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!
“Hello guys, listen, we are ICS volunteers who work with YONECO”. That was spoken by the one of volunteers. The noise could be heard among the students during our first secondary school session in the Nkhata Bay district. Before I became a volunteer, I had a lot of thoughts and expectations on how I will perform activities in different areas. It really is true that what was hard to bear is sweet to remember.
“Hello guys, listen, we are ICS volunteers who work with YONECO”. That was spoken by the one of volunteers. The noise could be heard among the students during our first secondary school session in the Nkhata Bay district. Before I became a volunteer, I had a lot of thoughts and expectations on how I will perform activities in different areas. It really is true that what was hard to bear is sweet to remember.
Two events were held this week; 1) a climate change talk, and 2) an afternoon dedicated to young girls, known as El Dia de la Niña.
We were particularly enthused about the International Day of the Girl Child as it seemed clear to us this community has a different attitude towards women and children in general. This is not to say it is a bad view, but just different to the attitudes expressed and experienced in the West.
El día jueves 13 de octubre del 2016, a las 2 pm, se compartió en la comunidad de la Grecia una charla sobre el cambio climático donde asistieron nueve personas, ocho mujeres y un varón. En dicha charla se les dio información sobre las causas, consecuencias y lo que se debe hacer para adaptarse al calentamiento global. Durante la charla tres participantes brindaron sus opiniones acerca de los problemas climáticos en la comunidad. Por ejemplo, en las comunidades de la Grecia y Parcila los habitantes nos dicen que la sequía es uno de los problemas causados por el cambio climático.
‘The poor are always with us’; look on the news to see the displaced in refugee camps, pass a homeless person in the street, open emails to find another campaign desperate for donations to end poverty. It’s easy to think that poverty, defined as the severe lack of material possessions or money, will be a stain on human consciousness forever. Luckily, there’s no room for this kind of pessimism on 17 October, which marks the UN’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
Las mujeres rurales representan una cuarta parte del conjunto de la población mundial, es por eso que el 15 de octubre se celebra a nivel internacional el Día de la Mujer Rural. En su mayoría, las mujeres rurales dependen de los recursos naturales para subsistir ya que hay pocas fuentes de trabajo a las que ellas puedan tener acceso.
El primer Día Internacional de las Mujeres Rurales se celebró el 15 de octubre de 2008, y fue establecido por la Asamblea General de la ONU en su resolución 62/136.
16 October is World Food Day and this year’s theme is extremely relevant to Malawi - ‘Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too.’ The population of Malawi is growing rapidly and with that there is growing rates of food consumption. On my placement (July to September 2016) we had a climate change training that taught us that Malawi, which has a population of almost 18 million as of 2016, is expected to have a population of 40 million by 2050.
We have just finished painting and to get an idea about life as a woman in rural Honduras I am chilling under a palm tree with Mirza, one of our national volunteers. She is my age (23-24) and she already has a girl who is six months old. It seems that Hondurans start a family at a much younger age than in the UK, it can be as low as even 20. Mirza being a mum at my age seems incredible and unthinkable for me; but I am about to soon find out, our values and dreams are not that different.
We have come to the end of our first week here in El Bramadero and are beginning to get a taste of life here. We’ve experienced everything from living with our host families, surviving night-time trips to the latrines and being woken up at the crack of dawn by pigs and chickens.
For our first blog, we thought we’d share with you our top five resounding perceptions from our first week.
#1 We are essentially living in a jungle paradise…
Iniciamos el primer día con un juego para conocer la comunidad de El Bramadero, nos dividimos en cuatro grupos. Los grupos estaban compuestos por: dos nicas y dos británicos. Fue un poco complicado cumplir con los objetivos del juego por la dificultad de comunicarnos, pero con la ayuda de diccionarios y haciéndonos señas logramos entendernos. De los cuatro grupos solo dos llegaron a la meta, pero lo bueno fue que tuvimos la oportunidad de compartir con los chicos. Para ser el primer día estuvo muy bien.
