Holidays are all very well, but a longer break from the workplace, especially in a deprived area, makes you a more effective employee when you return.

So says Claire Boxall, head of PR and communications at Maidstone-based Golding Homes, after a year of voluntary service in a remote part of India.

Getting away for longer than four weeks depends on an employer willing to let you go – and take you back.

Golding Homes, a housing association in mid-Kent, encourages staff to take a sabbatical for up to 12 months after five years’ service.

Claire, 36 from Leybourne, near Maidstone, had long dreamed of helping in the developing world.

As a trustee of international charity Methodist Relief and Development Fund, she was well aware of the need.

“I have a desire to see social justice,” she said. “If I want to see something happen, I’ve got to do something about it.”

After applying to international development organisation Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), and getting through an assessment day and four training courses, Claire was offered the chance to go to India.

“It was probably the hardest interview I’ve ever done,” she said.

“We had to do a whole day of group activities, where they are looking for you to be a leader but also part of a team, show confidences and be good at listening. It was so challenging.”

VSO volunteers range from students to pensioners. Claire was chosen for her professional PR and communications skills.

“It was great to think I could be useful,” she said.

So in November 2012, she found herself on a train for a 30-hour journey to Bhawanipatna in Odisha, formerly Orissa, near India’s east coast on the Bay of Bengal.

And first impressions were a shock.

“‘What have I done’, I thought? People were very welcoming but there was nothing familiar at all. I was told: ‘This is your desk, there’s your computer, this is what we do, sit down and get on with it’.”

She was communications adviser for a charity helping tribal people with land rights, health, water and sanitation projects.

“It’s really great work but on the tiniest budget. I don’t like seeing poverty but it helped that I was trying to do something about it.”

She got used to squat toilets, and washing herself with a bucket of water and a jug.

While there is discrimination against women in India, highlighted by high-profile rape cases and prosecutions in recent years, she encountered little. She was invited into family homes and welcomed into the church of North India.

The most disturbing thing was seeing rubbish chucked out. “It would pile up around the town, smelled terrible and animals ate it.”

Claire admired local people’s commitment to education.

“I’m more resourceful and I can conjure something out of nothing. I’m grateful for what I’ve got, not what I haven’t...” - Claire Boxall

She said: “In the UK, we moan about going to school, but to them it’s everything.”

Claire believes the experience has made her more patient and content with her lot – and better at her job. She looks at situations from every perspective rather than pressing ahead regardless.

“I now try to think around it more. What might someone else bring to this and how could I do that differently? I’ve brought a huge amount back into the business.

“Personally, it’s made a big difference. I’ve learned that I can live with less.

“I’m more resourceful and I can conjure something out of nothing. I’m grateful for what I’ve got, not what I haven’t.”

What advice would she give others?

She said: “If you have this desire eating away at you but have no way of getting it out, I’d be looking for a more enlightened employer. Luckily, I’ve got one.”

Peter Stringer, chief executive of Golding Homes, said: “Golding Homes has a social heart and a business mind.

“We offer colleagues unpaid career breaks to allow them an opportunity to follow their dream.

“They return with new skills and experiences to share.

“We hope this helps us appeal to and retain great people.”