Travel Tales from End-of-Session Break

November 13, 2012

Abriendo Mentes, Costa Rica
Rachel Gallucci

Earlier this month, AM volunteers had a week off between Sessions Three and Four to travel, relax, and explore in and around Costa Rica. Of the five different trips that were taken, I caught up with volunteers from three excursions to hear some highlights from their adventures:

Sam Steinman

Sam and three other volunteers traveled around Costa Rica over the course of a five-day trip, visiting the volcanoes Tenorio and Arenal and their respective national parks. The group made their entire voyage via rental car.

Jamie Nabers

Jamie and five other volunteers explored Granada, Nicaragua, over a four day stay. They made their trip via a combination of bus, taxi, and private shuttle.

Jaida Moore

Jaida and three other volunteers rented a car and over the course of six days traveled to Limón and Puerto Viejo...

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Get Ready for the Holiday Season by Supporting Students in Ghana!

November 12, 2012

Peace Humanity International, Ghana
Sue Gonzalez

Please consider supporting an amazing group of children in Ghana by purchasing the Ghana Student Photography Club calendar. Each photograph in the calendar was taken by a student of this club.

This past summer, I was awarded a grant through Omprakash to volunteer on a photography project in Jukwa, Ghana. For three weeks, 25 middle school students took photos of people and places that were meaningful to them. I was so amazed at the quality of these photos, and wanted to share them while continuing to support these bright, thoughtful students who were so passionate about sharing their lives through photography. All of the photos in this calendar represent the children of Jukwa and all photos were taken by the photography club students.Each calendar costs $20.00. To purchase a calendar,...

2013 Ghana Student Photography Club calendar

Purchase a 2013 calendar and support youth in Ghana!

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Wenger Wherabouts Newsletter #10

November 12, 2012

 Monday at IFAN, I read and annotated (in Portuguese) a paper on the history of social movement and popular participation. It discussed the historic trend of people fighting for their right against those who held power. I have been going into IFAN once a week, but tomorrow will be my last day.

I served as a co-host on Renan’s TopSport TV program along with guest University of Fortaleza’s track-and-field coach. I provided insight on the developmental venues for American track athletes, while the coach discussed Brazilian track-and-field on a national and international level.

I created a Facebook page for TopSport TV and for the Ceará Basketball Veteran’s Association.

I was involved in many other small tasks such as ordering T-shirts for the government fitness programs, transferring money at the bank, preparing a video...

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India Mike...Great resource!

November 08, 2012

http://www.indiamike.com/

My Thread :)

http://www.indiamike.com/india/volunteering-and-charitable-causes-in-india-f85/volunteering-t181861/#post1501393

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Oct 20-25

November 08, 2012

Oct 20-25, 2012- Last week, seven Tibetans set themselves on fire, bringing the total of self-immolations on the troubled high plateau to more than 60 people since March 2011. The seven who burned themselves include a pair of 20-something cousins, a young father and a 58-year-old farmer who set himself on fire in front of the Public Security Bureau in the Tibetan holy town of Labrang (or Xiahe in Mandarin) in the Chinese province of Gansu. Six of the seven protestors are believed to have died. The Tibetan culture describes the self-immolations as the Tibetans’ “highest form of nonviolent protest against the Chinese government’s systematic repression of their freedom of religion and human rights.” It says a lot when we are willing to die in a way that is nonviolent...

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CEPIA Costa Rica

November 05, 2012

Asociacion CEPIA, Costa Rica
julie christensen

My name is Julie and Im from Copenhagen, Denmark. Im studying to become a social worker. six month ago, I decided to do my internship in Costa Rica, as a volunteer in the organization CEPIA in Guanacaste. CEPIA stands for Culture, Education and Psychology for Infants and Adolescents, and it is a non-profit organization. My work at CEPIA concerns helping teenagers and families with children from poor backgrounds. My responsibility is to plan and make house visits at homes of poor families and afterwards categorize their situation to find out what kind of help they need. We are working with eleven of these families who are included in a food program. I believe that this is a great opportunity for me to obtain practical and theoretical insight into the field of social work, and to get a deeper...

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Cepia, Movienight

November 05, 2012

Asociacion CEPIA, Costa Rica
nana larsen

I'm Nana from Demnark, I'm 23 years old. I'm doing my internship in Social work at CEPIA, Costa Rica. In my work at CEPIA I have a lot of different territories, but right now I'm in charge of the movie nights. The main focus of the movie night is to be involved in the different communities in the Guanacaste aria. It’s very important to connect with the small children and their families, to get a better insight in their life, and to see if there is anything we can do to help them. It is very important for us to know how many kids come to the event so when they come we type down their names and ages, that way we have knowledge about who comes to our events....

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When I grow up I want to be...

November 05, 2012

Moroccan Center for Arabic Studies, Morocco
Meghan Stuthridge

"A singer!" "A police officer!" "A TV host!" "A Doctor!"

In a classroom with peeling wall paper, desks covered in graffiti and the sound of prayer from the minaret across the road, Moroccan girls shouted out their dream jobs, with me teaching them English in order to help them achieve these goals.

It has been a staggering two months of culture shock, new customs and a complete falling in love with the city of Rabat and its people. For a culture renowned for its laissez-faire attitude my time here has gone with such speed I feel dizzy, the polars of old and new, calmness and chaos clashing as I try to achieve all that I have set to do here.

One of the aims was to help girls find the awareness of their...

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Cement and pig balls

November 04, 2012

Intag, Ecuador
Emilie Dannenberg

Nothing massive to report apart from building. We built a wall out of rocks and cement. It took ages because we had to bring the rocks from the river, dig out the sand from the exposed precipice. Though it's satisfying now it's done.

German's kid is here from the coast. The idea is that Patricio brings his family and the kids can play and the adults can work more consistently. We're on to preparing the wood now. I could describe in detail how it is to work with cement but probably you won't be enthralled.

Instead I'll copy exerpts of my diary. A description of a pig being castrated. yay.

"Today I saw a pig castrated. It was gnarly. Before I witnessed it I’d have agreed ‘all males should be castrated’ but...

Making panella 2

Wall

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My work at CEPIA

November 03, 2012

Asociacion CEPIA, Costa Rica
Sophie Teilmann

I’m in Costa Rica working as a volunteer for 4 months; the program is a part of my studies where I study to become a social worker. The organisation I’m working for is call CEPIA it’s a non-profit and non-governmental organisation, which seeks to improve the quality of life of children and adolescents from poor background in Costa Rica.

My main responsibility is a food bank. It is a project where the main goal is to help poor women and their children. The project concerns eleven women; seven of them clean at CEPIA and the rest collect tabs from cans to make jewellery. By offering them a job we try to empower the ladies and give them a sense of pride and independence. In return we provide them with basic...

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