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!
Every morning, I sit looking out my host family’s front window, onto the busy street in the centre of La Esperanza. People bustle by: rushing to work, selling vegetables door to door, or just walking around town. In the mornings the buses from the rural communities stop outside our house; they are the old yellow school buses sent from the US, which are crammed with people from the nearby mountains on the inside and toppling with huge bags of produce on the roof.
The best things in life are for free and I would never trade the happiness that I experienced with the contact boys in Bvumba for anything. A group of Progressio ICS volunteers, members of local partner organisation Simukai and eleven boys who live and work on the street went to Leopard Rock Hotel in Bvumba. It was the least that we could do for the children, to take them away from all the noise and hullabaloo associated with the hustle and difficulties on the street.
Moving into a new home, with a new family, who don’t speak any of your native language, is always going to be a daunting experience. Pulling up to the shop of our family, with the house behind, and the family stood out in front, was no exception. The members of the family we met first were Jenaro, the dad of the family, Joaquina, the matriarch, and Gerson, the 13 year old son. All had welcoming smiles on their faces and seemed overjoyed to have us.
On 12 August, International Youth Day, Team Chibavi - volunteering with local partner organisation - Centre for Girls and Interaction (CEGI) - started a march from Mzuzu town to the Chibavi community ground to spread our message of HIV & AIDS prevention, ending early marriage and sexual reproductive health.
On the day that Katie-Mae (my soon-to-be roomie for the next nine weeks) and I first arrived in Rumphi, Malawi, we were feeling everything you might expect: apprehensive, excited and also slightly nervous to meet our host family for the first time. We knew absolutely nothing about them except for their surname. However, any anxieties we had were soon calmed by a warm greeting from our host ‘amama’ -our adada, Mr Luhanga was away for work.
As part of our project, which focuses on livelihoods and entrepreneurship, we have been finding out about the employment situation in our local area by conducting surveys and talking to members of the community. From the conversations we have had, it is clear that there is a lack of employment opportunities in the area. Therefore our project, which includes the building of an eatery business in our community to provide employment, for the young people of the youth network and teaching entrepreneurial skills, has life changing potential.
It’s been a very eventful two weeks, the highlight of it all I would say is when we did a collaboration day with the other ICS team working with the Centre for Girls and Interaction (CEGI) during International Youth Day on 12 of August. It started off with just the volunteers but quickly grew crowds many of them children. We organised a march through the streets from near the Toviranne office to a local football pitch near the CEGI offices. There we had our own stall, set up along stalls CEGI stalls, and a HIV Testing and Counselling clinic.
One of the most rewarding and inspiring experiences of the ICS placement is living with a local host family. However, at our in country orientation it was the part we were all the most nervous about, flying half way round the world to live with people we had never met before was a seriously daunting prospect. A few weeks in we are all very close to our host families, with many of us being referred to as their sons and daughters! We decided to all write about our varied experiences to reassure future volunteers’ about living in a host home.
A significant part of the duties conducted by the Contact Department at our local partner organisation Simukai, is to conduct day and night street visits. Street visits involve volunteers visiting particular spots on the streets in Mutare where it is known that children who live and work on the streets can be found.
Team Mapiri works as a family. It is nice and interesting for a group of eighteen people working without fighting. This shows that Team Mapiri, which has UK and national volunteers, is a cooperative and a hard working team to the community.
On 24 July the team went to monitor goat kraals (enclosures) at Mthuzi village. The community was so happy to see the team to work together in their community, advising on how to ensure the welfare of the goats, which our partner organisation, the Small Producer’s Development and Transporters Association (SPRODETA), has provided them.
