Bangalore : 7 Volunteers arrived on 4^th of March and attended an orientation week until the 8^th of March at the FSL India’s Head office in Bangalore. The participants were namely : Baukelien Vogelaar from Netherlands, Adila Berramdame, Mathieu Bossis, Julia REGOT from France, Clara Lacomini and Paul Levrez from Belgium and Anastasia-Areti GAVRILI from Greece.

The sessions conducted during this Orientation were – Introduction about FSL India, project introduction and reporting, project visit, voluntarism and roles & responsibilities of all the stakeholders of LTV program, Kannada and Tamil Language, up aims, conflict management, Indian Pedagogy and different indicators of culture.

The special events of this Orientation were – Mehendi session (Painting the hands with Indian henna), visit to the Famous Bull temple and Lalbagh botanical Garden, Country presentation by the volunteers, and a Bollywood cinema – Taare Zameen Par that was being played for the volunteers at the FSL India Offfice.

The feedback from the participants were very positive, they agreed that the orientation week gave them a lot of useful information and helped them to prepare for their stay in India.

Kundapur : In the morning on 4^th of March, 4 international volunteers – Lova Malmstedt, Alice Ericson and Emil Lars Olof Karlsson from Sweden and Justine Wadhera from Belgium reached Kundapur for their Orientation week at the FSL India’s Regional Office.

The Orientation week in Bangalore and Kundapur, has a lot of common sessions like – Kannada & language, introduction about FSL India, Project introduction and reporting, Project visit, Indian life style, Hindu philosophy, voluntarism and roles & responsibilities of all the stakeholders of LTV program, setting up aims, conflict management, Bollywood Cinema, and culture indicator.

The volunteers were engaged actively in all the sessions, they were asked to prepare and present their ideas about voluntarism, their expectations and fears, about the cultural differences they expect etc. Their queries where addressed by the facilitators and through various sessions they introduced the volunteers to the Indian lifestyle, work environment and daily life.

On the last day, the volunteers were handed feedback forms to share their overall experience. All four of them mentioned that it helped them get a good insight to the Indian culture.