Initially when I found out about this program, I was scared, meeting new people, talking about our culture and making new friends. All this sounded scary. It has been almost 3 years since we left home, we all have gotten used to the comfortable environment of staying home or at least some of us have. I too didn’t want to leave my comfort zone, I had so many questions like “is it okay to go?” “will it be fun?” or…
LTV team, Kundapura organised a Mid Term Evaluation for FSL India’s Long Term Volunteers. The programme was held for 2 days, from 17th and 18th October 2019. In total, 4 volunteers from AFS took part in this evaluation. The MTE was organised at FSL India’s Centre for Experiential Living. The objective of the MTE was to assess the progress of our volunteers, how they are doing in their project and host family, to offer solutions to overcome any hurdles, as…
Yesterday, I lay aimlessly on my bed, staring at the ceiling fan rotating at its lowest speed, wondering how I barely noticed its absence over the past year. Hoping to find something better to do, I picked up my phone and saw that I had a message from a friend – another volunteer who’d returned to Bangalore from Berlin last week. “Me too” read the message, a response to one I’d sent a few hours earlier saying “I want to…
FSL India’s CEL at Kundapura had the honour to welcome a group of 50 students from Roshni Nilaya College, Mangalore on 25th of September. The students used this chance to get some information on how NGOs work, getting insights on voluntary work and different projects. The day started with some fun activities. The students also got a tour around the Training Centre. Then they heard a short introduction on FSL India by our staff and attended a presentation of 2…
Being here in Karnataka, Keralites feel homesickness in the month of September. There is a king who visits us every year – this year Keralites welcomed the king to Kundapura where we, along with FSL-India CEL’s staff and volunteers celebrated the Onam festival on 11th September. As Hu Jintao says, “Culture is a window reflecting the history, culture and spiritual world of a nation, Cultural exchange is a bridge to enhance the mutual understanding and friendship between the people of…
I’m Mathilde, I’m 20 years old, and when, with 3 other friends from my school, we sat down in the plane, I didn’t know I was going to live the best experience of my life. How could I even imagine what I was going to live? 6 weeks of amazing meetings, 6 weeks to discover Indian and Karnataka culture, 6 weeks working at Ballenahalli’s work camp. The first person we met was Manjunath, our team leader from FSL-India, the most…
It has been 1 year since I moved to Germany for the Weltwärts South-North programme. The whole experience has been eye-opening and also inspirational. I got the opportunity to experience many different spaces, cultures and places over the last 1 year. In my project, I was able to interact with children from so many different countries, and also work with people from different places. We got to share stories, experiences from all our countries, and this was an enriching experience….
In our Mysore zone, FSL-India’s volunteers were invited to participate in a Cultural Day celebration at Maharani’s College. At the annual cultural event, our volunteers were warmly welcomed by the students. It was good to see the celebrations where the whole college was decorated with colours and all the students were dressed in traditional outfits. As soon as they saw the volunteers, they began to shout out a smiling welcome to them. 5 volunteers participated in this event and FSL-India’s coordinator…
Somehow, time has flown past me and it is exactly 10 months to the date since I first set foot on German ground. I still remember that moment, stepping out into the bright September sunshine at Berlin’s Tegel airport, heaving a sigh of relief on seeing somebody right outside holding a sheet of paper with our names (and a friendly little flower) on it, and wondering if the rest of my year in Europe was going to be just as…
On the 16th of June, 2019 I flew to France, to the Western world. It was the first time for me – flying to Europe. I was very excited to go and also, a little bit worried. Indeed, I wanted to plan everything in advance like the train ticket, and the food availability there, and I also brought with me the chilli powder, because I knew I would have missed it a lot. My journey started from Bangalore airport on…