ICS blog

After visiting El Bramadero, I realised how diverse the little communities of Nicaragua can be. El Bramadero appears to have the kind of soul that’s only present when a place has been really lived in. The trees there are old, tall and green, and their size demonstrates the age and strength of the landscape. It’s built on picturesque winding lanes about 1000 meters above sea level, which gives it a slightly mythical presence of being high amongst the mountains. And also means the coffee grown here is fantastic.

After being selected as an ICS volunteer and once the fundraising target was smashed, the common question which dominated mine and most other volunteers’ thoughts was, ‘What on Earth do I pack?’. Honduras is a country I knew very little about. My minimal understanding of this exotic country included knowing it was in Central America, the climate is hot and humid, the nationals speak Spanish and there may not be the same comforts that I am conditioned to living with. So what are the essentials to pack?

La semana del 9 al 13 de mayo del 2016 fue muy productiva para el equipo de Parcila. Recibimos clases de inglés para los voluntarios nacionales y español para los voluntarios británicos. También hicimos una sesión práctica como seguimiento al entrenamiento teórico que nos impartió dos semanas atrás el voluntario nacional Julio, en esta sesión preparamos la tierra y sembramos algunas semillas. Esta práctica nos dio el conocimiento para poder brindar el acompañamiento a las familias que harán su ordenamiento de patio, como parte de las técnicas de adaptación al cambio climático. 

It takes a willing heart to serve. It takes a willing heart to stand up and work for the whole community. This is the story of young men in Chisitu, Mulanje. 

Chidziwitso Youth Organisation (CHIYO) consists of 16 active members, of which many are school-going students. These young men and women have spared their time to work for the benefit of the community, having a vision of developing their area. CHIYO is involved in HIV and AIDS awareness, women and children’s rights, rural development, environment education and conservation, as well as back to school campaigns. 

If you thinking of taking a break and do something different? How does 3-6 months volunteering in Honduras sound? Add to that not a word of Spanish? This is what I decided to do leaving an exhausting commute and boring PR job to see what this beautiful country had to hold for me. 
 

Hi! I am Kate and I volunteered with ICS Progressio on an HIV and AIDS project alongside a local NGO - Towvirane, in Mzuzu, Malawi, from October to December 2015. 

My aim is to give you a sense of what it was like for me to work with national volunteers and what I learnt from them!

Home visits are an exciting experience that enable ICS volunteers the opportunity to effectively engage in the community. This is a once in a life time experience, especially for the UK volunteers, to witness the different household settings in Zimbabwe rural areas, their living standards and culture. Enthusiastic volunteers who are committed to make a difference in developing countries or within their local community are given the chance to make a difference in someone’s life through these visits.

Olivia and Lisa

Team Chikaya have almost finished their first round of peer education sessions with Musegede and Champhira youth clubs, and I love what the youth and the volunteers are doing. Before our first session started we played games. Girls played netball while boys played football. The boys had to wait for the girls to finish because they only have one ball. Only two volunteers Holly Barker and Tawonga Kamanga partook in netball, while Jon Sim, Isaac Murry, Richard and I played football. We were on different sides and it was great fun. People were happy to play with the azungu.

Cuando escuchaba hablar de bio-construcción me imaginaba que solo era hacer o construir un edificio, bio-parque o un edificio “X”.  Pero no pensaba que íbamos a utilizar mecanismos para no contaminar el medio ambiente, como usar cal en vez de cemento y usar menos madera posible para prevenir la deforestación. Como usar botellas plásticas para hacer bio- ladrillos, cuando usamos botellas (cuchumbos) también reciclamos y ayudamos al medio ambiente.