FSL India Blog

FSL India is hosting the 3^rd Global LMTV (Long/ Middle Term Voluntary Service) Conference in Bangalore. The program is scheduled for 10^th to 14^th February 2012. The program is jointly organised by FSL India, Network for Voluntary Development in Asia (NVDA), Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS-UNESCO) and Alliance. Altogether 27 participants from 18 IVS (International Voluntary Service) organisations from Asia and Europe would participate and deliberate on various aspects of prompting youth mobility and volunteering service. The objective of the program is to improve qualities of LMTV projects, share know-how and experiences, develop standards and action plans, establish common systems, tools and methodologies to promote Long/Mid Term volunteers exchange across the world and develop new partnership promote international volunteerism.

FSL India being an international youth voluntary organization is celebrating its 10th Anniversary which coincides with the 10^th year Anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers 2011. We are privileged to host the GLMTV conference in this special year. The management and staff of FSL India welcome the delegates of the 3^rd Global LMTV Conference.

Looking back to your expectations and goals, would you like to comment on your overall experience here?

Don’t regret at all that I took the time to do this project. I learned a lot hear about India and also about myself. I also had a lot of fun staying here. Although there are people who want to cheat you there are at least as many who are very open interested and willing to help you.

Johan Albert Saelens, Germany

We have had some tough times where all we wanted to do was quit, but we have grown into loving these people and accepting our differences.

Ida Marie Sekse & Louise Koster, Denmark

I came without any expectation because I had no idea what to expect and I didn’t want to be disappointed. Thus I cannot really compare… Anyway, my time here was a great experience and I wish everybody could do such an experience.

Colin Frezouls, France

I’m very happy about my stay at FPAI. I’m happy that I have had an opportunity to learn so much from NGO work on the issues that I’m interested in also professionally. I have been interested in international health concerns and challenges since my medical studies and my stay at FPAI has strengthened my prior interest in working in the special field of International Health.

Mari Kahari, Finland

Very positive! I didn’t have any clear goal, but the experience was very good and reached more than I expected.

Sara Tafuro, Italy

Yes, I had a really good time both the project and the house were very nice.

Zenobia Lagerweij, The Netherlands

In early January 2012, twelve volunteers from seven countries arrived at FSL India for long-term voluntary service. As part of the inter-cultural learning, FSL India organised a week-long orientation for the new volunteers at FSL India Guest House, Kundapur between 2^nd to 7^thJanuary 2012. The orientation sessions were facilitated by the LTV program team of FSL India. Volunteers were welcomed by FSL India team with garlands of Jasmine, and vermilion tilak marks on the forehead followed by Aarathi.

Different sessions were scheduled to give input on a range of topics. Sessions were conducted with both theoretical input and inter-cultural experience. Introduction to FSL India and its works, Indian Philosophy and life, roles and responsibilities of the volunteers, setting up aims and objectives and conflict management were the major topics dealt with. Volunteers shared with participants about their country and people. During the evening hour sessions were organised to introduce the volunteers on Indian culture. Volunteers also interacted with the Indian host family to know the Indian way of leaving, shared experience of previous volunteers and the intercultural experience. Volunteers also learnt a little bit of Kannada language.

In this batch volunteers opted to be placed in in different theme-based projects. Therefore, the facilitators introduced the volunteers their preferred project and organised filed exposures on Street children teaching, Women empowerment, Special Learning, Ethnic Tribes Teaching, Sea Turtle Conservation, Environment Education, Slum Development, Orphan children Teaching, Regular Teaching. Volunteers actively participated in the orientation. On the last day of the orientation an excursion was organised. The following table highlights the details of volunteers:

Ching Nga Chan from China

Britt Mari Bjorktund from Finland

Eveliene Marjin De Wilde from Netherlands

Alice Pernet from France

Anabel Kuebler from Germany

Erwan Gauthe from France

Cynthia Cochet from Switzerland

Anna Lena Neidmann from Germany

Manuela Genta from Italy

Marie Hernandez from France

Ferraguti Camille from France

Eddie Gastrein from France

“Life is like a roller coaster ride and if you don’t hold on to your values, principles and morals in life, the roller coaster will take the better of you”.

Hi, I would take time to have a brief introduction about myself. My Name is Sonia Wright. I am born and brought up in Bangalore. I have completed my Bachelors in Psychology & intend to pursue diplomas in Child Care. My Passion is to work with Children as a final goal to life.

I started working to support my education and my family from the age of 18, working for Multinational Companies like Northern Trust, Caterpillar India and HSBC, and my overall experience must be 2 years, as I have been studying which was also my main focus in life. Since I last worked in HSBC, having quit my job had not really a clue as to what I was going to do next. My close friend calls in on my last day of work and offers me the opportunity to go to France. I was dumbstruck for a moment! I thought it was just a dream or an illusion. France in specific Paris was a dream of destination and honeymoon spot but not for work for sure.

Having got in touch with FSL India, numerous visits and correspondences with them has helped me get to where I am today. Thanks to FSL India team for the work they do and also for helping me get across. From the time I quit my job to the time I landed and settled in France was a stressful period. Ups & Downs were faced in a lot of aspects, but without going through all of that I would not be where I am today in a happy realm.

To start off with, I left India on the 19^th October and landed in Paris on the 19^th Night 2011. My first trip on an international flight was mind blowing. I enjoyed everything about my journey. Having arrived in Paris, had the Management of Concordia Pick me up and settle in an Apartment for a few days as I was not really going to stay in Paris for the project. The few days in Paris were really hard. I felt low as I left my family behind, left everything behind and had taken this opportunity. It was really hard for me. On top of this ode, I had fallen sick due to the temperature shock which added to the misery of my stay in Paris. But on the whole, I had to pick myself up and move on knowing the hand of God was on me, also knowing that God has paved the way for me even before I landed up in Paris.

Honestly, I never expected life to be a bed of roses for me after I got onto that plane to France. I knew the challenges I would face and it would be a bit hard for me who for the first time has left my family who are aged! Knowing all these facts and understanding every little bit of it facing up to them with a bold mind and heart is what got me going. To make his short, I landed in Bordeaux which is where my project was being conducted. Having arrived in Bordeaux made me feel I will not move again. Cause the pain of moving from one location to another all alone is the tuff challenge.

I was glad to be welcomed into the home of Concordia-Regional Office. It was a bit more pleasing to have seen people around and knowing that I am going to live with those people is important. Believing that I am not alone is also even more important - God is there with me.

My first week was a week of feeling the place, getting used to the people around me, talking to them, understanding their ways. Apart from that I was doing my administrative work with Concordia. Second week went onto with meetings, having little projects assigned. Third Week continued the same way and we are in the fourth week of exploring different ways of tasks and working with the team at Concordia.

With all that I have spoken, I would just like to tell you all that “Life is like a roller coaster ride and if you don’t hold on to your values, principles and morals in life, the roller coaster will take the better of you”. Always important to stick to whom you are and what you are! Take up everything as a challenge, an open-mind and see yourself soaring to new heights.

Sonia Write

FSL India Volunteers

The project is already over. I feel still a bit sad to be all alone again in this big country. Everybody went different places, to move on, sometimes in a new destination, sometimes to go back home.

In the last week of the project we finished painting the school. We finished a beautiful nature, vegetables and fruits wall with colourful and nice drawings of a carrot, a strawberry, a banana and many more. And also on other side of wall we made nice pictures of the numbers and the alphabet. It made the children laugh and everybody felt good about it. We also tried to finish the garden, but we couldn’t buy the banana plants, because the store was closed. The fence is ready now for the next FSL India Work Camp volunteers, who will have to finish planting the banana trees. I hope that will work out.

Of course we played and sang with the children. I saw one of the books where the children learn from. It was very special to see, because there were portions which I didn’t even understand. But it was interesting to know that children could understand. They are very smart! At the end some children sang for us and they danced. It was very beautiful. We all felt so sad to leave this nice place. But we are happy at least these children will not be forgotten. And they enjoyed our candies and cookies.

In addition to the work, we have done so many nice things. We went again to the neighbours, who were so nice to us. I even played a game of table tennis and on the last Thursday we went for shopping and later we went to a nice restaurant for a nice meal and a few drinks. And of course we went swimming again in ‘our own’ bath. Thanks also to Noorulla who was a great host for us.

I cannot say how much I have loved en enjoyed doing this project. I’m very happy that I have changed my plans, because I was not supposed to be here at all. I wanted to go earlier to Indonesia, which I will do now this Thursday. I will never forget the wonderful friends in this project: Ariane and Thomas from France, Justin, Stella and Tae Jin from South Korea, Laurance and Mylene from Canada, Erin from Canada and Prinson and Dinesh our top leaders. Thank you all again! Feeling a bit lonely but with a full heart of memories I will go on in my life. I will never forget this. Thanks to FSL India.

Karel the Dutchman

Here is a new story about my Work camp right now. Hotmail does not always work here. It is very hard to write stories from here.

What a wonderful camp until now! The first week passed so quickly. Our group is very special. We have 3 Koreans, 3 Canadians, 2 French and me the Dutchman. Everybody is very friendly and the atmosphere is super. Our FSL India leaders are Mr. Dinesh and Mr. Prinson. They are very funny and top leaders! Our accommodation is nice too or even better. We are staying in a fitness and swimming pool center. Great! Of course we jumped in the water ourselves! We have nice beds and the food although not always on time, is very good too.

And then of course our work - we are working in an orphanage - Baby Sarah’s Home. Here 60 children who are mentally and physically disabled and 50 normal children are living. We play with them and we try to teach them small things such as the alphabet and counting from 1 to 10. We also work in the outside. There we prepare new banana garden. We already made the fence, which is almost finished and we cleaned everything. Next we will start with planting the trees. We also work in a small school next of the orphanage. We are making funny drawings on the walls. Mylene and I are busy with making a new brochure for the center. This is a nice small job to do. On 23^rd January after singing with the children, we did a presentation about our work. Together with a first aid lesson by Mylene and Laurence we made a presentation for a group of 120 girls who were there as a guests. They are learning to become teachers. It was a very good afternoon again.

And meanwhile we are having so much fun. We went to a party of the neighbours, where all the girls could wear a real Sarree! They looked very beautiful. We had a great meal there too. We visited the city of course and we went to Auroville and fell very special about it. We are doing a lot of funny play’s here and of course we had our country presentations. Everybody loved my Stroopwafels a typical Dutch Cooky. Indeed I am enjoying a super camp organised by FSL India. I’m already sad this camp will end on Saturday. Then I will write you all again to tell my last experiences. Now I will go back and have a nice meal again.

Karel van den Berg

FSL India Volunteer from Netherlands

Miss Lilian Ava Zeitelhack from Germany and Mr. Sean Gilhooly from London are the two long term volunteers of FSL India. The duo volunteers are placed in a teaching project at Milinda Vidya Samsthe in Koppa town of Periyapatna Taluk in Mysore district. While Lilian has been teaching English to the children, Sean Gilhooly is assigned to teach them Art and Music. Besides both the volunteers are also teaching Geography, History and Moral Science to children. About 500 school children are immensely benefitted from the duo’s 5 to 6 hours of teaching service every day.

As soon as they arrived in early August 2011, FSL India assigned them with teaching projects. First they started teaching the children with disability. Later due to the need they were placed in Milinda Vidya Samsthe. Their popularity as committed and dedicated volunteers and teachers grew rapidly among the staff and students of Milinda School. They taught basic English and Grammar through alternative teaching techniques with singing and dancing as one of the tools.

On 15^th January 2012, Times of India (Sunday Times) one of the leading National Dailies made a good coverage about their service. Mr. R. Uday Kumar, the news reporter of Times of India interviewed and interacted with the FSL India volunteers. Responding to Uday Kumar’s queries, Lilian Ava, essentially a student of Psychology stated that, “the students are very cooperative. As they can’t speak English in the beginning, it was a bit difficult, but later they picked up the language”. She further added that “Now, the children are able to understand English without any problem”.

What is so important to note here is that the duo’s vision for the children. “We want children to think on their own, be confident and to ask questions. No answer or question is wrong as long as one really tries to learn something” – this is the message of Lilian that really impressed the news reporter of Times of India to make a special coverage and appreciate their commitment and dedicated service.

Lilian Ava and Sean Gilhooly further inform the news reporter that “it is been learning experience for us as the children and community people teach us about the cultural and traditional values of India”. The duo command respect of the children and staff of Milinda Vidya Samsthe for their committed service.

FSL India deems the appreciation of Times of India to Lilian Ava and Sean Gilhooly as a living testimony which will go on the record to encourage other volunteers. What is important to note here is that the recognition of media is only one of the instances. There are hundreds of FSL India volunteers placed in various projects all across India and are involved in providing commendable service to the poor and needy which are yet to hit the headlines of electronic and print media like Times of India.

Our FSL India volunteers know from their own experiences, where things can be improved at the Little Flower School and so they did some great donations for the School, as well as for the hostel. Until three months ago, photocopies needed for the school had to be brought from outside. If it were some documents for the office or especially during the time of the exams, one student always had to go by bicycle to the next village, 8 km far away to get the Xerox print. Of course this took always a lot of time for the student who had to go and it was also complicated during office hours.

The two Volunteers of FSL India, Franz König from Austria and Moritz Wittkamp from Germany, did a lot of work for the school in the office and so they soon got aware of this deficiency. After some time, they decided that the current situation is not good, either for the school or for the students. They informed themselves about the possibilities and finally they donated a new office Photocopying (Xerox) machine. This purchase makes the whole work in the office much easier than it was before and especially the students who had to go by bicycle, is happy that he doesn’t have to spend his time on the road anymore. He can save the time now for his studies.

Another aspect that stung into the eyes of the two Volunteers was the difficulty of a proper hygiene among the children. Especially the youngest ones of our Little Flower Family used to face a huge challenge when they have to clean their clothes and bed sheets properly. These are duties which are usually taken care by the family, but here the children have to learn very fast, to care for their own hygiene and to be independent in those issues. Although they got great support from their elder ‘brothers’ and ’sisters’, it is not possible to avoid all diseases.

To improve this situation and to enable a more hygienic living among the children, we decided, that only a washing machine can bring the necessary hygiene. From now on, the Little Flower Family has a new washing machine with a drier included. Nine kilo gram of dirty clothes can be washed and dried now by every cycle. Now not only just their white uniforms shines bright like new ones, also skin diseases can be faced now by washing the bed sheets, uniforms and other clothes of our small ones.

For the last donation, the help of many of our previous volunteers came together. Heading towards Christmas, the head of the project Mrs. Jakin Bin and the volunteers were thinking about how to enable a nice Christmas celebration for our children. Some of the previous volunteers, who have spent a part of their lives together with the children, were remembering their nice and joyful time in Ranganpalke. Knowing about the situation of the children, they did not forget them and donated some money for Christmas presents for the kids. Incited by this great news, we the current volunteers wrote a mail to all the previous volunteers who have spent some time at Little Flower School, to make Christmas a memorable one.

At the end there was a great feedback from many volunteers, as they are Tania and Marina (Spain), Anni (Finland), Jade (France), Julian (Germany), Franz (Austria). All together they donated a good amount of money which enabled us to buy many different sport items, which were handed over to the hostel children on their Christmas function. Seeing those volleyballs, football, badminton items, cricket bats and many more it brought shine and smile on their face. Beside all these sports articles the children of the Little Flower Family got a lot of utensils, books, games and quiz during the advents season. We brought a German custom into the Indian spirit of Christmas. By opening every day in the advent a small parcel to the children were guided with joy towards Christmas. Starting with the first of December one child cut the small present from a string named “Advent Calendar”.

All the children were very happy for all this great support from their friends. The big variety of received delivery improved many aspects not just of their daily duties but also of their playing time. In the name of the whole Little-Flower-Family we say THANK YOU to all our beloved backers!

Franz König and Moritz Wittkamp
FSL India Volunteers at Little Flower School

Date: 4th Aug 2011 to 28th Aug 2011
Work Camp Code: FSL-SPL 145
Location: Dharamsala
Name: Jihae LEE

India has always been my dream country. A place that exotic, fantastic, and unlike the rest of the world. I wanted to see the prayer in river Ganga. I also wanted to feel the love of a great man toward his wife in Taj Mahal. Last but not least, I wanted to eat real curry with Nan.

However, when I arrived at the Indira Gandhi Airport, I began to worry about everything. The weather was very hot and humid. The airport, which should be the most clean and high-tech place, was not like that. I went to the hotel with no air-condition and no proper chair taxi. On the way to hotel, I was afraid because it was 11 p.m. There were many people on the street with nearly naked body. Hunting-dogs were searching for food, and the road condition was worst ever. Next day, I bought a bus ticket to the meeting point at double price, which took 12 hours from Delhi without toilet! I arrived at the meeting point at 4:30 a.m. Again I was afraid of the dark-unknown city. I stood there in the heavy rain for 2hours with my 2 luggage.

Seven hours after my arrival, I met my team leader and teammates. Now, my Work Camp begins. I loved my 19 teammates. Everybody was so outgoing and kind. At first two Dutch were not nice at all. Racism!! Well, 3 days later, I could see their changes. We began to talk about our countries and that helped us understand and fix our prejudices. Our team re-constructed the local school near our accommodation. We did mural painting, built the wall around school, and fix the fence. Working was very much a fun because we could talk a lot during the work and I could leave some mark in India by painting the walls. However, I hoped that, I would work more than I did. Because of the rain, we could not finish our work. That was my one of the reason, why I join this Work Camp.

I liked the country presentation during the daily meeting. I could learn a lot from their presentation and that helped me rethink about other culture. I was very much impressed to learn about each country’s real situation.

I had very close relationship with entire village community which was the greatest part. At first, I was afraid of Indians. I tried my best to ignore them. Later, I realized that I was wrong. People treat me the same way I treat them. After a week, they greeted all the time, helped me get a taxi and free laundry service.

It was a great time to look back myself. Through meditation, I learnt how to endure things and how to think carefully before deciding on anything. I also learned not to judge other people by their appearances. I thank so much to the Work Camp, FSL India and my school to provide such a valuable time. I could learn life lesson and appreciate the beauty of Indian culture including Taj Mahal.

-Jihae LEE

FSL India has been implementing CSR projects, titled Happy Move Global Youth Volunteers and Model Village (MVP) in Tamil Nadu. FSL India is currently hosing 8th Happy Move Global Youth Camp for South Korean Volunteers. The program is intended to serve the communities of Sriperumbudur and Kanchipuram districts. This program is being supported by Hyundai Motors Company (HMC) as part of corporate social responsibility so as to establish closer ties with the local communities.

Under the ‘Happy Move Global Youth Volunteers’ program, HMC, South Korea sends a total of 250 volunteers to FSL India. In addition they also send 20 Korean doctors and specialists. These Korean volunteers organise medical camps, health awareness campaign, education and renovation work in schools and villages.

The first batch of 8th Happy Move Global Youth Camp started on 19th January 2012 in Chennai and will continue until 31st January 2012. Altogether 88 Korean volunteers, 19 Hyundai Graduate Engineer Trainees (Indian participants), 9 nurses and 9 FSL India facilitators are participating in this camp. Totally 125 volunteers are currently partaking in this global event. FSL India team in Chennai under the leadership of Mr. Arun B. the Program manager is organising and coordinating this event.

The program started with a formal inauguration and welcome followed by orientation and team building exercise at Footwear Design and Development Institute (FDDI). From 21st January the volunteers will be engaged in education and renovation activities in 4 villages around Hyundai Motor India and conduct medical camp in fifteen villages in Sriperumbudur block of Kancheepuram District.

On behalf of the management and staff, Mr. Rakesh S. Soans the President and Mr. Rohan D’Souza the Director of FSL India extend hearty welcome to the volunteers.