On the 27th of November, 2013, our Home Based Project’s Tent School team, along with two volunteers, Katharina and Amanda, went to Senapur, in Kundapura planted a kitchen garden for seven migrant families. With help from the migrant families, the whole team sowed ten varieties of vegetable seeds and created a fence around the 10×8 square feet kitchen garden. The aim of this activity was to combat severe malnutrition experienced by migrant families…
Every year, the long-term volunteering team at FSL-India hosts its annual Host Family and Contact Person Workshops across South India. This year, the workshops took place seven zones; Hunsur, Bangalore, Pondicherry, Chennai, Kundapur, Mulky and Sirsi during the month of January. Joining the FSL-India team were two external trainers who facilitated the following objectives of the workshops by means of experiential learning. A total of 177 participants benefited from these workshops. The objectives of…
January month’s long-term volunteer’s get-together (GTG) took place on the 16th and 17th at the beautiful Kawari Palm Grove Resort in Murudeshwar, North Canara District. Five members of our Kundapur staff team facilitated the GTG activities for 15 long-term international volunteers. The activities included introductions, energisers, experience sharing, a Q & A period and team-building games. In sharing experiences, volunteers spoke about their challenges living in host families, culture shock and learning…
Svenja Melina Opitz, one of our long-term volunteers from Weltwarts AFS Germany has been working at the De Mercede Orphanage since August. She writes to us from the village of Paneer, in Mangalore Taluk, Dakshina Kannada District. Following is a personal account of her experiences. “Namaskara everybody! India – on the 4th of August I arrived here in the middle of the Monsoon. Actually I was really excited and counted the days before my arrival. And…
On the 20th and 21st of January, 2014, our Home Based Project team in Kundapura initiated a certificate distribution activity as a token of recognition for participants of our “debris free ocean” beach clean-up which took place on the 21st of September 2013. The clean-up activity had collected 13 tonnes of waste and had mobilized around 600 volunteers from schools, colleges, the fishermen community, youth clubs, self-help groups, Rotary members and more. …
In the month of January 2014, work camp team leader, Manjunath, led a bilateral camp for six volunteers from South Korea. The theme of this work camp was education, environment and children. The volunteers worked in a government school in Bangalore, teaching around 80 children about environment related issues such as pollution and conservation, as well as basic Engish schools, educational drawing and wall painting. The…
On the 30th of December, 2013, Austin and Manjula from our Home Based Project team, along with other NGOs such as Namma Bhoomi and the Azim Premji Foundation, collaborated with the Marvanthe Panchayat to hold the annual Children’s Gram Sabha (children’s parliament) at V.K. Kamath Hall in Kundapura. From primary school children, to high school students, participants raised awareness on the needs and issues of their schools and community. Over 200 students, 15 teachers, the president…
On the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of January, our Home Based Project’s Tent School team initiated an awareness raising activity in Kundapura in regards to children’s rights and child trafficking. Our Tent School Project activities aim at imparting formal education to the children of migrant families. Often times, due to being a part of a marginalized community, these children face discrimination and hardship throughout their lives. By analyzing these…
During the month of January 2014, two of our work camp team leaders; Sandesh and Vinoth, led an organic farming and environment themed work camp in Pondicherry. Attending this work camp were five volunteers from three different countries; the Netherlands, South Korea and India. The work camp participants collaborated with the Center for Environment and Agricultural Development (CEAD) in a vermicompost activity during which the volunteers learned about vermiflitration, vermiwash…
On the 27th of January, 2014, our Home Based Project (HBP) in Kundapur guided a farmer, Mr. Shankar (a member of the Dairy Cooperative Society) at Marvanthe to prepare an Azolla cultivation pit. Azolla is an algae species that grows above water without any feeding and provides value addition to milking quantity & fat content in cattle milk. A month prior to that, we carried out a demonstrative activity to explain to…