10 Month Community Development program in Malawi, Zambia or Mozambique

I finished high school in summer 2021 and I decided to make volunteer before I start studying at the university. I chose this project and it was a really good decision
After two months of gaining knowledge in the One world center in Michigan we traveled to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. There, we restored organic home gardens which some teams before us built. Afterwards we did garden visits to spread knowledge about organic farming on the island.
The next period was about actually building new home gardens, which was a wonderful experience and exactly what I wanted to do after school. Me and my trio built a garden for a very poor woman who had nothing, not even running water, and we changed her life for the better with the garden. Now she can save money because she doesn’t have to buy vegetables anymore and she can also sell her own and earn money. We actually gave her a base of life and food security as well – this is what I wanted to do in the project. Do actual help where it is needed.
For building the gardens we lived in the communities and that was the best part at all! We got to know the vincy culture better than we ever could in the school, we had a lot of nice talks, we did a beach cleanup with the community and gave some climate change courses for the village. And the whole village loved us.
But we didn’t work the whole time, we also did a lot of activities like visiting waterfalls, hiking on the volcano, go swimming in the night (and enjoy the glowing plankton) and early in the morning, or just after working to lay in the sun. We talked always to a lot of people,
In general you could say, that you have impressive nature if you cannot see or reach the ocean. That’s why I loved the time here also if the project wasn’t organized that good sometimes, it was the best experience I’ve ever made in my whole life. We were living in the paradise with a ton of fresh fruits that we could harvest from the trees, with people who are full of happiness even if they don’t have a lot in their life and with the best team I could imagine!

If you travel to another part of the world and dive into a completely different culture, you throw yourself out into the cold water. This might sound scary but it is exactly what you should do and what made my volunteering experience the success it was. Working in a program like this has a positive impact on the world but also on yourself. It opens your eyes to what is really going on in the world, what problems other people face, and how important it is to do something about it.

I had just graduated highschool and never travelled outside of Europe before, so my time in the Caribbean presented me many new impressions and challenges. All of them made me grow personally and learn a lot in a short period of time. The focus of my team was on working with organic farming and even though I didn't know much about the topic when I joined the program, after a few weeks I was able to teach others about it and build organic home gardens for local families.

But the knowledge is only one thing. All the experiences I got, the friendships I made and the gratitude of the people I received are probably worth even more. It fills me with joy to know that a poor woman will soon have a source of income because of the garden I built for her and to see how happy she was about that. Even though the program was only a small part of my journey, it created many lasting memories and made an impact on me and on the people I worked with.

My name is Enrico, I'm 19 years old and from Germany. In my service period in 2022 I first went to Dowagiac, Michigan to learn about Climate Change and Global Warming. As tiring as two months of studying sounds, we had a lot of fun, working in groups on various tasks, like for example building a tower out of Spaghetti as an teambuilding exercise and working on study tasks in teams, trying to finish as fast as possible. One of my favorite parts of the program was the building weekends, at which we worked in the school on projects like preparing the organic garden for the planting in spring. Of course while blasting loud music, singing and dancing.

After the preparation period we went to SVG where our program consisted of using our knowledge, we gained, to help the people in the communities by building organic home gardens with the garden owners. But of course it was not only about building those gardens, but also about the relations we build with the garden owners. In the end of our project our team was more like a family than a team and we promised to all meet again in Germany at the end of the year. In general the life within the community was beautiful. I never met such open hearted and nice people. On your free days you can do a lot as well. For example we climbed the volcano, went bathing under waterfalls, took a trip through the tropic forest and much more. In general it is a very nice experience where you meet many new people and cultures. I can definitely say that I had a very good time.

I needed a challenge and wanted to experience a totally new environment while doing something meaningful. That was when I discovered the program, that One World Center offered. I liked the idea of having an intense study period before you actually go out to the communities in St. Vincent as a volunteer. And having completed the program I can say it helped me a lot to learn about the country, culture and people first. I understood the way they interact and their way of life better.

As soon as we arrived on the Caribbean island I was already in love with the people, the nature and the lifestyle here. With my team of nine people, we moved to a small town on the coastline. There I was our task to build backyard gardens using the permaculture principles. Our goal was to make the people more independent and self-sustaining by growing their own food. Besides, we came up with our own little projects: We organized a beach clean-up, taught climate classes to locals and built a seed nursery.
We meet a lot of interesting people and everyone was very warm and welcoming. In general, I would say this program made me a lot more open-minded.
Of course, not everything went well all the time as we faced a lot of challenges. For example, the dialect that is spoken in St. Vincent is hard to understand. But also, sometimes we didn’t have enough materials to build the gardens and we had to be creative. That is also one of the most important skills I learned during my time here: to be flexible, improvise and just be able to figure out solutions.

The best thing for me in this program was, that I met so many like-minded people. Everyone here pursues the same goal to make the world a little better. Just being around these people and having such an inspiring environment every day. And that’s also why I would always choose to do this program a

In my hole life I never stayed longtime away from home. This was the first time longer away and that is a experience everybody should do. We had our preparation period in one world center and because of that we lived there for two month. We learned a lot about climate change and the way we learned it was special. Of course we also have to read texts and listen to teachers, but every time we also discuss about it and it was interactive. In addition we played games or had interactive courses so it was never boring. We not only learnd about climate change. We learned about ourselves and many skills you actually need in live (e.g. leadership skills, public speaking...)Also we had enough freetime to get to know each other and do things together, like playing ping pong, football, going for a walk in the forest or do many other things.
The living in one world center was very different to everything I did before. First of all we all hade a roommate and eat and spend most of the time in a bigger group of people. What is in my opinion really nice and interesting. But also the center is big enough that you can have space for you if you want to. Also the decisions about what to do and who does what are made by the students and not by the teachers. It the kind of living where everybody can speak for themselves. For example we have one time on a week a common meeting in which everybody can bring up a point and than all people discuss together and find a solution.
The people there were all very nice and friendly, my team and also the teachers. Your can notice that they really like what they doing and accordingly they treat you like this. All in all I can say it was a very good time in my life and it is a experience I will never forget. You meet many new very interesting people and have a lot of fun.

Doing a voluntary project in a totally different country with a culture that couldn‘t be more different from the one that you‘re used to is definitely a challenge that will bring you to your limits and there will be moments when you won’t know how to overcome them anymore - but you will grow from them.

During my voluntary project with One World Center I worked together with my team to restore and build organic home gardens,to mobilize people and to teach them about out work and why it is important.

By doing so I learned a lot about working together with people from a different culture and finding solutions for problems together. Not everything we planned worked out in the way we wanted it to and we definitely had to adapt a lot to challenges that we didn’t expect, but in the end we always learned from our mistakes and this is how you grow.

Sometimes getting out of your comfort zone and trying to challenge yourself is the only way to find out who you are and what is important for you in life. It took me a while to understand that and to realize that from this perspective it is even possible to enjoy the things that are challenging you instead of letting them drive you to despair.

I was in my last year of school when I decided to go abroad. Online o read about a program in the Grenadines, where I would be doing gardening work and help the local community. For me it was a really good opportunity to combine my English language skills, getting to know new cultures, being able to make a difference in the world and have a good time the next month's. Now almost at the end and looking back I can say that these expectations where fulfilled. Even though I had a totally different time than expected. Before this program I would not have been able to imagine all the kind of things I learned and experienced here.
Of course there were a lot of challenges along the way. You might even say the whole program is a single big challenge. But you learn so much from it and have such a good time during all of this. It's really hard to explain the kind of feeling you get but what you can say is that after your program you are totally different person, simply because you have so much to experience and learn from.
It's tough but I know many people who it would be worth it for.

You'll find out exactly who you are and who you are meant to be, if you fully immerse yourself in the wonders of what this program has to offer. I spent about 4-months in the beautiful country of Mozambique with communities and individuals who found me to be an extension of them. I was their sister... their mother... their friend.. and they welcomed me with open arms, culture and ideas on building their rural regions (agriculturally, intellectually, professionally, linguistically, socially, politically and economically) for the generations after them. For a black woman it was like returning home. It was like sending a love letter from the various generations of Africans displaced all over the world back to this fruitful continent in my service. It was here where I reaffirmed what I wanted to do.. it was here I found myself.. it was here that I could love on people through the equal exchange of knowledge... it was here where I experienced my full potential. It was HERE where I truly became an educator. I have the community of Chimoio, Mozambique to thank for igniting my passion beyond compare.