Julia Futche

From 01/04/2013 to 30/06/2013

Those three months volunteering in VINs Womens Empowerment Program gave me the opportunity to try new ideas and realize my own projects which was a really rewarding experience. Teaching English to women from 16 – 39 firstwaschallenging because of their different language levels. I could try different methods of teaching and finally made friends with them. As time passed by, they got more confident in speaking English with me and the class and enjoyed teaching me some Nepali as well … I also got the chance to give some cultural sharing presentations to women’s groups where I told them about German life, sceneries, state services etc. Though the women often were tired because of their huge daily workload, most of them were really interested to get to know another culture. I like the Nepali mentality a lot which is really open-minded in regard to those things. Beyond that I got some interesting administrative tasks in VIN office which gave me the feeling I could really make an impact by restructuring Womens Empowerment Program that gives volunteers the unique chance to exchange cultural values, gain economic and other knowledge and get interesting insights in Nepali communities.

In my host family I always felt welcome. Other volunteers staying in the same place made it an even more nice experience. I`m glad to have had the chance to live in Nepal and getting to know a totally different perspective on life!