At CICD we have close to a negative carbon foot-print, because of our clothes and shoes recycling project. But we want to become much more sustainable in more areas. The slogan "Think global - act local" says it all -  this is exactly what we practice with our programmes and in the daily life here at the college. We are Another Kind of School - and we also have another kind of exams. It's called a People's Exam. Instead of a panel of experts in a possibly quite narrow field, the exam-board is everyone at the school – all who...

Aitana asked Noemi to tell a little about her life and her experiences from Mozambique. I’m Noemi, I come from Romania, from the part of Transylvania and I studied social work. I always had a special attraction to Africa, I knew that one day I will go and work there. When I was 3 years old I wanted to become a pediatrician so I could go and help the kids in Africa. To become a pediatrician you need biology and chemistry but I didn't have teachers who could give me the desire to learn and understand these disciplines, so I...

The Climate Activist team invited all of us for a fantastic dinner earlier in the week...it was beautiful, really tasty and well prepared...and: made only from what we have grown in our garden farm: pumpkins, courgettes, different vegetables, potatoes, herbs and chicken! The only exception was a bit of oil, salt and some lemons! To eat this together was truly double happiness - we could enjoy a meal with no chemicals, no plastic waste from the packaging, no air miles transporting it here, the chicken healthy without added hormones...Mmmm! It felt very good that it is possible! Because this points...

By Daniela Morales, Poverty Activist October team 2020 That's right ... it's amazing how in five words (An African Night at CICD) you can summarise in a simple way what a whole week of dedication and teamwork organising an event at school was. But, how did the idea of organising an event emerge, who organised it, how was it to manage and organise it? In this short text I will explain a little more about the life and activities that we develop as students (DI’s, as we say) at our school. When you start your training period or preparation for...

Since I arrived here at CICD, I feel as if many moments of the day are acquiring more value thanks to the sharing of them with other people and I'm very grateful for that. There is a place in Yorkshire, lost between the fields and the English farms, able to recreate that harmony between man and nature that today seems to have been lost. Here you can walk alongside the trees with squirrels, rabbits and, when you’re lucky, roe deer. Peace and silence accompany you throughout the day, especially in the early morning or late at night. In the midst...

WHY I DECIDED TO VOLUNTEER We say we love Nature, but do we really care about it? We say we love people, but do we know what is going on around the world? Do we know something about pollution, hunger, slavery, illnesses, forced prostitution and child abuse? Maybe we know a lot of things, maybe we can watch a touching doumentary and feel deep emotions for an hour or two, but then we always go back to our little structured reality made of work, family, hobbies and stuff. I was growing up between school, family and friends, struggling with what...

Hello! I am Margarita, the result of a love between Colombia and Spain, a person curious about the world, an admirer of the different and a believer in human kindness. I am writing to share my story and encourage you if at any time you decide to take a different step in life. I grew up in the country of magical realism, a place for which I feel immensely grateful for having given me love, study and work at times when it was not always easy. After working more than 10 years in the corporate world and with great achievements,...

My personal journey as a Development Instructor with CICD My name is Agustina Bastías Solis, I am 28 years old and I am from Chile. I am currently at CICD waiting to restart my program that was interrupted in Botswana due to Covid 19, although my trip started much earlier. Before coming to CICD in July 2019, I was working in my country as a psychologist in programs related to the protection and the restitution of the rights of children with difficult backgrounds. At that time, my motivation for volunteering was related to acquiring new work experiences and growing personally...

World Water Week 2020 Accelerating action for water and climate change! Water is the fundamental source for human development; from nature-based solutions to socio-economic development and human resilience. Water is a key enabler. In fact, water is life! Humana People to People joins the rest of the world in celebrating World Water Week 2020. The five-day event, themed “Water and Climate Change – Accelerating Action”, will focus on innovation, science and all the necessary actions to achieve a climate-resilient future. World Water Week 2020 will be commemorated from 24 - 28 August 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated...

An unexpected summer experience! By Sara Simson, Poverty Activist teacher at CICD My first experience as a Development Instructor (DI) teacher in CICD has been unusual; due to the pandemic my team and I, as all the rest of the world, were really affected by it. Our program had to change and we needed to readapt our life and activities to it. It wasn`t easy for any of us, but together we organised a new routine. Adapting to another daily life As everything else in the program, even the date of the travel to Africa had to change. The start...

Hey! My name is Tomás Cunha, I’m 25 years old and come from Portugal. I’m the current responsible for the garden here at CICD. I first arrived at this college almost 9 months ago. I had just finished my masters in Evolutionary Biology back in Lisbon. After several years of studies, I knew I wanted to experience something different from my reality until then. Something that pushed me a bit away from the course of actions I was taking. I needed to learn more about the world and also about me and what I want. I lived a quite privileged...

  Introducing: Humana People to People progress report 2019! Humana People to People is a network of development organisations on 5 continents, in 45 countries and involving 12 million people on a daily basis – working together to create better health, education and living conditions. Humana People to People has been in action for more than 40 years and in spite of the Covid pandemic, they are certainly not “on hold” - but are providing communities and schools with Covid19 support: information, advice, food, access to water and soap, production of face masks - in their work all over the...

The PeaceJustice Conference This conference is organised every spring in Denmark, by our sister schools DNS Tvind and DRH Lindersvold. This year, it was of course online....and we were around 100 people participating – small groups in several schools in Norway, Denmark and England and also participants in many other parts of the world. It was a very inspiring event – and the high light was a lecture: "The new world rises in the East" by Jan Oberg - author, peace researcher and photographer. He held an exciting lecture, presenting his visions for what we can expect to happen in...

Solidarity - not charity! Joe Solo is an award-winning musician, writer, poet, activist, broadcaster and washing machine engineer from Scarborough in north-east England. Together with Pauline Town and many other activists and musicians, Joe Solo runs the We Shall Overcome (WSO) movement. He uses his skills as a musician and song writer to raise much needed funds as well as spirits, all around the country. The aim is to support people living in poverty, who ended up homeless and need a helping hand to get back on their feet. “The Station Hotel”, a pub in Ashton under Lyne in Manchester run...

About the course “The Effects of Industrial Farming” This course is part of the curriculum for the Development Instructor teams, so they can gain a better understanding of the reasons for the huge economic inequality in the world today and why billions of people are living in such poverty – in spite of all the existing resources. After studying The Effects of Industrial Farming it was clear to us that some of the effects of industrial farming are: Rupture of the generational transmission of knowledge of uses and customs of natural resources and good practices. This makes us lose the...

About the course “Wars and Pollution” The consequences of the military on our environment are significant. How come that the huge military complex, that use a big part of state budgets and consume enormous amounts of oil and other resources, are not made to take their responsibility in cutting down to fight the Climate Crisis? To learn about this is one part of understanding the reasons for the Climate Crisis and the imbalance of our world.... My comments to the course “Wars and Pollution” By Iasmin Maionchi from Brazil, Development Volunteer 10 month February team 2020 Today we have studied...

Studies and workshops in our lock down CICD Hello, my name is Mel and I am a teacher at CICD. Today I write to tell you a bit about the past weeks and how we managed to continue with the programmes even in times of Covid-19. Let me tell you about how we rearranged the daily life in the safest way possible. At CICD we were around 30 people a month ago. We changed the whole set up of the school by dividing into 3 groups. 9 Development Instructors (DI-s) plus + 2 teachers are now living in Malawi building...

From Vasile Nutescu, garden farming responsible: Hi, my name is Vasile and I am from Romania and I want to talk about gardening, organic gardening. Why organic? Because it’s healthy. Because in order to have good and healthy food we DON’T need chemicals. I come from a small village in north of Romania. It’s an area where even now days most of the agriculture and gardening are made organically and traditionally. I grew up with gardening and I learned what I know that way. Throughout the years I also worked in industrial agriculture so I also have an understanding of...

In this time of the Covid 19 pandemic, we feel privileged here at CICD. We live as a small community in a safe and rural place with lots of space, indoors as well as outdoors. The park surrounding the school is big enough for all to spread out in. To minimize infection risk, we have organised ourselves into 3 separate groups that don't interact with each other and always keep the social distance: 1) The DI group (Volunteers in training + teachers) 2) The Gaia group (the scholarship team + teacher) and 3) The Others (us who are not in...

Dear friend.     In the time of this Covid19 pandemic, we are healthy and safe here at the College in rural East Riding of Yorkshire. We are doing all we can to adapt to the situation, to keep safe and take good care of each other and the people around us. While dealing with the situation here in England and how the virus affects our lives in this part of the world, it is also important to keep the perspective. We need to remember that while it is problematic and causes interruptions for us, we actually have good possibilities...