By Ellen Nayara Kotai Costa. Brazil / Poverty Activist team August 2024 In my world before Malawi: From the very first moment of the day, I had to be immersed in networks of immediacy. Even when engaging in deeper reflections, everything had to be strategic to succeed— and now . To go viral. Likes, shares, metrics, studies, and absolute precision to achieve success today, tomorrow, and always. If I leave it for the next day, I’ve lost! But my tracking, my connections are missing. I lose my work. Everything is about timing! Oh, my followers! What time is it? When should...

By José Inocencio Becerra Lagos, Colombia / Development Volunteer team April 2024 “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart” Nelson Mandela. The first day I landed in Malawi I was very delighted. The landscapes, the people, the weather, but the energy itself that I felt in contact with the continent was awesome ( beautiful = okongola ). It gave me a big impulse to do, feel, find, whatever I wished, of course into the frames of cooperation, sustainability...

By Emelli Laleska, Development Volunteer team April 2024 Malawi - one of the poorest countries in the world... Malawi is among the least developed and poorest countries in the world, with approximately 50% of the population living below the national poverty line and 25% in extreme poverty. This was the reality I expected to encounter. However, the project I was assigned to was located within one of the largest refugee camps in Africa, where the challenges were even greater. Being in direct contact with these two distinct realities—the local communities and the refugee camp—revealed not only the scarcity of resources...

By Jose Becerra, Colombia, Development Volunteer team April 2024 Here you can enjoy parts of the monthly report from Jose about his work with DAPP Malawi. Supporting preschool teachers in Amalika with DAPP Malawi We have been visiting the seventeen preschools to talk with the teachers and get a deep understanding of their needs and ideas about education of the children around. It has been an advantage to have the children on holidays, because then we can talk quietly in long conversations. As almost all of them are not well English speakers, we took the decision of making some interviews...

By Edson Eduardo, Brazil, Development Volunteer team April 2024 Where I live July... we arrived to Malawi, it looked like a dream ..... we were all so excited and thrilled, everything was new for us, language, culture, people, and environment. And now going to the third month in Malawi I would like to share briefly my experience here. My quartet and I live in Dowa/Malawi, which is based on one of the most huge refugee camps in Africa, called Dzaleka. I've never been in a refugee camp before, so living near one have been a new experience for me. In...

By Ana Jesus, Poverty Activist team August 2023 My name is Ana and I will tell you about my impressions of Malawi - the culture, the people and the impact that had in me. I did the 12 month Poverty Acivist programme - with 5 months of preparations at CICD, 6 months at the project country (Malawi) and 1 month back in England for the Bringing It to the Public.    Toghether with my Trio - Ivett, Peter and myself, in Amalika we worked with two different projects, as  Pre-School Supervisor and Core Group Teacher. During 6 months we worked...

By Margarita Barbero, Development Volunteer team February 2023. Today I want to share with you some of the challenges that I and my team encountered during the 6 months of volunteering. My name is Margarita, part of the Fighting with the Poor team that started last February. After 3 months of preparation in England I joined the Pre-Schools supervisor team in DAPP Amalika, a teacher training college located in the southern region of Malawi; a place of warm people, exemplary communities and green surroundings of the Michuri Conservation Nature Reserve but, at the same time, full of challenges to overcome....

Hello again and warm greetings from Zambia! We have been in Zambia for 2 months! I can't believe that these two months have passed so quickly. We still clearly remember the day we arrived. It's unbelievable... sometimes time goes by so fast that we think the time spent here won't be enough to accomplish everything we want in the project together with DAPP Zambia. About DAPP Zambia DAPP (Development Aid from People to People) is a non-governmental organisation founded in 1990. DAPP implements development projects in cooperation with the local population. The organisation currently has 40 different large-scale projects running...

By David Hegedus, Poverty Activist team August 2022 Hi, hi! Here is David! First of all, I want to let you know that we arrived safely in Zambia. Secondly, I could write a lot of things right now, but we are very busy every day because of our project and because of this I don't really have too much time. So, for now, I just want to tell you the most important things from the last two weeks. First impressions of Ndola, Zambia After our plane landed successfully and we left the Ndola airport with our large team of 8...

Once upon a time in February 2020, two Development Instructors called Carla and Agustina went to Zambia for their project period. But their stay in Zambia became very short, only two weeks. Because of political and social problems, Humana People to People decided they needed to relocate to a project in Botswana. Their time in Botswana was also cut short, this time because of Covid19.... But as you can see below they experienced a lot and also made themselves useful!  Hope you enjoy their story full of life and experiences. By Carla Barrado and Agustina Bastías Solis, Poverty Activist team...

Alvaro from Chile , volunteer in CICD-s 10 month August team 2019, shares his first impressions from living and volunteering in Amalika Teachers Training college & Pre-school project, run by DAPP Malawi - in "the Warm Heart of Africa"....and he reflects on the new perspective he got on his life until now. My first Impressions of Malawi We have ...

From the final report from May 2019 team - Pablo, Yessi, Beatriz and their teacher Miguel. “The beginning of our period here was about get introduced to the project and see how each area works. After a while, we started to understand in which way we could help. First of all, we started to learn about Humana India and the Anganwadi centers (Academies for Working Children). We were asked to make some suggestions about cleaning, organisation and educational activities or games for children, in order to help staff and improve children's environment." Sunil, the project leader, also asked us to...

By Juan Manuel (Pampa), Cristiana and Juan Arrellano, August 2018 Poverty Activist team About Mumena Child Aid and Agriculture production DAPP started the operation in Mumena in 1987, implementing a project related with youth development and production centre. Currently there are coexisting two different projects of DAPP: the agriculture production project and Child Aid Mumena. The project in Mumena is working in 8 of the 10 lines of the Child Aid projects. Some of the main activities that DAPP is developing are: supporting many families organised in Village Action Groups and youth clubs, working with 14 community preschools and 10...

From Oxana Morari, Paola Gomez, Solveig Niitra / Poverty Activist team February 2019 After a long travel, we finally set foot in Mozambique. We were taken to the ADPP (Humana People to People in Mozambique) Headquarters, where we received a warm welcome from the whole ADPP team. The two following days were spent participating in the building weekend, where our team of three worked together with EPF Maputo. It was then when we started to get a sense of what these next six months are going to be like for us. These were the days we spent with virtually no...

Our Climate Activist Team has arrived in India and being introduced to the people and the work. Yessi, Bea, Pablo and their teacher Miguel, have started to visit different projects run by Humana People to People India (HPPI) to work hand in hand with this organization that is the partner of CICD and a very nice host for our volunteers. This organisation has been working in India for more than 20 years, creating development through the implementation of the projects that aim at transferring knowledge, skills and capacity to individuals who need assistance; integrated projects in...

Hello Beautiful people, I am writing to you to let you know what CATs are doing in India. I will start with the 1st group - Svenja, Letizia and Alexandra – volunteering at Biogas Project in Dausa (Rajasthan) . Beside participating in the daily routines of the project such as visiting biogas plants and participating in the meetings with local communities and facing the language barrier, this group is also in charge of creating a simple step-by-step illustrated guidebook. This guidebook contains instructions of how to build a biogas plant, as well as information about the benefits of biogas, common...

Introduction My name is Roser Maura and I am from Spain. In 2017, I decided to become a Development Instructor (DI) and I joined CICD England in order to do the preparation period. I arrived in Zambia in August. After being in the NHQ (Ndola), and in Nakambala Approved School (Mazabuka), the plan was to go to Mumena Child Aid (Slowezi). However, we received a call suggesting that we had to change to Child Aid Nampundwe. That was my first and biggest shock, but now is the best that could have happened. The project and its implementation Child Aid Nampundwe...

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...

 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...