By Adriana Millalen Rivas, Development Volunteer team February 2023 Engaging in a volunteer programme can be one of the most rewarding experiences in life, particularly when shared interests and passions align. It becomes evident that gratitude is boundless. Why participate in a volunteer programme? There is much to be done in the world beyond what meets the eye, and many of these tasks are within our grasp. Across the globe, there exists a substantial gap; what is abundant in some countries is lacking in others. For this reason, you have the opportunity to effect change. By leveraging your skills, you...

By Kelvin Rodrigues, Development Volunteer team October 2023 Planet Earth 2024: Many believed that this year man would be living a fuller life, full of peace, love, abundance, joys. But this is the scenario for a small portion of the world’s population. What we see today, after so many technological advances in all areas of knowledge that man dominates, are known ills: pandemics, wars, hunger, diseases and the most feared and current of all, climate change that affects mainly the poorest. They are themes that somehow bother so many people, but the majority does not take any position or action...

By Rivanildo Novais, Brazil / Development Volunteer team October 2023 In my point of view, it has always been in practice that you learn. In theories you have artificial learning, but it is in practice, leaving your comfort zone that you really learn, and the CICD College provides us with this, and so it is good for everyone. I'm going to show here an example from me and some teammates and colleagues about what I learned and what they say about the subject. In this photo, you can see me operating a motorised elevator. I had never operated anything like...

By Natalia Benitez, Poverty Activist team August 2023 - getting ready for departure to Youth in Action project, Ndola, Zambia in January 2024! THINGS I NEED FOR THE PROJECT IN AFRICA Traveling to Africa as a volunteer can be an enriching experience, but it is important to prepare properly. Here are essential things I will take with me: 1) Personal hygiene items and basic medical supplies: • Insect repellent and mosquito nets to protect against insect-borne diseases such as malaria. • Sunscreen: The sun in Africa can be intense, and it is best to be protected from the damage that...

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....

By Alejandra Aguilar Bello, Poverty Activist team August 2023 When we are in a programme studying development around the world and we are looking for diversity, inclusion, peace, equality; then how can we talk about an exam to conclude some study periods? Well our People’s Exam is like our school – it’s a “Different Kind of…”! It’s one of the most exciting parts of the programme. It has the objective to conclude and reflect on what we have learned in each period and share it with our audience. So we look for a creative way to present all this. Our...

“Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.” – Nelson Mandela By Mel Pita, Teacher in the Poverty Activist Team / End of October 2023 Hello again… Last time I wrote to you about the second period of the programme – The forces that run the World. Today I will tell you about the current period we are in – Period 3 – The fight of the Poor and Solidarity Humanism. This period lasts for 7 weeks and it is one of the most...

By Peter Gorog, Poverty Activist team August 2023 Welcome, dear reader, to a short story about the school's Building a Better School Weekend, and how everyone in the school is getting involved. Teachers and students alike. Since the building of the school, which is now our home, many years ago (the oldest building is from 1762), so we can use the term VERY OLD. The building and its surroundings require constant maintenance, and we spend a weekend every month on small and large renovations. It can be cleaning, collecting wood, cutting trees, building sports fields or many other tasks for...

By Melanie Pita, Teacher for the Poverty Activist team, August 2023 Hello - this is Mel. This time I will be telling you about the past month of the current DI team at CICD – the Poverty Activist 12 month programme that has started in August 2023. We are 9, me plus 8 students. We started the programme with an Introduction Week and following that, we started a one month period called “The Forces that Run the World”. We are still currently in that period as we took a break into this period to make an investigation and survival trips...

By Peter Gorog, Poverty Activist team August 2023 I'd like to invite you to my little story, my perspective, how I have learned in CICD, what experiences and friends I made, that enriched my life :-) I arrived at the school in January 2023 with a very minimal knowledge of English, which was the first, most difficult and most important task for me, and I had to improve it as quickly as possible. Students from many countries around the world come to the school to learn together, to work hand in hand, helping each other to achieve our common goal...

During the spring and summer, it has been a great help with Ana's support in taking care of our garden farm. Here you see here with our WWOOF-ers! We asked one of the students, Kriszti, to make a small interview for our blog: -Why did you choose to have gardening as responsibility at CICD? Do you have such experience from before? I chose it because I like gardening, I like to see how natural interaction can be managed and how we can live in a beneficial symbiosis. I grew up on a farm and got the knowledge from my grandparents,...

By Silvia Rivas, Poverty Activist Team February 2023 WELCOME TO MOZAMBIQUE! We can say that we are now in the home stretch, before leaving for our destination. Getting to this point has been quite a process. When the day came that we received the job descriptions, we had the choice between a country in Africa or India, but the choice was not only based on the country, but also on the mission and vision that the projects were developing with the communities, and the tasks in which you could collaborate. I remember when I read the 6 projects, and two...

By Jeanette, Poverty Activist team February 2023 Hello, I'm Jeanette...I'm a member of the 12 month team. I arrived to CICD in August 2022 and started my journey here with the Gaia programme. Now I'm a Development Instructor (DI) and according to the plan I will go to Zambia in the middle of July...which I am getting very excited about. This Monday my team passed our People's Exam successfully. That was our second exam since we have started our DI period. It was a big milestone for me because now there is only one closing exam separating us from our...

By Adrian Alvarez Valenzuela, Poverty Activist team August 2022 Adding your grain of sand for a better world Of course, this has to be necessarily the primary reason not to give up on volunteering. When we think about dedicating our time to volunteering, we all do it with the same goal and for the same reason: we firmly believe that a better world is possible, and we want to actively contribute to that change by adding our small grain of sand. And indeed, you will leave that mark and contribute that grain of sand with your collaboration. Depending on the...

By Brita Jensen When Tvindkraft was built, it trailblazed the wind industry, This story is about my work at Tvindkraft, the world’s first megawatt modern wind turbine. In 1999 I had been both a team teacher and a subject teacher at DNS (The International Teachers Training College also located in Tvind). Through that work I had become increasingly conscious about the deterioration of the environment, both through our DNS study tours and studies. I wanted to work full time for improving the environment. A position at Tvindkraft became vacant and this was my chance. I didn’t know anything about a...

By Melanie Pita, Team teacher  Hi, I am Mel and I am a teacher at CICD. Today I will be telling you about some of the studies of the second period of the 12 month programme and the students’ response to this. The Forces that Run the World In the beginning of February we have started the Poverty Activist 12 month programme. We are now about to finish our second period of The Forces that Run the World that has lasted for the past 4 weeks. During this last 4 weeks we have studied and investigated Forces that Run the...

By Silvia Rivas, Poverty Activist team February 2023 The process of the programme for a Poverty Activist is the tool that leads you to take action. Action, through knowledge and practice with a perspective of the TOPICS that move the world. When you receive and study informattion, you need to consider: - Do I have the information I need to align my arguments with me? - Could I contrast this information from another point of view? - What is my conclusion? Topics that we tend to talk about in our daily lives (such as money, politics or simply the situations...

By Carla Barrado, Spain My story is worthy of being in a printed book, given the circumstances that encompass it. Each person is unique, and each person has their way of experiencing adventures and opportunities; however, the important thing is not to compare and not to think that it is better or worse, but that what will truly lead you to live the experience is simply living it. I joined the Gaia group in 2019 with the idea of starting the following August in the Poverty Activist team. My time in Gaia was very intense and I learned a lot...

By Adrian Alvarez Valenzuela, Poverty Activist team 2022 My arrival in Zambia was through the Endola International Airport. From the moment I landed, I was struck by the natural beauty of the country. The view of the mountains and the green plains on the horizon was impressive, and the warm breeze blowing made me feel truly comforted. After a long journey, I finally arrived in Mkushi, a small town in the center of Zambia. The people here are extremely welcoming and friendly, and they received me with open arms. I could quickly see that the Mkushi community takes pride in...

By Estefani Gareca, Poverty Activist Team February 2023 A People´s Exam is the last step in the end of each period of our studies. Specifically, for the 12 month Poverty Activist programme with 5 month study & training period, we have 6 different periods with different themes. All of them have very solid topics related to the history and development of the countries in different parts of the worls, offering us an overview of all the problems our world suffers. We have just concluded our first period called “The Forces that run the World”. During this period, we studied the...