In an other future

January 28, 2013

Asociacion CEPIA, Costa Rica
Stela Bo

Hola from beautiful Costa Rica! Incredible how fast the last five months passed for me, the time I started working for CEPIA.CEPIA - means Culture, Education, Psychology for Infants and Adolescents and is an costarican non- profit organisation.We are working with teenagers, kids, adults and whole families with poor backgrounds in lot of villages in Guanacaste.Let's start five months ago. My first impressions of CEPIA were a little confusing, as I am from Germany and we handle things a little bit different. It was very hard for me to understand that it is really possible for such few people to organize and take care of that many kids and their families, well IT IS POSSIBLE!  CEPIA is an very important part of the villages in the area and without CEPIA...

CEPIA summer camp

Marjuri and her new wheelchair

Christmas decoration

Workshop about sexual exploitation

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My time with Project Why

January 27, 2013

Project Why, India
Emily Fox

  I can not believe that my time with Project Why is quickly coming to an end, I have less than a month left of my 6 month stay and the days are slipping by faster than ever! I think back to before I left America, when I didn’t know if I was going to like India or the Project and 6 months was seeming like such a long time. I look at myself then and I know that I am a different person now, all the lessons I have learned from the Project and the kids I have worked with have changed me forever. Being in India has opened my eyes to so many new things-- food, ideas, religions, etc. All of the staff at Project...

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Painting at St.paul orphanage and child neglect school

January 26, 2013

It was exciting traveling to uganda and meeting the orphans i had longed to see  for quite a long period of time.we had to teach English to these orphans at St paul orphanage and child Neglect school,an orphanage that is ran by Busoga Volunteers for community Development,a community based organization.the children  enjoyed my accent,we painted a 4 block classrom,distributed schoolastic materials and held a cultural show from which some money was raised to buy food for the orphans,this was so exciting.i pray that i get chance to go back and see how this orphanage has transformed.Thanks to Mr daniel Musota who worked tirelessly to see that everything about my stay uganda was  safe....

St Paul orphanage and Child neglect school Under Busoga Volunteers for Community Development

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Expectations met

January 25, 2013 | 1 comment

Shanti Bhavan, India
Carlyn Miller

 I’ve talked previously about how I set out to decide on a suitable volunteer project and how Omprakash helped me to moderate some of the reservations I had. As I have said before, it is important to me that volunteering works best as a payment in kind exercise. However, this is not without its pitfalls. Providers must not only be willing to provide some kind of non-monetary reward for the time and effort of volunteers but also should have implemented a structure that will support them throughout their placement. I feel this the primary reason that many people will choose to pay a significant amount of money to a volunteering ‘agent’ in order to guarantee that they will be looked after for the duration of their time with the partner....

Shanti Bhavan

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Fun-Raiser

January 25, 2013

Shanti Bhavan, India
Carlyn Miller

 After applying to Shanti Bhavan, in a flurry of excitement about my decision to leave the country, I booked flights to India for the 11th of November. This turned out to be premature as given the school year; I would not start teaching until January 5th! However, I figured that being in India for November and December, would still be better than working 12 hour shifts in a busy restaurant with Christmas Day as my only day off! This meant 3 weeks to get organised and 3 weeks to fundraise. I hadn’t really thought about fundraising, as there was no set cost for my trip. I know that with some volunteer placements you are asked to raise a set amount. However, after hearing about Shanti Bhavan and the work...

Fun-Raiser

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Donations From Brazil

January 23, 2013

Childline Uganda, Uganda
Gabriela Silva

Last weekend and yesterday we distributed some of donations that I received from Brazil. These were some exciting days!During the weekend, I went to Masaka, another district in Uganda, with John and Irene, one of the responsible for Community Outreach Africa – Masaka, to distribute scholastic materials to children and teenagers. They received 4 notebooks with 96 pages which, pens and pencils. To the mothers and guardians, we gave soap and jelly. Yesterday, me, John and Fred, who also works in Childline Uganda, went to Trio Primary School, institution that helps and support around 30 children, and gave them around 100kg of Maize Flour, 80kg of Beans, 50kg of Rice, Kimbo (kind of spice), soap and jelly. After, we went to Maanyi Subcounty to distribute food and scholastic materials. We...

Scholastic materials to children and teenagers

John and one family that received donations

People in Trio Primary School receiving donations

Distributing donations in Masaka

Children in Masaka saying thank you!

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Arrival In Peru

January 23, 2013 | 1 comment

SKIP - Supporting Kids In Peru, Peru
Sam Webb

 So I arrived to Peru about 2 weeks ago and the photo project is already well underway. There are various exciting plans and wonderful photos already beginning to come out of this project. For example: a great opportunity for fundraising and networking in a joint event organised by Omprkash and SKIP.Watch this space for more information, resources and photos as the week go on. For now, please read my blog entry on the SKIP website to find out a bit more about how things are going. 

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AM and Lacrosse the Nations

January 21, 2013

Abriendo Mentes, Costa Rica
Jessy Bowman

It is so encouraging to see kids excited to learn English. In this rural town of Potrero Abriendo Mentes makes learning english a fun experience so the kids want to come back every day. Their little faces are always peeking through the windows awaiting the prior class to end so they can have a chance to dominate the classroom. On the lacrosse field, all you see are flying tennis balls and smiling faces. Lacrosse provides a positive outlet for the kids to release some of their harnessed energy. Overall, both programs provide hope and inspiration for the kids to follow their dreams.

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News Junkie

January 18, 2013 | 1 comment

Lumana, Ghana
Stephanie Kreuter

I’m a news junkie. But, I have a problem in that I only read the headlines and don’t take the time to read the articles. I think this is due to having so many readings from graduate school that I get reading fatigue very easily.I find that researching information about the current events in a country is a great way to learn more, not only about the country, but the organization one might be working with. Sometimes, current news can provide insights into organizational programs or projects and why they are important to the local community.I wanted to share a few articles I found about recent happenings in Ghana.Here is an article about a sanitation project in Accra. Through research, I’ve found that Ghana has an issue with sanitation...

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CHRINCE gave me opportunity

January 15, 2013

Child Rights Information & Documentation Centre , Malawi
Kamalathasan Joseph

I had the opportunity to become a  volunteer in a number of programs runned by the CHRINCE based in Selangor, Malaysia. I have been a facilitator in motivation programs and has handled a football game for the pupils in the school. I'm pleased to have been awarded this opportunity where I can interact with the students.

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