Bangalore : After a gap of 3 long Years, FSL India in the month of May received 4 Polish female ( Anna Paczes, Marta Anna Troc, Marta Chodacka and Ewelina Wadelik) EVS (European Voluntary Service) volunteers from our partner organization Service Civil International, Poland. Together with them there were 7 more international participants – Clara Vanessa Backes from IJGD, Germany, Milka Kahn and Janice Leonard from SVI, Belgium, Cedric Balzard, Alex Choquet and Marion Houillot from JR, France, Miriam Garcia Blasco from Ninarwa, Spain. The Orientation week was held from 06^th to the 10^th of May.

With a lot of fun and bonding between the volunteers and their FSL India Coordinators and the staffs, this Orientation like all other started with an Indian Welcome session, where the participants were welcomed with the traditional Indian style of welcoming guest – With Arati, Tilak and Garlanding. Thereafter, the volunteers were introduced to the important sessions – voluntarism and roles & responsibilities of all the stakeholders of LTV program, setting up aims, conflict management, Indian Pedagogy and different indicators of culture, Kannada and Tamil Language, Introduction about FSL India, project introduction and reporting and finally project visit. All these sessions were facilitated by the experienced staffs of FSL India.

The sharing of interesting facts about their countries was conducted during the Country presentation, where the volunteers introduced their country to the FSL Staffs and the other participants through pictures, song, dance and special sweets and snacks of their countries.

As a part of the cultural and city tour – The volunteers were taken to the famous Bull Temple and the Rock Garden in Basavangudi, they also enjoyed the Mehendi sessions very much, were their hands were pained beautifully with Indian Mehendi designs, later on one evening the volunteers enjoyed the Bollywood flick – 3 Idiots, laughed heartily and also understood about the problems Indian youths face with regard to education and career. The volunteers were also very happy about the Yoga session during the Orientation which helped them relax their body and mind.

On 10^th of May, after sharing their experience about the Orientation week, which was overall very good, the volunteers departed to their respective projects and host families.

Kundapur : In the month of May, Kundapur received only one international volunteer – Natacha BELLAICHE from SVI, Belgium, a long term volunteer for two months. Natacha’s project was to teach at the FSL India Street Children Project, in Kundapur. Although, there was just one volunteer for this Orientation, the spirit and the enthusiasm of the staffs at FSL India did not change like all the other orientations every month, which is also quite obvious from the picture, taken after the traditional Indian welcome the volunteer by the staffs.

Clubbed with theoretical and practical sessions, this orientation was quite helpful for the volunteer to understand about India, it’s culture, life as a volunteer in India etc. As she was the only volunteer for the orientation, the orientation week was shortened by two days and it was held from 6^th to the 8^th of May. The sessions conducted during the Orientation were – Introduction about FSL India, project introduction and reporting, Indian life style,  voluntarism and roles & responsibilities of all the stakeholders of LTV program, Project visit, Language, Setting up aims country presentation (Using the SMART Method) and conflict management. The feedback about the Orientation received from the volunteer after completion of the orientation week suggested that the volunteer enjoyed the orientation week and received enough information about her project, India and tips that would help her during her 2 months stay in India.