Reflections on HOW projects
My Life Changing Experience
"After just five weeks in India, my outlook on life has changed dramatically.
I am studying for a Bachelor of Education at Liverpool Hope. Over the past year
I have been working closely with Hope One World (HOW), Hope's overseas education
charity which organises summer projects in both India and Africa. Each year
for the past 15 years teams of students and staff have travelled to Tibetan
Refugee settlements in India and to Africa to help with educational needs.
The lecturers work closely with the teachers and the students work with
the children.
Although the lecturers organise these projects, there is a student group that helps raise money for the charity.
I applied to be a volunteer and after a nerve racking interview was accepted to participate in one of the projects for 1999. We had several meetings at College, and many inoculations, to ensure that we were fully prepared for the experience of a life-time.
Everyone asked me what I expected to gain from the experience, but I really had no idea. All I knew was that I was going to stay in a Tibetan refugee settlement in Mussoorie, India, with two lecturers and five other students. The village had never had a project run by HOW before, so the experience was a new one for all involved.
Although the people who have been on projects in the past told us about their experiences, I never once imagined what was waiting for me.
The tales of what the children had to go through to get to India were horrific. We all did our best to learn as much as we could about the Tibetan culture. We found that most of the adults lived for the children and were role models - which did not give them much freedom. This was natural and not forced.
The people all respected the Indian culture, with Hindi being taught to the children in school. Everyone seemed to get on well. The village was a safe haven. The children could go nearly anywhere they wanted in their free time and mingled well with the adults. I felt safe wherever I went. I enjoyed getting to know everyone and was fascinated by their culture.
Everyone was keen to get to know us and were pleased that we were willing to join in with almost everything that we were faced with. The homes that the adults lived in were very basic, but proved to me that it is all you really need. It has made me wonder if I need everything that I have at home. I enjoyed washing, and cleaning my clothes in buckets - the cold water was often very refreshing.
My teaching experience was fantastic. Not only were the children a pleasure to teach, but I had no long or medium term planning to do and no evaluations or assessments to be written!! Thus allowing more time to dedicate to marking, displays and the children.
After such an amazingly eye opening experience, I will continue to tell others just what these people have gone through and how much help they still need. They have a good system which will only continue to work and improve if we give them our support.
Thuje chi! (Thank you)."
Vanessa Court
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