On Monday, eight people from the previous Gaia team became Development Instructors. I am the youngest of those eight. I am Solveig from Estonia and I recently turned twenty. I arrived here in the end of September and am now a part of the February Poverty Activist team. All of us have contrasting aims for coming to England, but mine is probably a bit different from my teammates. I feel like I am not as accomplished as the people in my team. I only finished high school last year and have not really started my life as an adult yet...

By Zsolt Gyarmati, Hungary, Fighting with The Poor 21 months programme Earlier I had a decent job in the capital of Hungary, I rented an apartment, had a car, had friends and all the “normal” stuff. However I wasn’t satisfied with my life. So I decided to change my life maybe not permanently, but entirely. I wanted to do something meaningful in this rushing and money-centered world. My goal now is to make other people’s life better. If I can make only one single life better, I will be really happy. So I decided to go on a journey and...

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...

We recently introduced our new green energy project at CICD Environmental Centre, in order to promote renewable energy in the school and also in nearby communities. Our world is on the edge of turmoil due to the limitless usage of fossil fuel, pesticides, and all sort of chemicals and waste as the final “product” of vast production. What can be possibly done to help Mother Nature carry this burden? We do organic gardening for instance; we are composting, recycling, planting trees around and customising our consumption. Further more our new green energy project has been...

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...

By Margarita Barbeiro, Colombia I have heard that if Life takes something from you, it is because it has something bigger prepared on your way… and it is true. One of the biggest challenges that I have experienced this year was to be separated of my family in Colombia and it was incredible the way that my feelings to be far away from home were compensated in CICD this Christmas with a new and amazing experience. The day started with the preparation of the event with only 12 people in total, considering that most of...

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...

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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...