary teacher outreach advisor.


The 63-year-old, of Nunns Lane, said: "My experiences in these two countries changed my life."
The grandma who used to work at Purston Infant School decided to volunteer for the organisation – which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year – to pass on her skills from her life-long career in teaching to some of the poorest people in the world.


She said: "I'd taken early retirement with a view to doing something like this. I really wanted to give something back."
Cecilia left her family and three adult children to work at the college, where she taught education methods and theory, as well as special needs teaching to student teachers.


She said: "In Zambia, schools are incredibly different to here. Teachers are looking after classes of over 60 students and need appropriate training.
"VSO is not about giving money, but passing on skills. The skills I taught will hopefully have a ripple effect.


"It was eye-opening to live among some of the poorest people in the world. It makes you realise what's important in life."
During her time at the college, Cecilia set up an anti-AIDS club to boost awareness of the illness which causes death in the country on an almost daily basis.
She said: "The club still meets, and now has a counsellor working with it to offer support.


"These were the best years in my teaching life. I know I was giving something, but I'm sure I got what I gave back in spades. It was so rewarding."
When Cecilia was back in the UK, she wrote to dozens of football clubs asking for new kits for her college's team the Young Blue Stars and received an offer from Everton.
She said: "When they received the new kit, the team won everything going.


"Everyone is so grateful for even the smallest thing. Haribo, where my son works, donated some small frisbees that I sent out to one of my students to use at their school. They're only small, plastic things but he was absolutely over the moon because he could use them in PE lessons."


When Cecilia returned from Zambia, she had a hip replacement operation – but that didn't stop her. She headed out to the Maldives in 2003.
She said: "I'd recommend it to anyone – whatever their age. VSO provides excellent training, which you receive before you go out and when you arrive. You learn the basics of the language, culture and history. You're as prepared as you can be.


"As I've said, these were the most rewarding years of my teaching life. They were life-changing – I made some incredible friends, and I still keep in touch with a lot of my students. I'd like to do something else. "
Judith Brodie, director of VSO UK, said: "VSO believes that people can make a real difference to other people and so we focus on linking people together to share skills and experience to learn from each other."