Why did you decide to volunteer with CAPEC in Cameroon?
Stella: After my volunteering experiences in Italy and Ethiopia for a non profit association which takes care of the children of an orphanage in Addis Ababa, I decided to visit a new country repeating the same wonderful experience, in order to learn a live one more different culture. Fortunately I also had a lot of free time to dedicate to this project since in that period I was unemployed, looking for a job in my country. After getting to know Collette, the founder, CAPEC itself and the Hello Kids Program, I decided that the project was the one I was looking for. A project that merges didactic and ludic activities, and gives the chance to volunteers and children to meet several different cultures at the same time.
Describe your day to day activities as a volunteer.
Stella: The activities usually start at 8,30 until 12,30 with a break. As regards the didactic activities, we can mention Reading and Geography classes or Mathematics and English quizzes. The ludic ones gather Dancing or Drawing classes, which are the most appreciated from the kids.
After the day at school, volunteers help CAPEC in manual works, for example in cleaning classes or arranging and catalog books and toys, and all the didactic material that CAPEC always receives as donations from abroad. Last year for example, when the Hello Kids Program ended, we tried to do our best rebuilding all the fence surrounding the school and the playground itself with new spaces and swings.
What made this experience unique and special?
Stella: On a personal level I can affirm that this experience gave me more than all other experiences that I had abroad until now. The personal improvements of the kids and their didactic improvements in general are the first examples that I would like to give, in order to provide an idea of the satisfaction we volunteers could have looking at all their performances.
Moreover they taught us something new each single day. Thanks to them we learned a different way of living and sharing time together and at the end we really felt part of the Bitame Lucia community.
How has this experience impacted your future?
Stella: Thanks to this volunteering experience I learned how to be more independent and how to count on myself. In my opinion experiences abroad, above all experiences lived on your own, always make you grow mentally, personally and you can better understand what it means to share and to relate yourself with other people. Moreover I can affirm that my basic French skills improved more that I expected before leaving to Cameroon. On a personal level I would like to add that I had the chance to meet such amazing people, among Cameroonians and volunteers, who will be true friends for life.