VOLUNTEERING IN IHF MEDAN CENTER

I had enjoyed so much volunteering at IHF Center in Medan, Indonesia. The volunteership was a mutual learning experience. I learned a lot while I taught. The one month with IHF can be described through some lasting memories that i managed to collect.

Having travelled in East and Southern Asia before, I knew Indonesia was somewhere I wanted to get to know more. And I believe you can only really get to know anywhere properly by living there for some time. So Medan it was.

My role at the Center was “Work- study volunteer”. In fact, I did anything and everything that could be useful. My tasks have ranged from making videos, fundraising, and posting advertisments, to teaching the kids and making art and craft classes. The experience I have gained has been phenomenal and the exposure to the donor community has been more than I could have hoped for. It’s been a marvelous experience!

Living in Medan has been very interesting. I am going to miss my lovely room and the Indonesian culture. I am leaving next week, and it is definitely emotional. I have made some incredible friends– both at work and outside of the center. I will miss going for nasi goreng with my co-directors, Lissa, Sahat, Zoe and Aditi every afternoon and going trips around Sumatra on the weekends..Living in Indonesia is quite an amazing experience. I have had the best time and overall, I wouldn’t have planned it any other way!

The best part about the whole experience was the love and respect that the children would express every time we met. They would always be so excited and eager to learn. They loved the art and craft classes. That paid me off.

Volunteering at IHF, I also saw the challenges that are involved in the management of an NGO. I know now, how hard it is to manage more than 100 kids of varied age groups. Though I would always crib as this volunteership required a lot of work, the experience was worth it as it really inspires me to give back to the society. IHF lives up to its name. It gives one the hope that things can be changed and will change.

By Evgenia, Work-study Medan Center, April-May 2015