ICS blog

We are three weeks away from the end of cycle 10 and the eco-latrines have already been completely covered. It has taken three complete cycles to make this possible, but finally 60 eco-latrines have been constructed and covered, by a total of nearly 80 volunteers, both from the UK and Nicaragua, throughout the last nine months. Finalising a stage of a project makes you feel great and you value the work you have achieved as a team, not only with your current cycle of volunteers but also those that came before.

Temporarily living in a rural community of El Salvador, I happen to encounter interesting non-governmental organisations that work to make a difference in their small community. For us Progressio ICS volunteers, we came across CoCoSi, based in the community of Santa Marta, almost on the border between El Salvador and Honduras. The Asociación Comité Contra El SIDA Cabañas (CoCoSi) works to reduce new infections of HIV in rural areas, along with supporting people living with AIDS and the HIV virus and doing work in the fields of sexuality and gender.

Upon first inspection it can be difficult to reconcile the traditional notion of community with what exists in El Pochote. One would typically consider a community to be a collection of households focused around a central location where inhabitants can converge to participate in social events, or buy essential commodities. This format does not exist in El Pochote to any great extent, which poses obvious challenges for a team of volunteers hoping to help local people improve their communal quality of life.

WESM ICS volunteers have been continuing with their environmental awareness and recently attended and contributed to a tree planting event at Monjo Primary School in the area of Namata under Traditional Authority Kaduya in the Phalombe District.

ICS volunteers, in conjunction with some of the Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust employees assisted at the event because Monjo Primary School is often badly affected by heavy winds almost every year.

On the 8th March International Women’s Day is celebrated worldwide. In countries like Nepal and China women even celebrate the day with a public holiday.

Team Dziwe wanted to celebrate the day by producing a training session on the history of women and how they fought and are still fighting today for issues surrounding gender equality. Team Dziwe have been working closely with an all female, Muslim boarding school, Mai Halima, which is where they decided to conduct the session which was most effective and had a very encouraging outcome.

Waste management is a huge issue in Mulanje with communities disposing of their waste anywhere and everywhere without thinking about the local environment. Waste is unwanted or unusable materials whereas waste management implies the collection, transportation and disposal of garbage, sewage and other products.

In Malawi it is extremely common for girls to go no further than Primary School education. Such is the case at Nalipiri Primary School in Mulanje district where over 10 girls dropped out of school last term due to early pregnancies.  Therefore, WESM ICS volunteers decided to get involved in a girl child empowerment awareness campaign alongside the previous placements ICV’s to help combat this issue. In particular, the volunteers talked to the Nalipiri Primary School girls about the dangers of early pregnancies and marriages.

A song once said “I believe that children are the future” it was a well-known song by Whitney Houston.  The words ring true no matter who is singing them.  With Ungweru we have been assessing 10 Community Based Child Care Centers (CBCCs) to assess which centers would benefit most from being supported with milk producing goats. These centers were originally set up to help look after those children who had, or had parents living with, HIV and AIDS. However, these centers now serve any child who is not guaranteed one meal a day at home as the centers try to provide porridge for all children.

Toms’s Experience (UK volunteer)

Many of you who are reading through these blogs, like I was a few months ago, are probably trying to figure out what volunteering with Progressio in Nicaragua, or anywhere else for that matter, might actually be like. Perhaps you’re thinking about applying, perhaps you’ve been accepted on to the programme, maybe you’re the parents of a current volunteer (my mother will enjoy that one). Well, today I shall answer your prayers.