Monday, October 17, 2011

New german volunteer

Hello everyone, my name is Lea and I am a volunteer at SAMA Foundation. I am – again – from Germany and I will stay here for one year. My exchange organisation is the ICDE (International Cultural Dialogue and Exchange), which is the indian branch of the international organisation ICYE (International Cultural Youth Exchange).
I came to India two months ago and I already feel like a member of the SAMA family. So far my work mainly consists of working in the Daycare Centre in Yelahanka and in the New Office at Bashyam Circle. But my work is far more than that.
In these two months I experienced a lot with SAMA Foundation. I had the opportunity to attend a meeting about Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) and I participated in a training for psychosocial Care and Lifeskills Education. Also there was a programme introduced, named STeP, which provides courses in computer skills and English conversation. Four weeks ago I assisted six days at a training for teachers on new CBR (Community Based Rehabilitation) Guidelines at a place outside Bangaluru. At each event I got to know so many nice people and I already have invitations for the rest of the year :)
But the most time I am spending at the Day Care Centre. There I work with around 10 children, which are 3 to 18 years old. I play with them, teach them English or help to do physiotherapy exercises. The work with the children is really enjoyable and everyday holds another experience.
I like that my work is so varied and I am curious about the next ten months.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

2010/2011 Sama Volunteer

My name is Aline, I’m 19 years old, I come from Germany and I am a Sama-volunteer for nearly eight months now. As I’m here for quite a long time now it thought it might be a good idea to write something about me, what I’m doing and Sama Foundation.

I came to India through the German organization icja. Icja is cooperating with ICDE-India; ICDE-India is the organization that is taking care of me here in India.

Why did I want to go to India?

When I was about to finish school I had a pretty important decision to make: what should I do after my graduation? I had absolutely no idea. Somewhere I had in my mind to go abroad but I didn’t know which country or even how.

In the end it all went on quite fast, I got to know about the “weltwaerts”-programme of the German government, I found the organization icja and a few months later I was in India.

But why did I choose India?

Actually, the only criteria for me was that the country is English-speaking, so I decided between several African countries and India. As for me India was far more interesting I decided for India. You’d think it must have been a hard decision to choose the country, but somehow for me it wasn’t that difficult. And I’m happy with my decision. Even though I had some hard times (and a quite difficult start) I just like this country with its amazing landscapes, the culture, that couldn’t be more different from what I know, and its people.

Sama Foundation is an NGO (non-governmental organization) that is working for persons with disabilities and disability-right. The special focus lies on children and education.

The first months I assisted the teachers in the Day Care Centres and the Child Activity Centres, there I played with the children and taught them things like little chants, dances, drawing and sometimes a little bit of English.

Although I was a little bit scared of working with disabled children, because I never did it before, I’m really glad I got the chance to do it. It is wonderful when they get used to you and want to play with you. Seeing their happy faces can enlighten your day.

Now Sama Foundation is concentrating a little bit more on fund-raising. This always will be a major activity for an NGO. Therefore, I also got other tasks. I spent for example a lot of time in working on the five year report of Sama Foundation or I do smaller office activities.

I am living in a Hostel near the office (10 minutes by walk), and I really like living there. Because I’m quite independent there, apart from the curfew but that’s only a minor problem to me. I have a lot of privacy and I live there with a lot of nice Indian girls/women that are about my age.

Besides working I also spend a lot of time with travelling through India. So far I’ve seen a lot of places of South India and parts of North India.

The landscapes are always really impressing but sometimes travelling can be really exhausting.

However, I enjoy my time here in India with the “Sama-Family” and I will always remember this year.