1. The world
of the volunteer
J a n u a r y 2 0 1 1 N r . 1 , 2 0 1 1
Zambia, India, Mozam-
bique, all three coun-
tries presented
through the eyes of
our DIs. May team
2010 members
Let the adventure begin! racks and pit latrines. Al- means that I concentrate
seemed to have found
May team 2010 has left for most all of the schools have more on Pre-Schools and
their places in the pro-
their projects in November. these facilities also. They Youth Clubs. Said in a sim-
jects. Our youngest
Here are the latest news did a good job and every- ple way, my job is to coop-
team, November team
from one of our DIs that is body has the knowledge erate together with he
2010 is “growing” as
currently working in Zam- about health, hygiene and members of Youth Clubs,
well, getting every day
bia. Enjoy! :) Child Care Committees and
better prepared to face
with the Pre-School teach-
the challenges that Zambia, wow! Nice place,
ers to solve the problems
wait for them on two nice people, nice Nshima,
that they face, to improve
continents. nice nature, nice weather,
the ways of doing things, if
nice everything! I can easily
Do you think this is necessary, and to encour-
imagine myself here for
interesting? age and motivate them. I
more than 6 months. Afri-
Iulian (RO), participant in should also monitor plant-
Join us! can shock? Not really! The
May team 2010, currently ing of trees, construction of
school prepared us exactly
DRH Norway in a Child Aid project in firewood saving stoves and
for what is here so take
Choma, Zambia. check if what Area Leaders
www.drh-norway.org studies and experiences
report, reflects the reality-
serious guys! Really! :) In
E-mail: anything else that they this is always funny. From
this area, the project is al-
should know about (a TCE January, I will start work-
diprogram@drh- ready running for 6 years,
Project in this area would shops with the Pre-School
norway.org in different forms, so there
be better in this moment). I teachers so they will be
is not so much innovation
Phone: am impressed of what I able to give more knowl-
that I can bring. My per-
004761264444 found here, I adapted to edge to the kids- this is my
sonal project is obsolete,
what is happening here and new personal project,
since more than 90% of the
my work is based on Lines adapted to the new situa-
houses have tippi taps, dish
3 and 4 of Child Aid, which tion.
2. Page 2
Giving HOPE in Zambia
Jitka (CZ), May team 2010—HOPE Mongu
World Aids Day in
Zambia
They call her Sybe or Sybeso because they cannot pronounce her name
“The aim of the
and office work means she has to run along with the kids to catch the
project is to chicken behind the office, let us go through Jitka’s first month in Africa.
change the
We work with 3700 peo- stock or garden manage- soya, moringa). One of
attitude and the ple and the aim is to ment and after the my tasks is to go with the
behavior in the equip the community with courses, they receive ei- community mobilizers for
communities, skills so they can start livestock monitoring, but
My main task is to give
reduce stigma their own income gener- there is always a prob-
lessons about positive
and ating activity and become lem: people eat the ani-
living and basic facts
discrimination in self-sufficient. We are mals instead of breeding
about HIV/AIDS.
organizing different them and then they say
order to fight the
workshops for the people ther animals (chicken, that the chicken was sto-
spread of HIV/ in the community, live- goats) or seeds (corn, len or it died.
AIDS”
“This cannot be described, must be seen” -Dimitar, May team 2010
Amazing Mozambique
Dimitar started his African experience in November, working in the Teacher
Training College in Maputo. Since then he has been through important events on a
local scale, for instance the graduation of 190 primary school teachers:
―I was lucky to be a witness of the graduation of the current students and this was
Graduation in EPF Maputo something really special. For this people this event was something really special.
For all of them. Why? The students sang only one sentence in English: <We are
all happy to be together> and my feeling is that was 100% true. I was also invited
to go in holiday with some other DIs from the Children's Town, which was a good
opportunity to do something usefull in this long holiday. We went with the children
to one of the nicest beaches in the neigbouring district and organized games for
them‖
The world
3. January 2011 Page 3
“Equality matters, when it is more than just slogans”
Edgars (LV) - May team 2010, TCGD Haldwani, India
news about his are/were teachers with two higher
activities in India. educations. It is always joy to give
them new knowledge, as they are very
At end of first eager to learn. Also in my area are
week I started to design things, such as invitations,
carry out infor-
newsletters, videos, presentations,
matics classes and newspapers, booklets, etc. In this time
also to assist per- we had also investigations in slums
manent teacher and villages. In slums you can see
Ganesh on daily why locals think that white people are We were
Between some classes or a classes. On next week I also rich. While we can throw out bags of so happy
visit to the slums, Edgars started to give English les- bread, here kids have no food to eat. to reach
found some time to give us sons. My students are mostly
Edgars TCGD
older than me, as all of them
Orissa,
that it
Simply India seemed
Martins, May team 2010, CDP Orissa
like
Long way to India, trains, plane, other trains, this time Indian style,
rickshaws and there they are, Dace and Martins, May team 2010.
One of my tasks is to give presentations about various topics.
Recently we had a tree planting action where we have received
1200 seedlings to plant all over the district. My work is to visit
local villages and talk with the villagers about their problems and ex-
plain about Humana’s activities. Its quite an interesting job, the only
problem is that I don’t know local language, so I need to use body lan-
guage to communicate. But I am slowly learning local language –
Oriya and they are very happy to hear me speaking in their language.
In our operational area we have 22 villages. We organize villagers in
Self Help Groups.—Martins
“One thing you have it for sure in Africa, and that is time.”
Oli, May team 2010, Farmers Club, Bilibiza, Mozambique
My first task here was to make 2 la- wood. I can say that I am working in all
trines for the pre-school which we al- the projects which Bilibiza has.
ready finished in 4 days. We had to dig
2 holes 2 meter deep, after arrange the
bricks inside and make the cover from
cement. The only thing which we have
to make is to buy some bamboo and put
around the latrines. We plant moringa
tree, passion fruit tree and pineapple.
Our next task is to build some enter-
tainment toys for pre-school from
4. BuildIng a team
Putting some people together in a classroom does not automatically mean we have a team. Teams here go through many
experiences, difficult ones, funny ones, educational ones… all with the aim to make them trust each other and become
able to work together fruitfully. Here are the latest moments that November team 2010’s member had been through to-
gether. Here are the thoughts one of the November team members, Norbi (RO) decided to share with us.
Cross-country?
So, I even checked what the dictionary has got to say about cross country and it means running on mountain road. Eve-
rything began when a group of happy people decided that they want to spend their afternoon doing something interest-
ing. I was asked if I want to go skiing. You can’t imagine how happy I was to find out that I am not the only obsessed
person in Hornsjoe concerning skiing. We agreed to meet after lunch in the room where the equipment was. I am using
the word "equipment" because what followed was only serving to my
disappointment and confusion. I had to wear a pair of shoes which were
not attached to my skis and besides, those skis were something more
different then the ones I remember skiing last time with, my skis. After-
wards I found out that actually we are going to practice cross-country
which to me was an unknown sport and meaningless. I didn't expect to
have fun but I went because I just wanted to try it. Why not? It was not
that hard to adapt to the procedure and actually it was not that boring
as I was expecting. The only concern is that I didn't find yet that person
who is in fond of skiing, in Hornjoe. The ski track in Oyer is not that
nice, it is more to learn skiing and I would really like to ski downhill
jumping through bushes and avoiding trees. I will continue my pursue
of a partner, in case o get hurt and lose my phone.
November team 2010—skying, skating and gaining trust in each other
Blindfolded happy people Skating on the lake
This Can you believe that it was the first time I skated?
was one Here, in Hornsjoe. I never considered skating though it
weird is practiced a lot in my beautiful country, Romania. We
experi- were many, more then 20 people and when we got
ence. there we split in groups, beginners and advanced. I
We didn’t join any of these groups because the only thing I
walked wanted was to get to the other side of the forest, situ-
blind- ated near the most far place of the lake. My only con-
folded cern was reaching that point by skating. Practically I
for like was wondering if I could reach it, but I knew that if I
an hour would, one nice picture will be made. I made it, of
and we had to wear our scarves even while we course and what amazed me was that it was really
were smoking or just stopping for a short break. easy, only because it is very similar to skiing. I really
Imagine that we were supposed to pass over rocks enjoyed it and I
and bushes or even small rivers because the leader like a lot skating
chose a pretty hard route. The purpose of this in the same di-
game was to check if we can trust our colleagues rection with the
and if not to start trusting them. It was really im- wind because you
portant to trust the one who's hand you were hold- acquire high
ing because he was the one who was leading you speed and you
and sometimes the road didn’t allow us to side- can control the
track.. All in all it was a nice experience and I am skates easily.
sure that I can trust Nicky, one of my colleagues.
