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!
We arrived at camp Chenziwa, in the Bvumba Mountains, on what would be described as a cold winter’s night by the national volunteers, but by the UK volunteers as a warm summers night and we started to set up camp. Being in charge of a group of 22 children we knew we had more on our plate other than Sadza, but it was nothing that we as Team Shumba couldn’t handle!
Living and volunteering in rural Manicaland Province in Zimbabwe, home visits are part and parcel of our work. It provides the volunteers, both UK and Zimbabwean, with real perspective as to why we are here, helps us to gauge feedback and information for the sessions and development work that we are involved in, and is an excellent way of liaising with the community.
In the UK, we throw away the equivalent of our body weight in waste every seven weeks. That means as a nation we produce enough rubbish to fill up the Albert Hall in two hours. (Source: C. B. Environmental Ltd.) We consume more and more and don’t really think about where our waste goes afterwards. We put it in the bin and then some kind people take it away, far, far from us, put it in landfills, condense it and cover it. Out of sight out of mind.
Alejandra Sophia Rivera is a Progressio ICS national volunteer. She is 26 years old. Born with Spastic Diplegia Cerebral Palsy, this has not been an obstacle for her to achieve her goals and objectives. Sophia graduated with honours from high school with a business qualification, and currently she is in her second year of a Law Degree, at Universidad Cristiana Evangélica Nuevo Milenio, in Catacamas, Olancho. At the end of her first year, she was awarded the top student in her class.
Living in Honduras for ten weeks would open the eyes of any average UK consumer. Coming from a country where all foods are available, no matter the season, magically appearing on supermarket shelves in pristine condition, attractively packaged to keep it so, we could be forgiven for thinking that this abundance is reflected worldwide. However, in Honduras the situation is very different, and I have quickly become much more mindful about what I purchase and consume.
So up until now I have been all about the monitoring and evaluating of our project, but not this week! This week I get to talk about my experience working at the school fairs, more specifically at the science station. Our focus is on drug abuse, and this is because drug abuse is a very real problem for the city of Catacamas. It is widespread, and young people often drop out of school prematurely due to drugs. We will go to 12 different schools in our 10 week cycle, and teach students about the risks of drugs and what they can do to succeed in school.
It is with a great smile that Eveless Thole of Silota Village, Group Village Head Nyirongo, expresses her view on the impact that the clay cook stoves have had on her family. Eveless, who belongs to a household of four, started using these modern stoves in December, 2014. As ICS volunteers, myself and Karen Laheen are here to collect feedback from Eveless on the usage and impact of these stoves.
This is a day for talking about women, or more specifically, about those that are mothers. The 30 May is Nicaragua’s Mothers’ Day. “Mrs. María” still doesn’t know the sex of her third child, who will be born in the next few days to her and her husband, but what she does know is that she will have a healthy source of food in her backyard, as she herself was involved in the planting the seeds.
Until we were given the task to come up with some ideas to commemorate World Environment Day on 5 June, we had not really thought about the issue of waste management in Malawi and how it differs with those systems we are used to in the UK. A discussion on our own experiences of environmental issues and waste management highlighted these differences and got us thinking about what we could try to do more here in Malawi to do our bit for the environment.
A Perspective from the UK volunteers
This week I’ve decided to write a different type of blog. I interviewed the host family that I’m staying with and wanted to gain an insight to their perspective on the educational system and security in Honduras.
