The 11th episode of our comic book ”Empowered From Within” is out!
Discover Nathan’s testimony about his Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project in Sweden:

Project supported by ECORYS UK and the Lifelong Learning programme (Now Erasmus+) of the European Union.

The 10th episode of our comic book ”Empowered From Within” is out!
Discover Ohiane’s testimony about her Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project in Belgium:

Project supported by ECORYS UK and the Lifelong Learning programme (Now Erasmus+) of the European Union.

The 9th episode of our comic book ”Empowered From Within” is out!
Discover Felicia’s testimony about her Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project in Aruba:

Project supported by ECORYS UK and the Lifelong Learning programme (Now Erasmus+) of the European Union.

The 8th episode of our comic book ”Empowered From Within” is out!
Discover Alice’s testimony about her Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project in Italy:

Project supported by ECORYS UK and the Lifelong Learning programme (Now Erasmus+) of the European Union.

The 7th episode of our comic book ”Empowered From Within” is out!
Discover Sam’s testimony about his Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project in Sweden:

Project supported by ECORYS UK and the Lifelong Learning programme (Now Erasmus+) of the European Union.

The 6th episode of our comic book ”Empowered From Within” is out!

Discover Adrian’s testimony about his Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project in Aruba:

Project supported by ECORYS UK and the Lifelong Learning programme of the European Union.

After working in Casa Luz with children, I have now had a fantastic opportunity working with elderly homeless men. These men have many different problems from mental illness, severe disabilities, long term illnesses and also addictions to alcohol and drugs.

My daily responsibilities have varied from administering medication, cooking, helping with donations, general hygiene such as cutting nails, hair and shaving the men. Helping the disabled men with meals, taking the men out for exercise and the general care of the men (especially emotional care as the men have no family and enjoy the company of others).

This project has been a very personal achievement for me as it has made me understand the needs of these kind of people and what is desired from a person working closely with them. Not only have I developed on a personal level but I believe I have developed further skills for future employment.

I am able to connect with people on all levels and use my initiative to gain more understanding of the specific needs of others.

I believe this opportunity will help me in the future because my personable skills and the ability to work with others has been greatly improved. I had these skills in all my previous employments but now I feel I can look to work in other areas once I return to the UK.

I would also like to add that without this project welcoming me with opening arms, recognizing my potential and allowing me to flourish with their full support, none of this would have been possible 🙂
Penny Birch, long-term EVS (European Voluntary project) volunteer

Project supported by the EACEA and the Youth In Action programme of the European Commission.

Well its been almost 5 months since I first stepped through the old rusty gates to my new place of work for the next 9 months and already its been a battle of mixed emotions. I have tackled a lot things that I thought that I was uncapable of for a start, being able to hold a baby properly and not like I was carrying a handbag (which is how for the first few days I did).

Los Guidos

Well I’m not going to lie from the first glimpse of the area and place we was going to be working for the next 10 months we had defo drawn the short straw! Hell yeah did they have a good website designer that knew how to Photoshop to perfection! We had been told not to speak English on the streets and wait inside the shop for the bus and be careful! Haha WTF?? Corrugated steel houses, rats, stray animals everywhere, people walking round with machetes in their belt.. oh yes the first day we shit ourselves! But of course every experience is how you make it right? 5 months on we have local bus drivers that actually sit and wait for me and Fran to come, locals that stand and talk to us in the street and a few of the strays that of course been the sucker I am, I save them some of my dinner. I know that the place we work isn’t the best and you need to have your whit’s about you but I wouldn’t change any of it.

OMG!!!

For all the people that know me well, you know just how rubbish I am when it comes to babies, throw me seven 5 year olds and I’m winning but one baby and I’m on the floor kicking and screaming. When we was told that for the majority of our time here in Costa Rica we (me & Francesca) would be responsible for making exercise and stimulation for the babies, I am not going to lie I was not happy! But I suppose when you can only say ‘Hola!’ in Spanish you cant really argue so I just gave it a shot.

The first day that we was officially left to our own devices haha I think we had a melt down screaming and running round after one toddler while the 3 others glared at us thinking who are these two Muppets?

After one week everything kind of become a routine, feed the babies their breakfast, clean yourself up and the baby that has a face full of banana and spit 🙂 set up the obstacle course (as I like to call it) with crawling mats, and stuffed shapes. Let the children try to crawl or walk through it! Bounce the children on exercise balls and swings. Roll around and let them get as mucky as possible ha.. Show them objects, let them feel each one, dancing and massage.

The other children

Although it isn’t our job to look after the rest of the children that are aged 3-10 years, the place is quiet a small house that in total houses 16 children all together and even though they come and go due to school and in house classes I have still managed to bond with them, Its very hard not to as they really are all amazing kids that have their own specialities. When you hear the stories of some of the children that I work with and just see how they can stand there with a smile on their face it is truly inspiring and heart braking all at the same time.

Up and Down

Haha the children’s moods.. of course every child has good days and bad days but I tell you when there is 16 of them screaming, fighting and trying to annoy you that’s when I miss England lol! We are very lucky because it doesn’t seem to happen a lot and when it does we have taught the children about respect and discipline and oh yes.. the naughty corner!

Tyrita!

What an amazing little girl.. When arriving on a morning tired and hot thinking I want my bed, then you spot this 6 month old angel that would give you the biggest smile and suddenly you are ready!! She was the only girl in the group of 4 babies that we had to look after and she was the cutest thing ever. Very smart in just 4 months we had her crawling, walking and clapping.Christmas time was so hard for me and Fran due to the fact she was leaving we had bonded with her everyday however the fact she was going home to her mum was amazing. When the car came to pick her up the tias let us give her one last hug and kiss before she left. Knowing that I would never see this girl again hurt me so much that I couldn’t hold back the tears, tears of joy that finally she would have a normal life but tears of sadness knowing that she wasn’t there to greet us on a morning with that amazing smile. When she left I remember me and Fran looking at each other and hugging and then all the kids came over hugging us and I just thought to myself SHIT!! How am I going to say goodbye in July?

Like a second Home

So far working with the children has been a roller-coaster but we have all been sat on that ride together as a team, the kids understand us we understand the kids. Its amazing how far we have come morning… feed the kids breakfast, help out getting them dressed, set out the equipment, chase the kids, teach the babies to walk & talk, help out with setting up the classrooms, feed the lunch, clean up, brush the teeth, bed for babies, play with the kids, teach one of them dancing (haha he loves my dance moves) help prepare the kids for school and lunch, read, finish art displays, look after all the kids, sing wonderwall to the kids!!!! It all comes so naturally now that it amazes me how rubbish I was with babies at the start. It amazing to see how far the kids themselves have come too Vincent is finally walking, Johan is running round repeating every word you say and Emilio has mastered walking and not running into things. I can actually say that I am so proud of my little mates I cannot wait for the months ahead to see how far they come.

Luci Goodyear, long-term EVS (European Voluntary Service) volunteer

Visit Luci’s blog. 

Project supported by the EACEA and the Youth In Action programme of the European Commission.

Overall, the experience that Everything is Possible gave me has helped me to understand better where my strengths and weaknesses lie – for example I think I would prefer and be better at teaching adults rather than children. It has given me the opportunity to teach English which is something I’m considering doing in future and has enabled me to learn a foreign language and has improved my confidence in many ways.

“I’m coming to the end of my Leonardo project in Portugal, I’ve been here for almost five months and it’s flown by! My host project is Qualify para Incluir (Qualify to Include) in the city of Porto in the north of Portugal and I was lucky to be placed in a beautiful house close to my workplace and with some lovely people who have since become good friends of mine. At the beginning of my placement I taught a couple of English lessons every week to the children who go to Qualificar para Incluir to receive after-school support, it was also my responsibility to plan and prepare the content of the lessons, trying to incorporate games and interactive activities. This was an interesting and challenging experience and sometimes the lessons went really well, other times they didn’t! After a couple of months the English lessons stopped and I started helping the children with English homework when they came for after-school support. Other activities that I have done have included translating (or attempting to!) the organization’s website into English in order to be able to create campaigns to raise funds for the organization. I am currently preparing a campaign to try and raise money for the theatre activities that QPI has.

 
In terms of what I’ve been up to outside of my work, I’ve been trying hard to learn Portuguese, going to a Portuguese speaking evening at a café in the city, I took a course in making cosmetic products (face/body creams) out of natural ingredients which was really interesting, I travelled around Portugal with my flatmates and have been trying to get to know the place and the culture better. For the first few months communicating was difficult but now I feel a lot more comfortable with the language and with life here and am really enjoying my experience here.

 
Overall, the experience that Everything is Possible gave me has helped me to understand better where my strengths and weaknesses lie – for example I think I would prefer and be better at teaching adults rather than children. It has given me the opportunity to teach English which is something I’m considering doing in future and has enabled me to learn a foreign language and has improved my confidence in many ways.”

Amy Assadi, Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility trainee.

Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project

part of Empowered From Within

and supported by ECORYS UK

and the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission (Now replaced by Erasmus+ )

So arriving at the NGO with no teaching experience and none of the language was interesting but i was very eager to learn and pick up new skills from the people whom i was working with and around. I knew that I had signed up to learn and take everything on, so I was prepared to be thrown in at the deep end and develop as fast as i could. It was difficult at first, with the language barrier and with no experience but it was also the best way to learn. I had no choice to take my time and doss around not learning the language. And teaching along side many different people and seeing how they all worked differently but how they worked as teams and working alongside each other with different approaches to teaching worked well and sitting in on classes helped a lot. Especially in my group at SKIP, I was put with a Spanish woman who had worked in nurseries back in Spain, and her methods were spot on, the children respected her so much, she had time fillers sorted, songs she sang with the children and although she had only been teaching at skip for a few weeks she knew all the children so well, and really thought about them while preparing the work and preparing different levels of work for each group of abilities. She really did teach me a lot, and although we hardly have a conversation together due to the language barrier, watching how she was with the children and how she gained their respect was amazing to watch. At the same time I was being introduced to the economical development side of the organisation. After arriving and learning about that side of the NGO I had mentioned that I would like to work on that branch too, and if it was possible to put me in for a shift with that. But there was a change around of workers at the time and it was all a bit up in the air, with an ex-volunteer having to come over to keep it going as they searched for a new coordinator. So for my first few weeks I wasn’t able to get involved as it was at a bit of a stand still.

As well as watching and trying to help out with the skip group, Myself and Fin, the other EVS volunteer who came over with me, overlooked english teaching at skip to get an idea of what the classes were like and what the teaching style was like, full of games and relaxed with as much verbal involvement of the kids. And we were at first very overwhelmed how the kids acted, running around, climbing on the tables or under them, but you have to take into account their home life and many of them live in single rooms with many people, some don’t even have electricity and most of them don’t have running water…all of this plus the amount of violence that is always around – either if it is in the home or in the neighbourhood. Plus SKIP is also in addition to going to school so they can get a bit restless and i guess the hot weather doesn’t help either. And there are so many things to take into account, and endless list! But after they get to know you they are so eager to learn and really respect you and seem less crazy! Anyway back to the point, I don’t really think the training we were given was very useful, it was very basic and just scraping the surface, and after a while I needed to have quite a lot of additional meetings to help with the problems we were having, which were so much more useful than the training. It took me a while to ask for help as I couldn’t work out why things weren’t working out for me, but then I realised I could speak to the coordinators and they really helped and gave me loads of ideas and were constantly asking if everything was working and going okay, and that was great. Y w as were starting term this week, I have improved and advanced so much with my teaching skills and behaviour management, as well as now being able to speak fluent spanish, I have been promoted to be the main teacher of a group of 18!Which I was kind of doing for the holiday club and it went fine so I am very happy about that!

 
Ate being at skip for a month, the amazing teacher who was teaching our class left, and was replaced by a number of people with now, less experience than me! So as they were the teachers they would prepare the work, but i could see where the problems were and i had many meetings with them as the time went on , to suggest different methods and also to tell them about which child and where they were up to with the work. And as the teachers kept changing with the fast turn over of volunteers I was soon the one to know most about the children and what suited them, and also as there aren’t enough volunteers at skip at the moment I have been given a class! But i am very happy about it and feel confident.

 
After the new eco dev coordinator came I quickly got a shift assisting someone in the workshops, giving ideas to the mothers and helping them, paying them, taking in new products and tagging them. And I really enjoyed it, plus it helped to improve my spanish talking to the mothers. And then in January I was made a head of a workshop, of jewellery. I now have the responsibility of buying the products each week that the mothers ask for, and I run the workshop on my own without an assistant. I have also now been trained in sales force where i have to put up all the information of new products each evening after the workshop, so we have statistics of what sells and also all the information is in one place. On sales force I also have to change the settings if things are sold and go to inventory in the shops where we sell the products of the mothers. Along with this I have worked in the office a little, I have sat in when we have had meetings with mothers who want to get a loan out and seen the questioning procedure and how they sort that out. I have also been on home visits to see mothers who maybe haven’t been to a skip workshop for a while or haven’t been paying their loan back. And I have learnt how to take loan payments. I feel I have learnt a lot in eco dev department!

 
And public school teaching is tiring, waking up at 6 can be hard! and teaching 5 classes of 30 children of 40 minutes each is a non stop morning! But it is very different to teaching at Skip and very fun, and once you get to know the children (I still don’t know any names!) it gets a lot easier. There were a few problems the last term i taught, but just with the schools participation, but it is the worst school we work with and very disorganised and there is always a surprise! But you get used to that, and SKIP are constantly talking to them to try and change how they work but it never seems to make much of a difference! But things have changed and we’ll see how they go this term, but now they have their very own english room which is progress!

Katalina Balcomb, long-term EVS (European Voluntary Service) volunteer

Visit Katalina’s blog: http://katgoestoperu.wordpress.com/

Project supported by the EACEA and the Youth In Action programme of the European Commission.