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!
Sunday 8 March 2015 was International Women’s Day. “A global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future”. Thank you, ladies! Mothers, sisters, teachers, role models: the hard work you put in has helped us get where we are today. Including the boys; they love you too. We are equal in appreciation and hope one day we’ll be equal in recognition too. It takes all types to build a world, after all.
I think that the work as a Progressio ICS volunteer with ADES (Asociación de Desarrollo Económico y Social de Santa Marta) is very interesting and also important because we are learning many new things, we are able to have a cultural exchange, and much more.
Sometimes we have challenges as a group, but they are nothing very serious. We are able to solve problems as a team. They are things that always come up in a work environment. We also have a lot of fun together and get along quite well.
When I posted a status on Facebook announcing that I would be fundraising £800 for Progressio in order to volunteer in Malawi, I got an immediate private message from a friend which read, word for word: ‘how are you going there AND WHYYY? And how much money did you have to cash out for that “volunteering”!?’
At the first drug prevention fair that we ran at a school in Catacamas, national volunteer Emilia asked the children, aged between 5 and 10, to draw pictures of any drugs and alcohol that they know. We watched incredulously as the kids set to work without hesitation, drawing an array of different drugs and many including diagrams of how you take them.
Rhiannon Clapham travelled to El Salvador in July 2014 for her International Citizen Service with Progressio. Here, she shares the story of the inspirational lady who hosted her.
The rural community of Santa Marta in El Salvador was almost destroyed by civil war. The lady who hosted us – our abuela – had suffered more than most. At 67, she had lived through 12 years of war, become a refugee, and lost her husband, parents, brothers and two of her children. She now raises her grandson singlehandedly after his father migrated to the United States 15 years ago.
As we approached the half way mark this week, I took the time to reflect on my journey so far with regards to my own personal experiences and also the work we have all been doing as Team Catacamas.
I arrived well in Nairobi, Kenya, on Sunday 8 February together with other in-country ICS volunteers from Botswana, Zambia, Togo, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya, and started the training on Monday. We firstly had an orientation about global platforms and what it is all about and what our expectations were for the training. We also had introductions from in-country volunteers from the different organisation’s delivering ICS, such as VSO, Progressio, Tearfund, Balloon, Raleigh, just to mention a few.
Since the off, 14 February has been a date pencilled into our diary. For Salomon, the leader of the national volunteers, had invited us to join the celebrations within 10 minutes of our first bus ride, displaying the welcoming Honduran spirit from the moment we entered the country. Super excited, we were thrilled to be invited. It highlighted just how successful the previous cycle had been in developing relationships with the national volunteers and therefore it was only right that we did it justice.
During week four we planned to visit secondary schools to carry out several awareness campaigns. We decided to base them on the theme of Valentine’s Day. The idea was that we could talk about peer pressure surrounding relationships and how to practice safe sex.
