By J. Paola Gomez Garzon, Spain I never thought that at the age of 28 I would live the best New Year’s eve of my life. 31st of December 2018, it was three month and 9 days since I arrived to a very special place in the north of England, CICD (College for International Co-operation and Development). Leaving a life of comfort behind, I enlisted to a life changing project to Africa. Everything starts at CICD living in a community, getting to meet new people, new stories and new experiences and sharing mine with them too. So far the Gaia...

By Idoia Gaston, August team 2018 The man in front of the wall I wanted to spend the last morning before coming back to England taking more pictures inside the camp, going around and speaking with people in Aida Camp. I went one more time near the wall and while I was reading one of the stories written there, I turned my head and I saw one man sitting on his chair who invited me to sit next to him, in his small mechanical workshop. Mohammed was born in Bethlehem and his business was really good before the construction of...

By Diego Dusetti, from investigation trip with his team, October 2018 (picture credit: www.snipview.com ) This is the map of how Israel has been taking land from Palestine. As you can see from 1946 to 2000 the Palestinian area has been reducing a lot: everything started when a small group of Jewish people who went to Palestine for few days with the excuse to visit the country; they were staying in a Hotel that they never left. After them, soldiers started to come with the goal of colonizing the country. Since that moment until now, different conflicts have been happening...

3 of us from CICD went to Denmark to participate in the conference at DRH Lindersvold, our sister school. We arrived at Copenhagen Airport with high expectations and enthusiasm. As we (Alessia - 3 months Climate Activist Team (CAT), Vasile - 5 months Climate Activist Team, Tamas - Teacher of 3 months CAT) were picked up and taken to the school, it was clear we could look forward to a really busy and fruitful weekend. The program started on Saturday morning with Gert Tjoelker’s welcome speech. He greeted all the participants from CICD UK, Norway school, DNS Tvind, DRH Lindersvold,...

Melisa is from Argentina and before coming to CICD she has worked with an insurance company, has a degree in tourism and did temporary work at the weekends. Here is the interview we had with her after she returned with her team from India. About the start and the first steps in the programme: I joined CICD in November 2017 and was a Gaia student at first. In May 2018 my Climate Activist Programme (CAT) started. There have been three main reasons why I joined the programme: At first, I felt the need to change my routines. Secondly, the programme...

On the 24th of September we had the possibility to visit Siemens Gamesa at their training centre in Hull. All this was made possible by Allan and Britta who are working with the Tvind Wind Mill in the Danish town Ulfborg, which was built by volunteers in the 1970’s as the then world’s biggest wind mill . More about the Tvind Wind Mill and its’ relation to Siemens can be read here https://www.tvindkraft.dk/en/a-trailblazing-windmill/the-tvind-windmill-showed-the-way.html Also listen to this https://soundcloud.com/cicd/building-the-biggest-windmill-in-the-world podcast in which our Headmistress Karen who has been one of the volunteers building the Tvindmill speaks about it) While in the...

Hi!!! My name is Jorge Barriga and I’m from Portugal. A little more than 2 years ago I took a really new step in my life. I’m an outgoing person who always liked to meet new people, cultures, travel, teamwork, learn, do and experience new things, help others and making people around me happy… So when I finished my degree in International Relations I was looking for a job but the job interviews I was having were for things that I actually wouldn’t like to be doing and I also felt I didn’t want to take the “normal” path and...

We are making a new blog that will go live very shortly. 

During the spring and summer 2018 a lot of things have happened here! Tamas who is in the lead of the Environmental Centre, explains about our visions and actions until now: At CICD we are continuously developing our Environmental Centre in order to contribute to diminishing the effects of Climate Change. Drawing attention to the changes and at the same time offering solutions decreasing it, is the main focus. Our tools are sustainability, stewardship and proper education. Multiple projects has been started up in our Environmental Centre this year: We are putting up our first solar panel and plan to...

My name is Jose and in May 2018 I finished my Service period that took place in Mkushi, Zambia where I worked with a team from my school (CICD where I spend 6 months before joining the program DNS Mkushi), workers from DAPP Zambia, members of local communities and local government. I would like to share with you a part of my experience and hopefully this can be of use to you. The purpose of this document is to share my experience as a guide for new development instructors and help them to do a good job and have a...

It has been one month since we came back from Palestine. We are a team of eight people from CICD, interested in 21-century conflicts currently going on. This is why Palestine was our destiny for the investigation week. Before going, we learned about the Arabic culture, the story of the Palestine-Israel conflict and we took our backpacks and left. Once we landed, we faced a first passport control where we were asked the reasons to fly to Tel Aviv, where we would stay and if we were going to Palestine, even if we knew people there. One of us, with...

Think of a factory making car parts. Every day to make the same pieces, during the 52 weeks of the year, for years and years.The“normal” life, it's the same ... .. Every day we get up at the same time, doing the same things, 365 days, for years and years ... .. YOUR LIFE IS A FACTORY, imposed by the system that surrounds you. I was lucky that in 2012 I managed to wake up from this system and do something that really matters: TO LEAVE MY MARK IN SOMEONE'S LIFE. My name is Carla Sofia Domingues, Portuguese, 40 years...

 Click here to read an interview with Vicky and Jose, after arriving back to CICD in May! Development is many things...also creative arts! In these three months in Zambia we have been doing different projects. After visiting some communities around we decided that the three priorities were: Repairing the mono-pumps to provide clean water to the communities The construction of a new shelter for a meal meal machine (for grinding maize flour) in order to get the electricity necessary to use it. Help the parents in Kachasu community to start the construction of a new school. Their children are walking...

Project: DNS Teachers Training College , DAPP Zambia in Mkushi, northern Zambia With this report I want to show the work so far by our team, and tell about some of my personal experiences working with the local people and the co-workers from DAPP Zambia. Before we started, we had a meeting with the Project Leader where we agreed on a schedule for our work and the way we were going to work. We also got an explanation of how things work around here and a briefing of the work of the previous Development Instructors (DI-s) [widgetkit id="87" name="Experience Jose...

One of the tasks we have as Development Instructors is to share our experiences and knowledge with people of our continent.  This is why our programmes have a final period called “Bring it to the Public”. In this period our volunteers prepare presentations and workshops that try to bring their personal experience on the projects to our fellow European neighbours. As a team, they make a plan and a route of which countries and cities they want to visit, and together with the teachers they organise presentations for all kinds of people to try to inspire them and give new...

Every month our school comes together for a very special kind of weekend. Two days dedicated to our school, to our home. The building weekend is a moment for developing practical skills, for painting, repairing and enjoying time all together. Students and teachers join together to make a plan of what needs to be improved in our buildings, then we divide in groups and get down to work! We can’t deny that it’s an exhausting weekend since it demands a lot of physical effort, but we also get the opportunity to join together with a common goal, improve our school,...

We are in the very last weeks of this 3 months travel, now we are headed to Zambia, our last destination where we will conclude the travel and finalize the Investigation. In the last two weeks we were in Malawi, more specifically in Ntchisi, a very rural area. We were making our investigation in different households and also helping the DAPP project called “Let the children go to school”. This project focuses in the children attending school and does it in many different ways. One of the biggest problems in the primary schools is the drop up, there are many...

Rafael (also known as Manuelito) told me his story a very warm evening in Children's Town, while we were sitting on a mattress on the floor with 3 of the youngest boys asleep. I’ve heard this story before, when I met him 2 years ago, but this time, as he was telling it my feeling of admiration for this young person was so big I asked him if I could write down his story to share with whoever wants to read and he said yes right away. Rafael Bernardo Chambal is almost 17 years old, was born the 23-07-2000. Until...

We have been for 9 days in Botswana. We were in Phikwe, in a project called Child Aid. Here in Child Aid Phikwe they work with 10 areas: Economy strengthening Health Pre school Youth in Society Vulnerable Children Education Environment District Child Labour Crime Prevention Here in Selibe Phikwe, most of the people work in the mines but what happened last October changed everything! For different reasons the mine closed and more than six thousand people lost their jobs. What Phikwe is going through now is a very sad reality. People do not have food on their table. Families who...

We have been for 9 days in Botswana. We were in Phikwe, in a project called Child Aid. Here in Selibe Phikwe, most of the people work in the mines but what happened last October changed everything! For different reasons the mine closed and more than six thousand people lost their jobs. What Phikwe is going through now is a very sad reality. People do not have food on their table. Families who worked in the mine do not have any other job. From the TB screening door to door visits we could see that many of the families were...