ICS Team MASO held a festival titled, August Festival, on 5 August at the Midlands AIDS Service Organisation (MASO) Centre. The festival was centred on raising awareness pertaining to HIV and AIDS, children’s rights and income generating projects, and the theme was ‘Challenge Yourself to Change Your World’.
MASO (Midlands Aids Service Organisation) welcomes its third cycle! For the latest group it’s all very new and exciting. Lots of fresh ideas and opinions floating around ready to be utilised. The team (comprised of 10 local volunteers and nine UK volunteers), works on community projects, responding to communities’ local needs and supports communities to respond to HIV. This cycle is actually the biggest one yet!
Before I even applied for the ICS programme I had my doubts. I had been travelling before and due to my mental health my trip was cut short. I faced up to the fact that I had depression and couldn’t keep fighting it on my own. I was worried that the past would repeat itself in the same way. This was a three-month placement and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to cope being away from my familiar and comfortable settings, not to mention the help that was available at home.
The first day I arrived at the YONECO office, I had the following questions…
How am I going to do my job and where to start?
Our April - June 2016 cycle of volunteers in Zimbabwe were the last cycle to work alongside partner organisation Diocese of Mutare Community Care Programme (DOMCCP) after four years. The team have complied a series of case studies demonstrating the impact the ICS programme has had in Mutasa.
Our April - June 2016 cycle of volunteers in Zimbabwe were the last cycle to work alongside partner organisation Diocese of Mutare Community Care Programme (DOMCCP) after four years. The team have complied a series of case studies demonstrating the impact the ICS programme has had in Mutasa.
Our April - June 2016 cycle of volunteers in Zimbabwe were the last cycle to work alongside partner organisation Diocese of Mutare Community Care Programme (DOMCCP) after four years. The team have complied a series of case studies demonstrating the impact the ICS programme has had in Mutasa.
Our April - June 2016 cycle of volunteers in Zimbabwe were the last cycle to work alongside partner organisation Diocese of Mutare Community Care Programme (DOMCCP) after four years. The team have complied a series of case studies demonstrating the impact the ICS programme has had in Mutasa.
Our April - June 2016 cycle of volunteers in Zimbabwe were the last cycle to work alongside partner organisation Diocese of Mutare Community Care Programme (DOMCCP) after four years. The team have complied a series of case studies demonstrating the impact the ICS programme has had in Mutasa.
Why volunteer? Why send yourself half way around the world, live in an unfamiliar country and work alongside a group of people you have never met before? I have been asked these kinds of questions many times since I returned from Zimbabwe earlier this year, and in truth I have no simple answer. Why did I go? And what lessons, if any, have I learnt from my three months volunteering?
