Namaskara! I am Dinesha, working in FSL-India. In January 2019, I got the opportunity to attend the Mid-Term Evaluation at Bali, Indonesia. The participating partners were Euroaccion-Spain, Alter Ego-Greece, Scambieuropei-Italy, GAP Synergia-Portugal and Act Global-Indonesia

Youth employment is currently the main concern in many developed countries.The objective of this programme is to give training to the Youth for Social Entrepreneurship in countries where there is lack of employment. So, with this program we are promoting social entrepreneurship among the Youth.

Due to the huge unemployment crisis in Europe, partners from the Mediterranean countries, i.e. Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal decided to initiate the Social Enterpreneurship project through the Erasmus programme. In Asia, 2 countries were selected to participate in this project, i.e. India and Indonesia. Each Mediterranean partner sends 4 participants to each country participating in the project and a Mid-Term Evaluation of their progress on Social Entrepreneurship is done by the partners, for all the volunteers sent out.

My journey began from Kundapura towards Bali. Once I arrived, FSL-India’s local partner arranged for a pick up facility to my accommodation, so once I came out from the airport, I saw some similarities to what we have in India.

Another impressive thing about Bali is the cultural similarities with India. It is a Hindu island and they worship a lot of Hindu gods like Ganesha, Krishna, Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. They even know Hindu mantras and most people in Bali take their religion very seriously. Most Balinese people are humble and very welcoming of tourists. In fact, gratitude for visitors is something they practise.

On the first day of the Boot Camp, we started with an introduction and welcome. After that, our European and Indonesian partners and I shared the volunteers’ current status in our projects and explained about each zone. I shared my volunteers’ status of the last 3 months.

The second day’s session started with a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of the host organisation, and we shared our presentation with the group. On the 3^rd and 4^th day, we worked on the future plan of the Erasmus program and prepared the information sheet.

The outcome of this is that we built strong relationships until 2020 with the partners who attended this program. During the MTE, we had a glimpse of the unemployment data, which would enable us to help each country and work effectively for the upcoming years. After the volunteer evaluation of each partner’s country, we learnt that we had to consider the background of the participants, who are not motivated to get involved in activities related to their own learning process.

In this case, support must focus on planning, monitoring and evaluation of the whole learning process to ensure good results. The Hosting Organisation, Sending Organisation and CO needs to offer them tools and support in their learning process. The mentoring figure is the most important in the learning process of the volunteers and the mentors have to give them guidance, tools and support. 

The tools that can be used during the volunteering activities are:

– For planning of learning: Personal Development Plan, Letter to Myself, Group Sharing

– For monitoring of learning: Learning diaries, blogs, mails to friends and families, social networks, books for learning, photo reflections etc.

On the 5^th day, we went on a sightseeing tour of the cultural places around Bali. First, we visited the waterfalls near Ubud and took some group pictures.  We wanted to take a shower in the waterfalls, but due to heavy rain, we were not allowed to do this.

After that, we visited Thirtha Ambul, Kintamani , Mt Batur (volcano mountain), North Bali – Bedugul, Ulun Danu Beratan Temple – a very beautiful temple by a large lake, and Candy Kuning fruit market. In the evening, we went to Jatiluwih rice terrace and for a small trek in that place. Finally, we went shopping at the Ubud market for souvenirs.

On the last day, there was a press conference at Denpasar, so all the Partners prepared their presentations about their organisations and then, presented to the local Indonesian volunteers and the Press committee. In the evening, we had a farewell at Kuta Beach and there was a final meeting about 2020-21’s plan on the upcoming meetings with dates.

So, overall, Bali is an amazing place to visit, its clean people are friendly and it’s indeed amazing to see the Indian culture being practised outside India. All the sessions were great. Thank you, FSL-India for giving me this opportunity to attend the MTE program at Bali.