Hot on the heels of their recent award for ‘best charity managed by under 25s’, at OCVA’s Charity Awards, we look at what makes student-run charity Jacari a success.

Providing one-to-one home teaching for children living in Oxford, Jacari is an invaluable resource for local families who rely on the charity’s involvement to help improve their child’s English and performance in other subjects.

Currently 144 students from Oxford Brookes and Oxford University work with 170 families across the city. Initially committing to teaching for one academic year, some dedicated volunteers continue throughout vacations and exam periods. In fact one volunteer has been teaching continuously for six years.

The children, who are between four and 16 years old, do not speak English as their first language and often come from refugee families and those seeking asylum. The university student volunteers help to improve their language skills, as well as encourage social interaction with day trips around Oxford and games in the University Parks.

One parent said: “It’s important for us as it means our children interact with students and with children of their own age through the events Jacari puts on.

“It helps their confidence, both generally and academically. They’ve done much better at school on areas like maths and don’t think of learning as something hard or boring anymore; instead they see it can be a game or a challenge. The friendship they’ve built up with their Jacari teacher is fantastic.”

Jacari started in 1964 as a non-party political organisation, the Joint Action Committee Against Racial Intolerance. As a sideline, a home teaching scheme was set up to help foreign students settle into Oxford life. In the 1970s the group moved away from being a very political organisation to solely working as a language tutoring programme.

By 1980 Jacari began to work closely with local schools and became involved with community projects such as running an adventure playground in East Oxford.

Now boasting a well-stocked library with inspiring books, board games and computers, it is the oldest and largest student-run charity within Oxford University.

Visit www.jacari.org.uk for further details about the project.