February Team 2017

    Ayae

My name is Ayae, from Japan. I just graduated my University this year.

I have a lot of interest in studying about Fighting with the Poor. However I don’t know how to do actions for the poor, so I will learn a lot in Lindersvold. I chose this programme because I can learn how to do actions for the poor with my teammates who are from other countries, cultures.

Joining this program is the first step to the goal. There is a lot of inequality from birth in this world and I would like to reduce it. At first, I have a strong feeling that I want to help poor people, but I want to promote to “a just do it!’ attitude. I’m going to try my utmost to just do it, now and after I finish this program as well.

This is a challenge because I have to change the people who are living in the world. I can’t help them alone, need to do it with teammates, friends and people who are living in the developing countries. And this is what I like to do in my life.

    Paula

Hello, I am Paula a 20 year old girl from a town near Barcelona and I would like to tell you why I decided to come to Denmark to do a 24 month volunteer program.

What would you think if I asked the reverse question and I ask you why not go volunteering in another country for a while?

I think a lot of people will start thinking about phrases like: because I have some obligations to fulfill, I have a fixed job, or I do not have time for these things, I have to finish some studies, this is not for me , it's too long, I cannot leave my family or my friends .. among many other things.

Possibly these sentences are totally true and understandable because not everyone wants, can or simply dares to face one or two years of volunteering leaving their happy life on pause. Or possibly for fear of facing something different, another way of life, with other people, another culture, another language and many miles away from home, family and friends, but my question is: are we really happy with our lives? Is this the lifestyle we want to follow?

I did not want to settle for my life, of course I was comfortable and I liked it. I had a very comfortable life that was sometimes exciting but sometimes it became routine, and I knew I did not want that for me, I did not want to die regretting what I had not done, I had worries and I needed to pursue my dreams, to see the world, to fly, to grow, I wanted to have new experiences, those experiences that mark a before and after and do not leave you indifferent, because experiences are a unique learning tool that you can only get to practice, so if I wanted to live like this I had to leave the comfort of my country, my customs, my culture and in general my life and leave my comfort zone, this was the first step and the most difficult one.

I knew that facing a different environment with a new language with none of my family or friends at my side, adapting to new norms, learning to live in community, working and thinking in a team was not going to be easy but it would strengthen my personality and become an engine of important personal growth. If we want to see changes in our lives, we have to make them happen, we can not achieve anything without previous effort, so I knew that if the road was difficult it was because it would really be worth it.

I believe that there are no tools more powerful than humility, good sense, solidarity, trust, responsibility, and personal knowledge, and I believe that all this can be achieved at the moment when you dare to take a great leap and to enjoy a unique and different experience, away from your loved ones, your comforts, your routines and your "I" in your country, entering the change, in this case volunteering, which I'm sure will not leave me unsatisfied. Something sure is that I'm going to learn so I thought why not? And this is simply the reason why I am here

    Lucio

I’m Lucio from Italy. I was educated in mechanical engineering and I worked for 10 years in 2 different companies. In 2003 I travelled for the first time to sub-Saharan Africa and immediately I fell in love with her…

From that moment I used all my holidays just to go back to Africa for travel or volunteer experiences. My dream was to live in Africa to work with humanitarian projects… In 2010 l made a cooperation with an Italian association working in Mozambique. I stayed in Mozambique for 5 years cooperating with 2 organizations in the town of Quelimane.

Now I want to continue in the same area of cooperation with more pedagogical experience and with better English... For those reasons I chose the DI Programme. I first received some information about it during my first volunteer experience in Zambia with Humana People to People in 2004.

    Carla

Hello! My name is Carla. I'm 25 years old and i’m from Spain. I studied Social & Public Health and have been organizing and coordinating activities and workshops with disabled people and people with dementia for a period of just over 3 years.

Last year I studied a Master in Social Education because I really want to know more about education and pedagogy and also because of my experience in 2015 when I was in Peru as a volunteer for 2 months working with children and women in a really poor area.

I found this program whilst I was looking for a completely different thing but I became interested and I decided to join. I love travelling around the world and I really like interacting with people who have different cultures or experiences in life.

I am here because I really think we can do it something big all together and this is what I expected from this program.

   Son

Hello my name is Son

I’m 24 years old in my country but in here in Europe I am just 22 years old because I’m from South Korea where we have a different system for counting age.

I studied Chinese at university and l also have been working in China for 1 year working with music, organising and conducting a harmony band, and teaching how to play traditional Korean instruments.

I’m here because I like to meet a lot of people all around world, and I want to build experiences of living a communal life.

Lastly, I really welcome people who like Brazilian music, who like Maria Gadu, and who would like to sing a song together to contact me!

    Jesús

A long time ago, I created my own ‘dream’s list’.

I think it is something very useful to motivate yourself, know where you are and where you want to see yourself or arrive someday. I try to update it to check how my evolution look and try to find some new challenges.

I consider myself as a curious person, I decided to study business administration, but could instead study anything.

So, one of those dreams is to go to Africa, I would like to ride a motorbike around Africa.

Most probably, I will never do it but it doesn’t really matter, because the most important about the dream is not the dream by itself, but the path you took to reach it. The dream can also change or evolve over time.

    Jiin

Hi, I’m Jiin from South of Korea. There are several reasons that I decided to participate in this programme for 24 months.

First of all, I think, through this programme, I could learn some real knowledge as an activist with passionate people from all over the world on the ground like in Africa.

The second reason is the education. I was always interested in education. If it is really needed, which education system is better, and then how does it affect to the life of people?

Finally, I wanted to do something against poverty.

When I was in my country, I participated with an organization which supported environmental projects and projects that supported children in some countries of the third world. But I did my work only in my country. During this period, my desire became bigger to go of my county, also because a lot of information of newspapers and tv.

After some various experiences, I searched and searched for the right programme. So now I’m here. That’s why I became a member of February team of 2017.

    Nozomi

After finishing my bachelor degree, I worked at the human resources company along with some other side jobs for a short period of 10 months. The contents of my previous job was very unique and co-workers there were very kind and nice. It was fun every single day - just FUN.

Actually that was making me upset because I was too busy to think, learn and discuss about the things that I’m interested in like problems in my society, my research theme, education or and so on. I wasn’t a “normal girl” in my community, especially not among my generation. I could pretend to be a general person like a “normal girl”, but I didn’t want to be because that’s not  who I am.

Thanks to my amazing friends in the world, I have learned about the difference between time and money. Both of them are very important. In addition, how you use each of them has a big influence on your life. It depends on you. You can gain money if you do your best and work harder. But what about time? Time has a special power that is very different from money.

You cannot regain the same moment in your life, especially the moments when you are young. In my previous situation in Japan, I couldn’t gain time for what I wanted to do. It was very stressful for me, therefore I had to decide to change my life and take the next step in my future.

That is this program, “Fighting with the Poor”. What I expect here is to learn about pedagogy and the things that can’t be learned from books or internet in my experience. With amazing people who have different backgrounds and perspectives. The environment surrounding me has already been changed thanks to  the community I’m involved in, consisting of people with different backgrounds and thanks to living in a different society.

I don’t know what types of work I will do yet, but I will try to do my best to learn the system and the reasons behind the obstacles I might face. And knowing and facing the real situation, especially connected to the gap between the countries that are called “rich” and “poor”. There will be conflicts, but, as a foreigner from Asia, I would like to work to find the solutions in the community without ignoring the culture and customs of the indigenous people.

    Giovanna

Hello, my name is Giovanna and I come from Italy. I studied graphic design and worked for 16 years as a web designer in two different companies. I always liked my work because everything about creativity, colours fascinates me.

In 2007 I started travelling to various countries in Africa. After several trips I knew I wanted to deepen my knowledge of this culture. In fact, a few years later I  disrupted my life, I left my job and I moved to Mozambique to work with a humanitarian association, which has been there for five years. This experience was very important and made me realize what I wanted to do in life, in connection with social work to try in my small way to help those in need.

I decided to participate in this programme to continue in the same sector and improve my skills in helping others. I think and hope it will be a good learning experience and a beautiful cultural exchange.