International volunteerism is living in a foreign country, interacting with different culture and personalities, working in social projects, facing challenges based on language, habits or living conditions, benefiting of great variety of life experience.
I’m Mareile Willert, from Germany. I work in Sama Foundation for one year, from august 2009 onwards. I’m 20 years old and just finished high school. After this year I would like to study work with disabled.
My work is not very easy to describe. But I can say it is sort of project based work, together with ‘Communication and Fundraising’. When I came, I got a long term project called ‘Life Skill Program’. Together with the whole staff I had a training on these skills. Afterwards I started developing a training based on games. My colleague and I visited different schools to ask if we could give this program to their students. The purpose of these skills is to lead to a satisfied life and therefore useful for stressed students. Up to now (dec. 09) I gave one two-days training to the staff of another organisation. I prepared the schedule and Ram (the director of Sama) and me provided the training. This will be continuous over the year, but it is only a small part of my work. I support the work of Anice, the ‘Communication and Fundraiser’ in Sama. That means that I write texts about different programs, letters to communicate with possible supporters and go on school and appartement visits. Beside this we have projects like setting a stall. There we get in contact with people and tell them about our organisation. Sometimes there happens to be a different project like a trip to the park with some children or the adventure camp. If it is possible I also join in these activities.
After half a year assistance in Communication and Fund raising I changed my workplace partly to the Center in Heganahalli. In the morning I go there to support one teacher and the assistance. 6 to 12 children come everyday, nearly all of them in some way mentally retarded. The center is located in the governmental school, one small room is provided for those children who are not accepted in the normal school or who need special attention. The day starts like in every Indian school with the prayer and national hymn. After some minutes “
My name is Karoliina Paavola and I come from Finland. I came to India in August 2009 and I will go back to my country in the end of January. I am 25 years old and I am studying in a university of applied sciences to become a management assistant. I work at two child activity centers: in Hegganahalli and in Yelahanka. Some of the children are mentally retarded or suffer cerebral palsy which is a brain damage that affects your muscles and movements. I do not have experience in that field of work, but I do my best to create some activities or to teach the children some basic things, like the names of body parts etc. Sometimes it is very difficult for me to try to teach the children something because of the language problem. I think it would be better for them to learn things in Kannada and not in English, but I know only a little bit of Kannada. The children are always very happy to see me, so even the fact that I am there brings some joy to their lives. The sad thing is that some of the parents do not care about their children due to their disabilities. Especially at the center in Hegganahalli, some of the children are very dirty and their clothes have not been washed for ages. Maybe in the future Sama Foundation can provide facilities where children learn how to wash themselves and their clothes, and maintain some level of personal hygiene. In Hegganahalli, there are three siblings who are all disabled. I asked the reason for that and I learned that it is because the parents are related. It was shocking to hear about that, but it is actually quite common. When doing home visits I have seen many families like that. I think people do not have knowledge about the problems caused by marrying your relative, and it seems to be an old tradition in some parts of India to marry your cousin or even your niece.
Hi Everybody!
My name is Thabea Koeppen, I am 21 years old and my home country is Germany. I came to India in August 2009 but I entered this project in the beginning of March.
Since my first day, I feel very welcome in the Sama Family and overall very comfortable with my new work. I am doing the same work as Karoliina. I am working at the two child activity centres in Hegganahalli as well as Yelahanka. My work over here is very diverse and I love the fact that I have to use my creativity day by day. In the mornings, I am visiting the Child Activity Centre in Hegganahalli where I am mostly working with children who are mentally challenged or suffer with cerebral palsy which is a brain damage that affects your muscles and movements like Karoliina already mentioned.
In the afternoon, I am visiting the Child Activity Centre in Yelahanka where I mostly have to deal with school children. Most of them are not having any disability. As you can see, my work is very variable. In the morning I try to teach some basic English Vocabulary as well as simple English games and songs and in the afternoon I read out stories, let the children play a drama or do other learning skills like dancing, singing and drawing.
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