General Impression
After a long and patient research on the net about volunteering organizations around the world I chose Love Volunteers because of the genuine, altruistic and confidence-building vision they were able to transmit to me.
Very useful and understandable pre-departure information and helpful tips from Love Volunteers.
Informative and detailed three days induction program at their partner organization in Nepal.
Uninterrupted and devoted help and support from both LV and their partner throughout my whole volunteering adventure.
Impression about the country
Nepal is an engaging country with a fascinating collection of magic landscapes. Its people belonging to many different ethnos are warm and welcoming. I experienced it as a very «spiritual» country, very proud of, and anchored in its profound values, and at the same time equipped with an enviable humility, openness, tolerence and acceptance for different views of life, ways of thinking, religious and not religious beliefs. This «spirituality» I could sense and see just strolling in the streets invited me to take a deeper walk into myself and reflect about my way of thinking and perceive the world. Day after day I felt encouraged to become more open to the new and the unknown, to work with my prejudices and to become more curious about life, people and all resources and possibilities which I was able to grasp through unpartial observation and dedicated receptiveness. The country is beautiful, its people is charming and the handmade clothes, jewels and food are definitly delightful ... BUT what I really liked most and nourished me in an enriching and instructive way was its nonmaterial dimension, the trust and the broad-mindedness of its people and their contentedness and generosity even in situations of material poverty. YES many people in Nepal need better living conditions and a better economy. We who live in richer countries CAN IN FACT HELP THEM WITH THAT, IF WE JUST DARE IT. It is a very healthy exercise for us -who are bathing daily in material abundance- to become more detached from «things» and to win a more sober relation to material objects. We discover very quickly that we actually don’t need so much of all this stuff, and it turns out very soon that it is much more fulfilling to learn to enjoy it moderatly and more consciously. It is sharing which gives us the biggest joy. We are just able to prosper if we learn to share prosperity. In Nepal, through sharing and giving I gained lightness in my mind and more happiness in my heart. Now in Norway I feel more free and real, and happy.
It was a therapeutic material weight loss!
Project and staff
I chose undoubtedly the right project for me this time «Women’s empowerment». Thank you very much for having it on your list! I wished to do field work, research, interviews with women (people) in their daily surroundings and to meet an authentic and natural reality. I wasn’t disappointed. On the contrary… I hadn’t particular expectations, but I feel I got more then I ever could have imagined… This project gave me the chance to challange myself and my limits, to meet very different people who contributed to my growth, to expand my knowledge and to open my mind, my heart and my ears in an innovative way: I learnt «to listen» in a more genuine and sensible way. This is a BIG DEAL for someone like me who is very fond of «talking». I still like to talk, but I became more conscious about it and I do know now much better how good it does and what a source of knowledge it is, to «hear and listen».
All the people I was/am in contact with, I met and I worked with, both at Love Volunteers and their partner were helpful, cooperative, committed and prepared to support me in the best and more satisfying way through my whole volunteering experience from the day of my application to this day. THANK YOU. I would choose Love Volunteers again, without adventuring into new internet researches next time I will embark on a new volunteering project.
Tips for other volunteers
I don’t like really to give tips to others about travelling or other matters in life and don’t rely so easily on tips from others because I believe that we are all individuals and have a unique way to experience and live our own life and our adventures. I also believe that every single human being has the right to choose and try things and experiences out of her/his own needs and convictions without mediations from others. I also believe that it is constructive and empowering to find the courage and inspiration inside you and in your deepest self because this will give you more tenacity, power, joy and success in the end. But if you really wish a tip from me… Well: Don’t miss volunteering in your life. It is the most effective career training you can get on earth.
Love from Emanuela.
What would you improve about this program?
I think continuity and reliability in the program are decisive cardinal points both for survival and success of the program. The involved women should be provided constantly with them!
Otherwise it would be very unfair and distressing for the women's community if the program would suddenly stop and if the activities and running classes will be interrupted because of lack of volunteers… The women will feel that we didn’t take our mission and their needs seriously enough and will loose trust in us, in the program and our mandate. To interrupt the work from one day to another would in addition have unpleasent effect on the motivation and self-confidence which our beneficiaries just began to build up during the first training’s weeks and would have undesiderable effects on the quality and strenght of their learning, involvement and enthusiasm.
We are working with human beings who live in difficult and vulnerable conditions and who most of all need more stability and constancy in everyday life.
It is crucial to aim constantly at clear objectives which can be achieved through progressive and constant implementation of both human resources (volunteers with their knowledge and skills) and economical investment.
More accurate and detailed information is necessary, so that we volunteers will be able to answer the questions when the community women ask them (and not let them wait some hours or a whole/more day/s for a reliable answer). More explicit information would be vey useful for us volunteers to see and understand better the work prosess in which we are involved, so that we can contribute in a more constructive and confident way.
I also feel and think it is right, that the program has to provide enough money for the purchase of materials, instruments and equipment needed, in order to support the target group during the training time and after training, and promoting the women’s skills and marketing the products they manufacture. The volunteering organization shouldn't save on books neither!
Books ARE IMPORTANT AND NECESSARY in order to democratize teaching and knowledge, so that the women learn/know knowledge and learning are not the program’s or volunteers’ monopoly, bounded/limited to interaction between them and the volunteers who come and go … KNOWLEDGE can come into life in a similar dynamic way through the direct interaction of their own motivation, talents, aptitudes and capabilities with accessible sources and instruments of knowledge, like f. ex. books. For the illiterate women would books displaying a consistent number of pictures be very useful to approach language or other issues in a quicker, easier and more effective and sensible way.
I would like to see very soon that the program implements more resources to the DIRECT benefict of the women we are assisting. Help needs to become operational in practice, so I would like to see that «money» is primarily used to offer concrete and effective help and support to our target groups, in order to underline and enphatize their dignity and human rights, and motivate them to further constructive and more autonomous action.
If we go this way, then I feel we are going some steps in the direction towards authentic and sustainable empowerment.
Response from Love Volunteers
Thanks for sharing your experience, Hamidh. I know this will help future volunteers to prepare for their internship in Delhi.
We appreciate your generous gift of time on this program and hope to work with you again in the future.
The team @ Love Volunteers