My time in India was overwhelmingly wonderful, diverse and challenging. Never in my life have I been pulled out of my comfort zone so many times and never in my life have I grown and evolved so much as an individual. I spent 10 months living with an amazing and super loving host family in Kundapura who became very close to my heart. My project was working in a primary school, mostly teaching basic english and maths in the most…
I’ve always believed that nothing shapes a person better than sports. It teaches discipline, leadership and much more.. But most importantly it teaches us to accept and learn from failures. To know that we’ve played a small part in imparting these qualities in the kids, warms my heart!It was amazing to see that all of kids were interested to take part in one or the other games. The zeal they displayed throughout the event, across two weeks, is something that…
On Wednesday, 11th September 2019, I got a call asking if I’d like to go to Christ University to take part in an exhibition. The first thing that came up to my mind was, “That must be fun”, but I was also worried about getting there. 2 1/2 hours, 35 kms, for the first time on my own. Back in Germany, it would take us about 30 to 40 minutes. No big deal. As expected many people were willing to…
Baby Sarah’s Home, a residential home for persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation, Multiple Disabilities and orphan children is highly pleased to record this testimonial for the volunteering practice done by Ms Hannah Wild from Germany, for a period of 12 months, from 8th August 2018 to 18th August 2019, through FSL India, Bangalore. Ms Hannah provided her valuable service at our home for the orphan and destitute, children with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities by…
My name is Riath; we were 4 volunteers coming from France to participate in a group work camp. The objective of this camp was to improve the sanitation and hygiene conditions of the tribal community by building bathrooms and toilets. We lived together in a host family in Hunsur. It is a good experience, because we can learn a lot about Indian culture and habits thanks to them. We bonded and formed a strong link with all the members. They…
In this work camp run by FSL-India, we had 5 international volunteers from different nationalities, i.e. Italy, Belgium, Japan and 1 national volunteer. From 19th August-1st September 2019, Simona Santoro, Sara Traldi, Romane Stiermon, Hikaru Yonezu, Yukako Yamasoto and Sri Ranjini Raman spent 2 weeks at Jodhpur, where they actively took part in various activities at the Jodhpur MCC Secondary School. They helped to renovate class rooms, had art and craft sessions with the schoolchildren, painted the school walls and…
I’m Mathilde, I’m 20 years old, and when, with 3 other friends from my school, we sat down in the plane, I didn’t know I was going to live the best experience of my life. How could I even imagine what I was going to live? 6 weeks of amazing meetings, 6 weeks to discover Indian and Karnataka culture, 6 weeks working at Ballenahalli’s work camp. The first person we met was Manjunath, our team leader from FSL-India, the most…
On 17th August 2019, FSL India’s contact persons, volunteers and host families from Kanchipuram, Pondicherry and Mysore met and interacted with each other at their respective locations. This Intro meeting was organised by Bangalore Region’s LTV team, in order to build relationships with each other and ensure support during their volunteering programme. The project staff, host families and our volunteers bonded together very easily thanks to the icebreakers and friendly atmosphere. They got to know about the different projects and…
In our Mysore zone, FSL-India’s volunteers were invited to participate in a Cultural Day celebration at Maharani’s College. At the annual cultural event, our volunteers were warmly welcomed by the students. It was good to see the celebrations where the whole college was decorated with colours and all the students were dressed in traditional outfits. As soon as they saw the volunteers, they began to shout out a smiling welcome to them. 5 volunteers participated in this event and FSL-India’s coordinator…
In the month of August, FSL-India hosted 39 Long-Term Volunteers from Germany, from 5th-10th. For this orientation, our LTV team organised different events for the exchange of ICL (Inter-Cultural Learning). The sessions conducted on diverse topics like ‘Indian’ welcome, introduction to FSL-India, local language class, practical information, Indian lifestyle, safety and project information, each volunteer’s role and responsibilities. It was observed that the participants were interested to know about Indian culture and practices. The volunteers actively participated in the orientation….