Want a deeper insight into what an ICS placement looks like? Read the amazing blogs written by our past and present volunteers. Enjoy the journey!
While the global gender gap remains immense, and progress toward parity is in many places slowing, today is nevertheless a day for celebration. The extraordinary resilience, courage and determination of women will be recognised worldwide this International Women’s Day, and we must remember that every small step is valuable in the push towards gender justice.
A lot of work has gone into the event this morning (6 March) yet as the early sun dawns, we awaken into a state of semi-panic. There are chairs to move and speakers to set up. Last-minute poem editing, practicing for speeches and a presentation. Then an entire sound system needs moving at the last second, to connect the laptop to both speakers and projector.
Women in Latin America face an uphill battle to obtain even the most basic human rights. This struggle is augmented for Indigenous women, who embody the familiar double-edged sword of many conflicts in Latin America, which battle over the ownership of territory - both land and women’s bodies.
Growing up in a developing country, Malawi, and to a clan where education is perceived to be something for boys and not girls, is challenging. Girls are considered to be assets where by when a girl gets married, her parents get lobola (cash or cows) as a token of appreciation for raising a girl child. This is no different to the case in my village such that no woman in my village ever attained higher education, like university education. I wanted to change my story, that a girl child can attain any goal if given an opportunity.
On 24 February, Progressio held its quarterly recruitment drive for cycle 15, which is starting in the beginning of April. There was a great deal of tension and nervousness in the air at first as the 22 hopeful applicants congregated together at the venue, but Bryan's icebreakers and team-building activities quickly eased them into things and built their self-confidence.
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night in cold sweats, my body shaking and pulse racing, when the memory of the event makes its way into my unconscious mind. It was just a bad dream, I reassure myself, and I nestle back down into the safety of my duvet. Yet the memory persists, lying in wait as I fall asleep, ready to pounce to the forefront of my mind and scare me witless. It is my hope that by setting down my recollection of the event, by placing it in the public domain, I may somehow exorcise that dreadful occurrence from my memory.
El 26 de febrero fue un día muy especial para nosotros como ciclo 14, donde recordamos la experiencia al ver llegar a los candidatos que podrían clasificar para el ciclo 15. A los jóvenes les dio mucho interés y animo al escuchar a los voluntarios (Darwin y Ramón) contando sus experiencias de lo que han vivido en el ciclo 14, lo cual ellos y todos los voluntarios, han aprendido como hacer eco-estufas y la forma de cómo se está trabando en un grupo unido, unos con otros.
1. Put yout hand up
It all started one Monday morning when we were working on theatre roles. We had a problem - there was a small part that needed filling in the MESA theatre production of Antigone, and no one to fill it. We were so desperate that even the UK volunteers were asked.
Los voluntarios de Parcila y El Bramadero estaban muy entusiasmado por conocer la ciudad de Matagalpa, el día de domingo 14 de febrero en donde también se celebraba el día de San Valentín. Notamos la alegría de los voluntarios británicos porque en el Festival de Matagalpa había muchas culturas nicaragüenses que son diferentes a las culturas británicas.
Fue un día muy feliz para todos los voluntarios que visitaron la ciudad por conocer un poco más de Nicaragua (el clima y la amabilidad de muchas personas).
Esta es una historia en la cual queda demostrado que nada es imposible, ¡ahora sabrán porque digo esto!
Está historia empezó hace tres meses, aproximadamente. Yo asistí a una entrevista para poder ser voluntaria en el programa de Progressio ICS y FUMA. En el lugar vi a muchos jóvenes, entre todos ellos vi a una chica a la cual a pesar de que nos conocíamos desde hace un tiempo, no nos hablábamos. Así que pensé que sería difícil trabajar con ella. Pero nos empezamos saludando cada vez que nos veíamos.
