Name of the Volunteer: Ms. Jana Finke

Name of the country:  Germany

The duration of the stay:  11 months (April 2014 to February 2015)

A background of the project/local partner in which they were placed:

FSL have been placing volunteer in the host family for the past 11 months. The volunteer is working in a regular teaching called Kukkarahalli School. Government Higher Primary School (GHPS) Kukkarahalli was started in the year 1984 with the aim of providing quality education to children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Currently there are 92 children at the school, studying from 1st to 7th Standard, aged between 6 to 13 years.  Though the medium of instruction was originally Kannada, the school has recently started an English-medium section. Staffed with 9 teachers, it wishes to improve the quality of education provided to the children, particularly their proficiency in the English Language. The project is located in Saraswatipuram, Mysore. The project cooperation with FSL and with volunteer is really wonderful. Through getting volunteers from FSL India teh project also leant a lot from the volunteers. Volunteer Ms. Jana Finke is 4th volunteer. Jana Finke host family is located in Mysore.

„My experience in School“

My name is Jana and I just finished my one year volunteering service. I stayed in the beautiful city Mysore and worked in a high school. That means I was teaching English to students between 13 and 16 years.  I am happy that I can tell all my students name now. In the beginning I was thinking that the local language Kannada and the names are very new and difficult for me. The children were asking me for their names nearly every day but I could not remember the names because all of them are quite traditional and local. I am happy that later I started to remember the names. The children are very happy when I call them by their name.

After working one year in this school I have a really nice relationship to all my students. Of course there is a language barrier, but with the small Kannada I learned and the English of my students it`s no problem to communicate. So I spent a lot of time talking, singing or playing with my kids.

After some time all of my colleagues and me became friends.  They taught me how to read Kannada and I spend all my free-time in school talking to them.
Some of them invited me to their home for festival days and I met their whole families. Two days a week I was also teaching English and Art in a primary school. It was nice for me to have this possibility, because like this I could even teach smaller students, because I had some donations from Germany, I decided to spend this money in painting my primary school. Together with Matthis, my co-volunteer in this project, I planned this activity and bought all the necessary materials.  With the help of other volunteers and even some older students, we painted 5 classrooms in two days.

I really enjoyed my stay in India and I like to come back again !!!