Two of our volunteers Marlene and Paula write about their experiences in India:

Our year in Swanthana

After spending one year in Swanthana, an orphanage for mentally challenged girls, we can go back to Germany with a lot of wonderful memories and the knowledge that we made a great input in the children’s lives!

We started out with a shy “hello”, not really knowing what to do and now we arrive at work with a loud “Good morning!” which shows we are a part of the big Swanthana-family. Our task was not only playing with the children, but also giving them a bath, changing their diapers, dressing them, feeding, washing dishes, helping out in class… We got a great outlook of life in an orphanage and became good friends with the kids. They now come to us when somebody else says “no”. The biggest difficulty we faced was the language barrier which we have overcome throughout the year by learning a little Kannada. The kids also overcame this difficulty by learning some English through us.

Over all we can say the year was a fantastic experience that we wouldn’t want to miss in life because we grew with all the tasks and difficulties we faced. Swanthana, the children and the staff will always stay in our heart. We are very thankful to all the people who gave us the chance to spend this year in India, especially the sisters of Swanthana, FSL – India and our lovely host family.

By

Volunteers Marlene and Paula