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…
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…
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…
Volunteers from up to 9 different countries join FSL India for an inter-cultural learning opportunity. They will be placed in projects as different as women’s empowerment to orphan children’s teaching to slum development and environment education
Name of volunteer: Miss Maria Country: Mexico Duration: June and July 2012 Project / Field: MVP / Regular Teaching I would like to share about Miss Maria and her work in a regular teaching in Model Village Project. She hails from Mexico, came to India for a two-month volunteering in a teaching project facilitated by FSL-India. She worked in a government school in Chennai. She really impressed people by her hard-work with the children. She taught spoken English,…
My name is Elsa Edling from the cold and small country Sweden and I have just spent a month working as a volunteer in India. I worked in the project Joseph Rural Development Trust (JRDT) in a small village near Chennai and my main assignment was to teach English at the local schools. I signed up as a volunteer at FSL-India who found and placed me in this project. The orientation week I met FSL-India staff and their…
FSL-India organized LTV Get-Together (GTG) at two different locations for long-term volunteer placed in Kundapur and Bangalore regions on 13th to 14th September 2012. While the Bangalore region organized the GTG at Hotel Greenland Youth Hostel & International Tourist Home; Kundapur region organized the same at the Turtle Bay Beach Resort. Seven volunteers (Jacqueline Marie, Anita, Lisa-Marie, Katharina, Gesa, Joanna and Natalie) from Bangalore region and eight volunteers (Guillaume, Eva, Carlo, Jesus Lopez, Kira, Aljoscha, Jana Lena and Jana) from…
Yoga / Ayurveda / Culture (Kerala – 6th to 26th August -2012) Number of Volunteers: 19 Camp Activities: Volunteers attended Yoga Class every day from 4.30 to 6.30 p.m. They were also involved with painting and conducting games with the children in Special school. The special attraction of the camp was the sessions on Ayurveda for volunteers. Sessions were conducted at the Parassini Kadava Ayurvedic College. Inter-cultural Learning: As part of the inter-cultural exposures, volunteers visited Muthappan Temple, and…
Jathanna School – Moodubidri Host Family: Lenet Rodrigues It is since two weeks that I am staying with the Rodrigues family in the Padumarnadu, Moodubidri village which is close to Mangalore. My day starts at 8 a.m. with a nice cup of chai (tea) and a typical Indian breakfast. For example Dosa with chicken curry. Afterwards I take my bag and go to the Jathanna School from which I leave at 16 p.m. When I return another cup…
Teaching in an Indian school is a nice experience in many respect, but I think what I liked the most was learning the games played by the Indian children. My favorite game is called Lagori. It is a traditional Indian game, very popular in Karnataka. Here are the rules from what I understood of it. The official ones might be slightly different. Two teams play against each other. There are usually 3 to 6 players in each team. One team…