I am a soon to be environmental engineer coming from Belgrade, Serbia. I am an NGO activist for already 15 years, in love with nature, environment and sustainability. I believe that world can be changed if only we manage to change ourselves. My biggest dream is to do good and inspire people around me to do the same.
Why did you pick this program?
I choose to join SOLS 24/7 in order to learn about NGO approaches in other countries. I picked SOLS as one of the options I had at that moment, because I got attracted by the real work they do.
I was active in many NGOs around Europe but I was always missing that part of a real-deal when it comes to poverty decreasing, human rights or protection of the ones with fewer opportunities. In SOLS 24/7 I managed to get real picture on how is it to be on the field and how is it to interact with real people in need.
What is the most important thing you learned abroad?
Working in SOLS 24/7 Malaysia and living in Kuala Lumpur, I have learned how different are the people that are living on this continent. I have understood their family relations, how much they care and support each other and how family values are always put in front of everything else.
I have learned to become culturally sensitive and because of that I believe I managed to get a lot of friends. Malaysia is multicultural country with many races, religions and languages and all of those differences are actually what is connecting people in this country, rather than separating them.
I have also gained many practical skills, such as eating with chops sticks or with my hands, I have learned to count till 10 in different languages, I have learned how to drive left side of the road and how to bargain in little India.
What do you tell your friends who are thinking about going abroad?
Just go! Don’t wait for the perfect moment, enough of money in your pockets or others approval. If you will be waiting to get perfect conditions, you might never be able to depart. If your hear is in the right place and in your mind you are always somewhere else, rather than at your home, just buy that ticket you always wanted and hit the road!
What was the hardest part about going overseas?
My friends are always telling me that I am very lucky to able to travel and experience amazing things all around the world, but what they don’t know is how hard it is to leave, and leave everyone behind. The hardest thing about traveling for long time is that at one point it is very hard to understand where your home is.
When you leave your country of birth, you come to completely new culture, you don’t have friends and you can feel very lonely. Once when you settle down and you get the chance to meet people, time to leave comes again.
You will never be completely at home again, because the part of your heart will always be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.
What made this experience unique and special?
Knowledge! I gained so much knowledge about the world itself by living in Malaysia for 14 months. I have discovered new religions, I've traveled to paradise islands and saw amazing creatures, I've learned new languages, became friends with people from different races... I learned how to cook typical food, how to make banana ice cream, I tasted many different types of fruit and I dived with sharks (which I couldn’t imagine to happen in my weirdest dreams).
I feel very grateful for all the experience I had, and I would change it for anything in the world.
Tell us about an experience you had that you could not have had at home.
If I have to single out one specific experience, it would definitely be my trip to Sabah-Borneo. While I was a child we were all addicted to the stories about Sandokan, a Malaysian pirate that was in love with beautiful Mariana so called “The pearl of Labuan”.
Moving to Malaysia made me realize that no single soul here has ever heard anything about that story and that it is famous just in Serbia, Italy, and few other neighboring countries... Regardless my devastating discovery, I have decided to visit the state of Sabah and somehow...I ended up on the island of Labuan.
After visiting this part of Malaysia, I have realized why the Italian author was so amazed by this part of the world, where pirates still exists and orangutans freely hanging on jungle trees, visible to visitors that wants to meet them closely. Even though the trip was followed by the bed bug attack, spending the night in the look-alike refugee camp and getting lost in some small town on M, I will always remember my trip to Sabah as something remarkable I did in my life... no matter no one ever heard anything about Sandokan the real hero of Malaysia.
What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone going on your program?
Would you ever disrespect the hospitality of a friend that invites you in his home? Probably not. The same goes when you start to work for someone’s company.
There are certain set of rules and expectation you should follow up, in order to understand the perception and the idea of people in SOLS 24/7. I have worked for many different NGOs and I could see the clear differences in work approach, but instead of being judgmental and saying that SOLS is doing stuff on a wrong way, I understood that their approach is very different and unique.
So be open minded and let the program teaches you about its mission. Once when you manage to do that, I guarantee there won’t be any misunderstandings or problems. You need to open your heart to SOLS and SOLS will open its heart to you.
What made this trip meaningful to you, or how did this trip change your perceptions, future path?
This trip made me learn a lot personally and professionally. I was an active member of a very strong and famous NGO in South East Asia that helped me a lot in building my CV. I have been assigned to work on different projects which were challenging and inspiring at the same time.
I have gained a lot of knowledge about Asian business culture, administration and fundraising. My ambition is to work for a big environmental NGO so I am very grateful for all the skills I gained in SOLS, because I am sure that I will be able to use them in soon future. I have widen up my network and I have met a lot of people skilled in different areas of profit and nonprofit sector.
