2 months at 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 !