The New Year at FSL India kick started with an Orientation of 9 International Volunteers from different parts of the world. 3 Germans, 2 Swedish, 2 French, 1 Belgian and 1 Dutch was a perfect mix to an Inter-cultural Orientation session that was held from 7^th to 11^th of January, 2013 at FSL India’s office premises.

All these volunteers who selected various fields of work like – Women Empowerment, Rural Medication, Orphan Children Teaching, Slum Development, Environment Education, HIV and AIDS Awareness among others were very motivated and enthusiastic to beginning a new life in India, contributing to the community and work towards development.

The variety of Inter-cultural and volunteering and project related sessions were conducted during this orientation like – Kannada Language class, Introduction about FSL India, project introduction and reporting, project visit, voluntarism and roles & responsibilities of all the stakeholders of LTV program, setting up aims, conflict management, and different indicators of culture.

The important highlights of this week were – Henna sessions, Bollywood Movie on one evening, Visit to a partner NGO – Sparsha Trust working with Street and Orphan Children and Country Presentation by the Participants.

The week ended with very good feedback from the participants who informed that the Orientation week gave them a very helpful insight to the country, its people and lifestyle. They also understood their responsibilities and tasks in their projects as a volunteer with FSL-India.