Ewka

I come from a veeeery big family. My great parents and four siblings have always supported all my activities. I graduated from Trnava University – got my masters from social work. Mother Nature gave me a big deal of curiosity and travelling is the way I deal with it. When I worked in Africa (Angola, Mozambique), I kept hearing about Incredible India which you either love or hate – that there was no other way. So once I decided to go and see for myself. After a 3-month volunteering experience, I must say that India has fulfilled my hyperactivity and surprised me as the same time.

What could be a better way of getting to know a country and its culture than through experiencing the ordinary life and work with the locals? That is what the NGO The Way Home (Cesta domov) offers - living in rural India which is so much different from the popular destinations, far away from ordinary tourists, living with the local children and experience their pain and be part of their joys which everyday life in India brings. It all goes in hand with a better understanding of what their problems are so that you try to find solutions to them, as you at the same time explore the differences and similarities of our cultures and do your best in order to understand why things work the way they do in India.

My main task as a volunteer was to help with the “Edu Aid” program which enables hundreds of poor and underprivileged families to co-finance the education of their children. The program is very complex and includes lots of activities. Thus each active and willing hand finds a large scope of tasks. The tasks are yet flexible and individual activities depend on the needs of the program as well as the skills and talents of the volunteers.

I personally like to work with children and most of my work was directly with children in the school. There are many children here therefore there are never enough helping hands. Most of “our” children come from very poor families, mainly from isolated villages. The majority are Dalit children – children belonging to the lowest caste in the Indian cast system. Dalits are often discriminated and oppressed and therefore the basic needs of the children are not met. The work becomes a real experience with many surprises. Activities I´ve been helping with, were such as helping with writing letter to the sponsors parents, taking photos, visiting the families of the children as well as teaching English. Creativity has no limits here, so as a volunteer I was fully supported to come up with my own ideas of how to better use my own skills and abilities.

I lived in the school campus at the boarding house which was sometimes quite challenging. However, thanks to that experience I could get to know the children better, beyond the educational process and thus was able to make some friendships with them. The NGO “The Way Home” (Cesta domov) surprised me with their readiness and care for their volunteers. On one hand, the comprehensively elaborated information package about India and about the work which was awaited and on the other hand, the ever-available local coordinators were very helpful for my volunteer stay, and so today I can say that I understand certain issues much better.

Indian culture is very different from ours, the European one, and therefore the point of view, openness and sensitivity towards other cultures are a good way of how to fight with the cultural shock and how to better understand certain situations in which one can be found when abroad. The opportunity to be surrounded by a team of experienced, punctilious and highly motivated people who have become my friends was a great opportunity to grow professionally as well as personally.

When talking about India, I would like to bring to your attention such delicious foods as curry, mango, chutney – they are strongly addictive! And I should mention also the everyday energy re-chargers of the children´s smiles.