ICS blog

When l look back, it’s difficult to believe that we are almost at our mid-term mark. Time has gone by so fast and it only feels like yesterday that we began our volunteer journey. There is nothing more we could ask for than to have our cycle extended. We are enjoying every moment that we are together as a team either working in the office or out carrying out our activities and more so in our host homes. Starting out on this journey has been a really wonderful experience so far.

Saturday 17 January, 2.00pm: After months of anticipation, excitement and intrigue, I arrived in Zimbabwe with nine other ICS volunteers from the UK. We were greeted at Harare airport by our team leaders and spent a quiet night together in the city to rest from the long journey. The following morning we hit the road early to travel to the city of Mutare for the start of our orientation week. The journey took us through some beautiful rural scenery as we heard more about the country and the culture.

On 14 January the President of Malawi, Prof. Arthur Peter Munthalika, declared that 15 out of the country’s 28 Districts were registered disaster zones, due to extreme weather conditions causing substantial and devastating flooding. To take action, ICS volunteers working with the Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi (WESM) and in conjunction with the Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust (MMCT) took the initiative to help out some of the victims.

Rόisín’s Diary, Monday 19 January

Something we are all strangely resigned to, living in Honduras, is early mornings. We leave the house at 8am so waking up at 6.30am is the norm (although some of us have taken longer to give in to this). Today, however, we are woken an hour earlier by next door’s cow. Sensing we are not going to get that extra hour of sleep, we are up and getting ready for a busy day. As I make my way to the pila to get a bit of washing done (little and often is the only way so as not to go insane/break your arms!), Ceri is already up doing her daily yoga, looking out over Puca.

On the 2 February every year the world commemorates World Wetlands Day. In celebration of this day, WESM along with the ICS volunteers conducted an awareness campaign at Mulanje Mission School, educating the students on wetlands and their importance within local communities.

ICS volunteers, Mphatso Mkundika and Fiona Bushfield, did a presentation on wetlands to an audience of 337 students in the school hall, of which 127 were boys and 110 were girls.

On Thursday, 5 February, ICS volunteers held an orientation session on the advantages of using clay cook stoves and how to make clay cook stoves at Kamilaphete CBCC in the community of village headman Jamu Mtete, in Mathambo Village.

The aim of the meeting was to discourage the use of charcoal in the community and promote the use of clay cook stoves and briquettes as a way of conserving the environment.

Our team name CATSEYE originates from the different thematic areas we are working on. The “C” for Child Protection, “A” for AIDS and HIV awareness, “T” for Target climate change, “S” for Security of food and water, “E” for Encourage youth development, “Y” for Youth Training and “E” for Empower women. 

In week three, for the “A”, we decided to have not one but two sensitisation sessions on HIV and AIDS.

In life there are many stigmas held against people. One of the largest stigmatised groups of people are those suffering with HIV and AIDS. Across all cultures in all corners of the earth, people can find themselves ostracised for having a virus that is out of anyone’s control. On the outside they’re exactly the same as anyone else. You can’t even tell if someone’s HIV+, but as soon as it becomes known that someone is positive the HIV negative person becomes just that: Negative. They start to draw away, often with one thought on their mind “I hope I didn’t catch AIDS”.

The sun is still blazing, the rice is still being consumed in incredible quantities and the volunteers are still labouring with insatiable enthusiasm and passion. Our fourth week in Masaya has been action-packed; our time consumed by planning, running workshops and learning more about one another.