LTV team-Kundapur organised a Mid-Term Evaluation for 2 Long Term Volunteers. The program was held for 2 days, from 18^th-19^th January 2019. In total, 2 Erasmus volunteers from Italy and Spain took part in this evaluation.

The MTE was organised at FSL-India’s Youth Centre for Experiential Living. The objective was to ensure that the volunteers understand about their project, host family and the intercultural acceptance through evaluation and to help participants to prepare themselves for their future actions.

The LTV Kundapur team organised different activities on the first day. The sessions conducted were about the volunteers’ expectation and fears, challenges, motivation and finally, there was an open discussion. We also conducted some games for group bonding and some energisers.

The second day began with energisers, after which, Nagarathna their coordinator, explained about the outlook on the future, their 4 months plan in India and plans after this service in their country. The volunteers shared what they have learnt through the intercultural exposure that they have had in India so far. On the evening of the first day, the volunteers had a one-to-one meeting with their coordinator.

All these discussions strengthened the volunteers’ motivation for their remaining days in India. The last session was very interesting, where the volunteers explained about situations where their Indian Host Family reacted differently than their own family would have, their understanding on the differences in reaction, what they have learnt about the local culture from their Host Family and how they were able to influence their host family. We also got to know about the many challenges the volunteers have faced so far.

Linda Pederzolli (Italy) & Carlota Martorell Faus (Spain) say:

“For us, the MTE was a great opportunity to think and reflect on our experience so far. The questions we were asked were appropriate and gave us the chance to appreciate the good things, the learnings and the intercultural exchange. We felt very comfortable with the timings, because they were adjusted to us, and we never felt in a hurry. But also, we could have time enough to do reflections, and to share them with the facilitators, having interesting discussions.

It was very important for us to reflect about the relationship and the differences and influences with our Host Family, because we consider it is one of the main experiences for exchange and learning. We also enjoyed the way we were asked about our friends or relations in the local community, which we also consider as very important (fish in the net activity).

The facilitators (Nagarathna, Dinesh, and Mayur) were very open to listen to our opinions, and we felt very confident to share our thoughts. We would like to thank them for their time.

The stay was very nice in general: the food was great, and the rooms were very nicely prepared.

We appreciate the chance to have a one-to-one conversation with our coordinator, Dinesh, because we could express freely our situation and we could also hear the feedback from him and from FSL-India, which made us very happy and motivated to continue contributing to FSL.

With the different reflective activities, we could realise all the changes and progress we have been through since the beginning. It is always good to know where you are at this moment of life, and to be aware of what you have learnt. We also enjoyed the way each activity is proposed, through cardboards, stickers, and different methods of approach to the topic.

– Danyawada for everything!!!!”