Grassroots Volunteering in India with CECOWOR

It was a great experience to volunteer at CECOWOR. I stayed at Gingee for 2 months and a half and my main work was to teach English to children from the Dream Child School, which is the school that M. Susai Raj founded and is part of the NGO's numerous programs. It was such a cheerful experience to teach to the small children ( they are all between 5 and 11 years old). I had a lot of freedom to choose the subject of my classes, and also the method to teach it. The creativity has a major importance in this school and the children and teachers are encouraged to make performances. There are a lot of celebrations and functions in the school, which is really nice and interesting to attend for volunteers. You will have the opportunity to discover a lot about south Indian culture here since you see various dances, songs, drama plays...
Also, the staff and all school children are so welcoming and nice people to talk and stay with. They are really cheerful, and proud to show you about their culture. In India, the people definitely have a great sense of hospitality. For me, I had the chance to live during my stay here with M.susai raj, who is the founder of CECOWOR, and his family. They took great care of me, and treated me as part of the family, so it was really lovely from them. Also, I enjoyed discovering the indian food made by M. Susai Raj's wife. I can say that I got completely immersed into Indian culture.
In the school, it is quite easy to teach to the children since they have a great respect towards the teacher and you feel that they are eager to learn (and also really curious towards the foreigners). The children are all so cute and smiling that you want to take them home !
In overall, it was really interesting to learn about the problems that indian society faces in this region. Also if you are interested about development you can learn a lot here at Cecowor since they carry out a lot of programs (like training centers, women groups,...) and are aiming to the development of Indian's society, and more specifically to help the poor and discriminated ones. You can visit these different programs if you wish, and also have great talks with M. Susai Raj about pretty much everything !
I would definitely recommend this place for future volunteers since Gingee is a nice town and the staff here will make you feel as at home !

I have visited CECOWOR twice.
For the first time, I visited DREAM SCHOOL
(primary school that was managed by ECOWOR) for three days through volunteer tour .I taught English, played with children and made Japanese food. Children and teachers were so friendly that I could made good relation with them.
In addition that,I visited villages around DREAM SCHOOL and heard habitant’s life.
Also, Mr. Susairaj told me Indian situations(politics, caste, culture etc…).All staff eager to improve people’s life who discriminated . At that time, I wanted to know Indian life and do more volunteer, so I decided to go there next year.
Before you go there, you can choice how long stay CECOWOR and what’s to do there. Of course, after you arrive there, you can change the contents.
I think it is important to continue help for people, so please let’s go there!!
And they wanted to do cultural exchange, so please do not only you learn Indian life, but also tell them your culture.

Actually, I visited there for study tour purpose for about 10 days. It was a batch of about 10 Japanese youth. And there we did only 1 day lecture in the primary school. Based on this experience, I'll write about CECOWOR. Anyway the children in the school was so cheerful. In south India, not only the children but also adults were eager to communicate with foreigners. So we must have warm support of the people, especially CECOWOR staffs.

Some primary school teachers can speak English well, so you can discuss with them how to perform the class in the school ; The place for volunteers to stay is next to the school, so you have easy access to teacers. I think 1 day was too short to perform the class, but if you stay longer and communicate well with teachers and CECOWOR staffs, you can somehow manage the language barrier.

Apart from volunteer, head & founder of CECOWOR, Mr.Susairaj was a big man not only for his body but also for his humanity and experience, so if you stay, listening his story and discussing with him must be the precious experience.

If there is a chance, homestay will be goog opportunity for learning the life of the local people. During the study tour, I stayed 2 nights in the village. We could see how agriculture work was done, how the people maintain their house, when the children gather and play and so on.

I think that the program will become flexible. It means that it varies according to the situation of staffs and people. And they will coordinate the program according to your preference.

During your stay, you will surely feel the children's energy, people's hospitality and the enthusiasm of the founder, Mr.Susairaj.