Leave the door open. Leave the door open to radiant hope! Give the key to the poor man! Whose key to hope is the only way When the weight of life is a bottomless well. How did the human get here? This is the deceptive system of greed. The number of weapons keeps increasing, And the cruel king's dream comes true. But what is the price of this? Maybe it's the captivity of the roaring difference... Starving children are forced to the streets... Or a lot of garbage in the ocean. hmm.. A song is written on the table of...

By Monzer Al Moussa, Poverty Activist team August 2022 Hello again, We, the 12 month Poverty Activist team, would like to tell you a little about the great activists that we met during our latest investigation. This investigation was about the reality of the poverty in the UK and the people that are working together to help those facing poverty to better their lives. Maybe it will be easier to present some numbers of the reality of the poverty in UK to help understand the dire need and the fantastic job those activists that we visited are doing: A few...

By Mafalda Silva, Poverty Activist team August 2022 In 2022, after a RESET ECLIPSE, the History of Planet EARTH is rewritten, but this time, with some SPECIAL POWERS… In a neighborhood far away in the Universe, There is a young Woman Planet. Her name is Ms. Earth Perfect, Perfect for Her Planet friends. With Green Eyes and Blue Hair, She is full of Life and Energy. There are Humans and Animals, in all different shapes, sizes and colours. She also has many different accessories – covered in nutrients and colours. She is a beautiful young Woman, full of Life, full...

I am Viktória Borbély, a participant in the Gaia scholarship programme from August 2022. At first I didn't think I would apply because I thought it would be a huge change. But I finally made up my mind and went for it. But at the moment, even after being here for several months, I consider it a very good decision, with plenty of opportunities for development, it constantly gives new impulses and impressions. Being here makes you develop, with the aim that everyone wants to give something to the world, this results in the creation of a wonderful harmony, and...

By Mafalda Silva and Kitti Szabo, Poverty Activist August team 2022 Mafalda: An amazing experience.... I will do my best to be back at the OL 2023!!! I participated in the Olympic Games (OL) event in Tvind and for me it was a highlight to be part of it - especially to see the happiness of all of the 500 students and the motivation of CICD Team and all the OL Team, providing the best experience the students could have! And we succeded on it! :) All of the students were really happy and had a good time! Also, I...

By David Hegedus, Poverty Activist team August 2022 I think we are talking about an event and experience that forms a defining part of our Development Instructor programme in addition to the studies. Not only because I had an unforgettable experience with my team, but also because it presents challenges, gives me a lot of experience and I have acquired new skills - skills that I can use during my project period and the rest of my life. What are the Tvind Olympic Games? Different events are held in Danish small schools every year: Autumn Concert, Winter Concert, Summer Theater...

Hello, We are Monzer (Poverty Activist 12 month programme student) and Mel (teacher of the team). Today we bring you news from out latest investigation! In the course of the first almost 2 months of the Poverty Activist programme our team have been studying about the Forces that Run the World which included many different topics. Some of the topics were the 4 M-s (Media, Money, Military and Movements). At the end of this study period we made an investigation about these very important matters in the world and their connection. We wanted to know what people’s view on the...

By Isabela Bela Testoni, Brazil / July 2022 I am writing this brief experience close to the end of my journey in CICD, and all I can say is how much I am grateful for the time I spent here. At the beginning I was supposed to stay only for three weeks, but it ended being almost two months of volunteering. My daily routine was basically gardening, sharing tasks in the daily routa for cooking and cleaning, and living as a part of the community where I could see that even in small actions, we have the chance to learn...

By Anne Hoejholt, leader of ISET – One World’s distance learning programme. 2021 The world of today presents us with unprecedented challenges and situations. What would a competent education for the 21st century look like? As teachers living in outstandingly fast paced times, it is legitimate to ask ourselves: how can we imagine and design an appropriate education for the 21st century? In other words, what should schools look like, to prepare the students of today for the challenges of tomorrow? In this article, we would like to argue why the current educational system needs to be radically rethought, and...

My name is Pamela Degele and I have been part of the Gaia team of CICD since February 2022, with the goal to raise the scholarship for my 12-month Poverty Activist programme. During this time, I have integrated in two main activities. The first one is in the area of promotion, where I mainly develop my volunteer activity. In this office my task is to attract and advise people from different countries about the school. Between three and four colleagues we discuss the most effective way to spread and communicate the objectives and programmes of the college. The second one...

Hello there, I am Mel, teacher at CICD, recently arrived from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, after 2 months working with Richmond Vale Academy and environmental projects running there together with a team of 6 from CICD – the Climate Activist team. Today I want to share with you news from DAPP Zambia - one of our partners and a member of the Federation Humana People to People. This is more specifically about a project that I very much admire – Total Control of the Epidemic - TCE. This project delivers health services to fight some of the big epidemics:...

By Agustina Bastias, CICD Climate Activist at Richmond Vale Academy in St Vincent & the Grenadines Community work, a challenging journey of mutual development These last weeks we started to work with the communities… yes, finally. Even when we have had a really good time helping with the restoration of RVA during our first month and building more confidence and team spirit during that process, we were looking forward to go out to the communities and explore deeper the Vincentian culture. The two activities we just did with the communities were related with clean ups, but also with the beautification...

Hello from St Vincent & the Grenadines! My name is Mel and I am the Climate Activist team teacher at CICD. In November 2020 we started up a new team at CICD that had a period of almost 2 months of getting ready for a project period of 3 months in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, working with local farmers and communities to improve food security. 2 weeks before finishing the preparation period at CICD the volcano on the island started to wake up and we couldn’t manage to finalise our programme. We waited from the beginning of 2021 until...

ADPP is short for Development Aid from People to People in Portuguese, the official language of Mozambique. Mozambique was a Portuguese colony until 1974. Mozambique is one of the World’s 10 poorest countries - with 73% of the people in multi dimentional poverty. The people have huge obstacles in their fight to improve their lives. International solidarity from organisations such as ADPP is an important support. Here below you get a glimpse of the stark reality of the conditions in this beautiful country. Further down you find the Year Report 2020 from ADPP Mozambique. It is full of impressive examples...

My name is Luis, I'm from Portugal and I live in Sunderland UK. I work as Clothes Collection Driver in CICD in Durham, where I find the purpose of contributing to reducing the imbalance caused by climate change. As I use to say, every donation of a bag of clothes that I put into the van makes me feel that I contribute to a better society, cutting down less trees, contributing to cleaning, giving a second life to many of these clothes and the opportunity to those most disadvantaged people of obtaining certain low price items of second-hand clothing, which new...

Hello! I’m Pavel Redkin, 53, a retired teacher and self-employed ESL tutor from Russia. I was 39 and had been working at school for 22 years as a teacher including international AFS student exchange programmes. I was always hardworking and quite busy when one day I realized that daily routine had made me bored. I was looking for something really new and exciting in my life, I wanted just to travel, see the world and do something helpful for people around. That is why I joined CICD and enrolled for Development Instructor team in 2008. A completely new life Everything...

Minga Indigena - the Indigienous Way of knowledge and balance with nature All through the 2 weeks of COP26 there were hundreds of meetings and workshops and debates, many “in person” and many also online. Our small CICD delegation attended some different debates and presentations. We started with Minga Indigena. There is a large gathering of Indiginious elders and activists from the Americas at COP26, and we went to an event about “False solutions to the climate crisis – the disguise of Net Zero and carbon markets” where 5 speakers and 2 translators shared their experiences with the public and...

Please enjoy this short report from the streets of Glasgow during COP26! It was an amazing experience! We met so many inspiring people, including from different parts of the peace movement, as you can read more about in this story. Because even though it’s not widely spread information, the military has an ennormous carbon footprint. This is being largely “swept under the carpet” when countries discuss how to reduce their CO2 emissions. Here our teacher Mel tells about her experience... Our last days in Glasgow Joining big marches and demonstrations always boost our spirits. We have joined 2 marches in...

I found out about CICD when I met 2 of its volunteers in Bradford, where they were selling magazines to raise money so they could travel to their projects in Africa. Why I decided to join CICD I was working as a street fundraiser for Amnesty International when I first found CICD. I knew that one day I wanted to go to one of these developing countries, so I could get involved myself, rather than just fundraising on the streets. This is something that excited me, so I jumped at the chance to join CICD. It meant a lot to...

The Organic Garden Farm here at CICD covers an area of around 80 m x 45m, divided into two sections – one with the greenhouse and the raised beds, and the other for the potato field and the poultry. We have 20 chicken and six ducks, that give us on average 13 eggs per day. We have two greenhouses with raised beds for tomatoes and a lot of herbs and spices. We have a special section for potatoes: five big beds each of 25 x 2,5 m. Then we have all our other crops: onions, leeks, cabbage, courgettes, french beans,...