| |||||||||||
 |
 |
Testimonials
Camvol takes feedback from volunteers who went on placements very seriously. This is important to constantly improve what Camvol is offering, and for volunteers to have a truly rewarding experience. Here are some extracts from feedback from Camvol volunteers who have worked in India in previous years. Overall the experience was very positive, challenging and rewarding. Initially there was a lot of new information to take in, in terms of Indian culture and volunteering (since I had no previous experience of working with young children and had no idea what slum areas would be like), and so the whole experience was incredibly overwhelming to begin with. However, by working through difficulties (both cultural and volunteer-related), obstacles were overcome and it became a very enjoyable experience. Overall, my experience was an interesting and very positive one. I think no matter how much information people give you, Indian culture is something that you really have to experience in order to understand, and so I would really like to go back now I am a little wiser and have had the chance to reflect. [Sarah, Project WHY, 2008]
I was really inspired by the work of the staff at Project Why. Although I was only volunteering for 6 weeks, I tried to find innovative ways of teaching to support the children’s education. The teachers at the Project were brilliant and it was wonderful to see how students progressed in Mathematics and English. We took the students to Nehru’s house and the Delhi Planetarium, as they were learning about the solar system at school. We also created a model of the Solar System in papier mache. I think the children really enjoyed learning through creative activities, as their education in government schools uses quite traditional teaching methods. The children were a pleasure to teach. They were enthusiastic and always willing to contribute new ideas. The Project makes a tangible difference in the children’s lives and I very much enjoyed contributing to its work in a small way.
[Catherine, Project WHY, 2009]
I learnt a lot from my time at Moving Images being given opportunities that I could never have experienced otherwise. Often I was learning things without realizing it. Spending time with the Raika’s (herders) and having the chance to interview them and talk to them was a completely new experience for me. I have never conducted an interview or done any primary research like that before so although I’m not sure how useful the data we collected was, for me the experience itself was beneficial. I thoroughly enjoyed the couple of days spent filming the Raika’s. Watching all of the DVDs has made me watch films in a different way and think more about the editing and story sequence than I ever did before. Overall my time with Moving Images has made me think seriously about considering a career in documentary film making and has given me invaluable experience of generally how the process works. I can’t thank them enough for allowing me into their lives for 7 weeks.
[Lucy, Moving Images, 2007] DA is doing fantastic work in India and it felt really good to be part of such an organization. Everyone in the company is very driven by this goal of creating sustainable livelihoods and works hard for it. I was the person who did the ‘odd jobs’ in the communications department. I enjoyed this role very much as I got to see a wide variety of what DA does. They picked up on my skill base (good with computers and writing English) very quickly and gave me tasks involving those skills. Sometimes they would ask to me to do stuff I had never done before like writing proposals, and thus extended my skill base even further. They gave me all the support I needed if I asked for it. Overall, a fantastic experience to be part of a truly great cause. [Harsha, Development Alternatives,
2008]
The team and staff at the organisation were extremely welcoming and helpful, professionally as well as on a personal level, I was entrusted with a fairly complex project through which I feel I genuinely gained new research skills. DA also arranged for us to go “into the field” to experience some of their projects first-hand, and during this trip we were at all times accompanied by project staff answering all our questions, which made a huge difference and genuinely deepened my understanding of development issues far beyond what I had previously read in textbooks. Virtually all of DA’s staff also were extremely generous on a personal level, and I feel that I established some great and lasting friendships! Last but not least, it made a great difference to be on the placement with another Camvol volunteer, both to share and reflect on our experiences, and because it meant that DA, as a comparatively large organisation, was happy to put in the extra logistical effort to enable us to get the most out of the placements. It was great! Thank you very, very much! [Till, Development Alternatives, 2008]
Trilegal is a highly professional and successful commercial law firm which has links with Allen & Overy (a leading international commercial law firm). Consequently, the work provided was very similar to that which I will receive when undertaking vacation schemes in London. However, through this experience I have received the added rewards of working in a culturally different business environment, and experiencing first-hand the sorts of transactions in which India, one of the most important emerging markets, is involved. The variety of work in which I was involved, and the opportunity to do my own research project on the development of roads in India, has left me with a huge sense of satisfaction. [Kate,
Trilegal, 2008]
The opportunity to work at Trilegal was a very rewarding
one. Trilegal is a successful and rapidly growing commercial law
firm. The work I did was mainly research which allowed me to gain an
insight into a range of areas I had never previously encountered.
The work also gave me the chance to see and understand a range of
Indian specific issues. Over my time at Trilegal I dealt with
topics ranging from the Contract Act, tax,
power generation and court reform. For me the chance to see a legal system in action
that is still emerging onto the international stage was a very
rewarding one. The standard of practice is no less rigorous than
that of a [David, Trilegal, 2009]
The experience was definitely both useful and rewarding for myself, and hopefully for the host organisation. I felt the work we were doing might plausibly be used at some point in the future, and although we were mostly working in an office, I felt that this in itself was useful, as it refined my computer skills and shed some light on the frustrations of running your own charitable organisation. I believe that had I volunteered with a different organisation I may have a slightly more negative view of the experience, purely due to my own ideas about the benefit of western volunteers. The placement I went on however, was largely independent and required little attention and time of the other workers, thus ensuring we were not too much of a hassle. The organisation did everything they could to allow us to gain a full understanding of how they worked, and the trips in to the field I found particularly rewarding. [Kate, Grassroots,
2008]
We produced a report focusing on the progress in the Dusad Gadhera. It is intended to be used as a case study in the annex of a much bigger document that will be sent to UNESCO. It was hugely useful for Grassroots because as an organisation it has great successes but unfortunately has not the staff or time to document its progress. The slow pace of progress in India is such a contrast to the fast-paced and stressful lifestyle at Cambridge. Frequent electricity failures, communication issues and the language barrier, in addition to simply the hill-peoples’ culture to lead a laissez-faire life, were contributing factors. [Laura, Grassroots, 2008]The experience taught me a considerable amount about the dynamics of office life, the frustrations of working in a small NGO and the difficulties of working abroad, particularly the language barrier. My time in Ranikhet has definitely made me more realistic about the difficulties involved in working in the not for profit sector and in small organisations. Nevertheless I met some wonderful people, the location was breathtaking and visiting and meeting villagers was fascinating.
[Maddy, Grassroots, 2009]
It was in the end a very useful time but not in the way I had expected. I had little idea of exactly what I wanted to do in development. This trip highlighted that and also made me aware that this type of travel is not something I would be comfortable doing on a regular basis. However I found a huge amount of enjoyment and new found interest in education whilst working in the school. I now hope to go on to do education policy work and perhaps take some of that into the development field at some point in my life. CHIRAG is a fantastic organization with so many well run aspects that are invaluable to see. I saw something of every department so in that sense was fantastic.[Matthew, CHIRAG, 2009]
The experience was a very
useful and rewarding one. It provided me with a great work
experience to draw on, as I had the chance to work for a charity for
6 weeks and also to work in a foreign country. I learnt a lot about
The experience was thoroughly rewarding because everyone at the organization seemed grateful for our help. It was especially rewarding to see the play at the after-school club, that I had helped direct, performed! It was rewarding to know that I had helped such an inspiring charity. The whole experience was great and I am really glad I went on the placement. I had a really good time and feel like it has inspired me to do more volunteer work in future. [Merrow, Latika Roy, 2009]
|
 |
 | ||
Camvol is a UK registered charity, no. 1120190
