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What I am doing as Mentor

I have atended two session on last two saturday's so far. 1st session was about Getting to know each other – introduction & ice breakers. Grils are age 12-13 years old and they are studying in TCF's school n Pangali which is slum area in surroundings of Lahore. It takes me one and half an hour and makes me feel tired but when I see girls bright smillng faces waiting for me for a week, it gves me energy and I forgot every thing about long way to travel and wake up very early on weekend. In our group we are two mentors and six girls who are students of TCf. To be familiarize with each other we build a web of support.

We all sat in a circle. Give one girl a ball of yarn. That girl introduce herself and give basic details about her. We asked her to hold on to the end of yarn and throw the rest of the ball to another girl in the circle. The girl who catches the ball of yarn then did the same. They then threw it to another girl who repeats the exercise. The activity continued until a web is formed and then we mentors directed the discussion towards the importance of working together as a team. Threw the balloon into the web and encourage the group to move it around without letting it slip through the gaps. And ballon remain in air couple of minutes untill we did not let it slip out of the yarn.

Group decided name of "Barbie Doll Group" as an identification.

With help of mentors group come up with guidelines of conduct and come up with rules acceptable to all of them. We encourage students to have a record of their Rahbar experience and to give them an opportunity to express themselves. Through mentoring we encourage their good habits and discourage bad habits.

My second session was about Understanding individual’s past, present & future. We make them realized that despite ones background, one may find something in common with a person least expected. We discovered ther future aspirations and encourage them to write success journal as well.

RV Weekend

Wow, so now GX is officially all over...we had our RV weekend in Birmingham the weekend just gone...was interesting! It was great to see everyone again although Zaake, Mike and Laura couldn't make it. It was weird to be with the UK volunteers and not have our Pakistani family with us, too! On the Saturday night we had a halloween party, and I must say, I don't think we've ever looked so good! Haha.

We did sessions on how we've coped leaving the exchange, what we can do next, who we can get in touch with and we've started to plan events that we'll be doing now we're home. A few of us northeners have decided to have an entertainment night with music, comedy and general entertainment to raise awareness on the issue of problems facing asylum seekers and refugees within the UK (see, look what Cranhill has done to me!) in Manchester, hopefully around Valentines Day so we can have a lurveeee themed event! Anyone who wants to come would be most welcome, more details to follow no doubt.

As for me, I'm settling in pretty well to uni life, still loving it! I seem to be pretty busy all the time doing something or another, not always working! (Although I do seem to have a lot more work than a lot of people here...haha). I'm about halfway through my first semester, which is very odd, doesn't seem like I've been here long at all! But life's pretty good right now.

So I'm going to sign off just by saying that I'd kind of put GX thoughts into a little box in the back of my mind, and the RV weekend has definitely brought them all to the forefront again. And it made me realise how much I miss everyone and how much of an amazing and rewarding experience I had...so again, I'd like to thank EVERYONE from Team 85 and indeed the whole of GX for making it what it is. Love you all guys =]

Sabina xxx

LOOKING FORWARD

I am excited to share with every one that I am going to start volunteering at school on saturdays, starting from coming saturday. It's THE CITIZEN FOUNDATION's Rahbar Project. And my role will be like a MENTOR.

This Mentorship Program is aimed at the development of youth as individuals and as responsible members of the community in which they live.

'Rahbar' in the traditional concept means 'a person who enlightens, illumines, guides, paves the path of light for the duteous disciple leaving his lively foot prints on the sands of time'.

In line with this, the role of a mentor in Rahbar is to guide the mentee in his journey of self-discovery to help develop a sense of self, a vision for his/her future, the ability to develop and implement a plan to realize this vision and the capacity to deal with the occasional failure that he/she will inadvertently confront on this journey.

So nice of Raheel, that he told me about this interesting piece of work. Unfortunately it's only in Lahore & Karachi, so rest of our team fellows except me and Raheel amy not be able to join.

Looking forward to this volunteering.

I hope I will share my amazing eperiences working with children with you soon.

I wish Peace so that children can come to school.

A Note to Say Shukria/Thank You/Asantesana

I'm pleased to say thank you to all
contributors from Pakistan, UK & Krnya to provide us a good opportunity to learn, enjoy and experience new things, especially for all three host communities for making us feel like home.

I'm especially very grateful to all host homes because living with host homes was incredible worthwile experience and we take back useful and practical lessons.

Volunteer placements were remarkable source of encouragement, learning opportunities and good information sharing platforms.

I would like to mention about GX team 85, PSs, voluntarily kind and supportive Dr Azra, Mr Peter, Ms. Fatima & her husband, Mr. Shahrukh, Mr. Asim and donors for such kind, lovely, welcoming, supportive, and helpful approach.

I really miss every one and wish BEST OF LUCK to all.

My journey on GX

(Najeeba Syed)

I joined GX with a keen desire to learn cultural differences,know global issues and its mitigation strategies in global perspective. I really appreciate the designing of the program. Its beauty is in the form of engaging a volunteer in a very different way providing them the opportunity to live with a host home counterpart from a different background,religion and territory and working with a different counterpart,collecting and absorbing new knowledge from the national charities engaging great people and working for the welfare of their own community.

Working in a large group taught me to respect other's believes. GCD's helped me to deepen my knowledge learning on issues developing countries are facing together.

It was also very beneficial to enhance my presentation and facilitation skills,build confidence and the ability t work both as an individual and as part of the group.

Working on the CA D's enabled me to familiar myself and learn from people working in charitable organization throughout the Glasgow. I definitely fell that I have gained knowledge on different issues that effect the city.

The opportunity to work voluntary with other volunteers taught me different aspect of volunteering which I had never considered ,and has strengthened my commitment working in the voluntary sector.

Meeting members of Scottish parliament from the East End helped me to understand the local government structure and how do they address their issues. My work placement in Glasgow at east end provided me the opportunity to know more about the communities,their current issues and preferences while addressing these issues. I have discovered that many youth issues are shared between UK AND Pakistan. In my perspective the Glasgow community was more concerned about the issues faced by their youth and they were making more of an effort towards the resolution.

Many people showed interest and wanted to know about the causes and effects of issues faced by young people which are the same for youth of many other developing countries such as lack of opportunities in terms of lively hood,decision making ,exclusion which in tern can lead other problem such as a lack of practical based qualification schemes for young people which mean that it can be diffiicult to learn more trades,ergo difficulties to obtain a good wage.

The opportunity to participate in different social event in UK I.e Calidh,a trip to West End theater broaden my mind and gave me scope to experience new things of which had I had no chance. It also helped me to understand the social habits of the Glasgow community. Global Exchange has been a rich exposure which contributed lot in my life helping me to build up towards my life goals enhancing the spirit of volunteering to work for my community to engage young people in the such process where they can contribute for positive change.

Significant Change Story (Raheel Ahmed)

Hi, I am Raheel. I am from Lahore, city of Pakistan. After getting master’s degree in Psychology I have taken some of my major life decisions and dropped everything and took a decision of reinventing myself and self-searching. So I applied for Global Exchange to gain life experience, to learn about different cultures and people and to better myself. My exchange was in Pakistan, Scotland and Kenya.

Before GX I did not have any professional experience, but working with PEEK organisation in Glasgow for the children, and with Visions Magnet Theatre organisation gave me work experience. Now I am very much aware of the overall structure of the organisations. Now I have a more practical approach towards life and UK people inspired me a lot in terms of practicality.

I am the youngest one in my family and did not take much responsibility before in my life. But now after this exchange I am ready to take every kind of responsibility. I had always been interested in contributing for community, but I did not have the proper direction and clear vision. Now I am much aware of my direction and have a lot of ideas to implement in the community.

Before GX I was much disorganised and had lost some of very good opportunities in my life because of it. But now I am quite organised and manage time well. Working at PEEK has taught me how to deal with children and youth. It also taught me about child psychology. Working at Visions Magnet Theatre in Malindi has overcome my lots of inhibitions like stage fear, media skills, publicly speaking, and has improved skills in delivery of workshops, communication and creativity.

I have never ever cooked in my life before and neither washed washroom, which I both learned in this wonderful exchange programme. Now I am more self-sufficient that before. This experience has boosted my confidence and I feel more open to others.

Living in two host homes has provided me very good understanding of lives of developed nations and also about pros and cons of individual and family lifestyles. I always avoided politics in my life, but living with Joyce and Andy provided me a source of information regarding politics. I have learned a lot about international politics and have decided to remain more aware of world politics as it is deeply rooted in our lives and with every person of this world.

I am now much better at informed decision making and taking initiatives.

This exchange has given me a new approach and direction in life and helped me discovering and achieving the progressive and permanent milestones along the path of my own unfolding higher, deeper and wider potentials.

I have also learned about group dynamics, how to participate in group decision making and how to maintain good relationships within the group. I have become more adaptable and I think I can adjust myself wherever I go in the world. I am more globally aware and feeling more connected with this world and more responsible for the world. My approach has developed from Ethnocentric to World centric. The interaction with different people, from different parts of the world, with different attitudes, belief systems and lifestyles has taught me a lot. My attitude towards people has become more accepting and unbiased which is a very good development as a student of psychology.

My role in life is getting clearer to me and also feeling freer, independent, lighter and more ambitious. And I hope my family would be surprised to see such changes in me. I have decided not only to bring gifts for my family and friends but I will also bring some of the learning’s and principles to Pakistan, to implement in my life. In the end I would like to say in order to see the beauty of life, you have to be a volunteer in some part of your life.

Deborah Harward (UK) Significant Change Story

I applied for Global Xchange at a time when I was unsure what I wanted out of life, especially my career. I felt I was lacking purpose or direction-my limited knowledge of global issues made me vaguely aware I’d like to do something to help others but I didn’t know where to start!

Thanks to all the wonderful people I’ve met on GX, I’ve learned so much from a personal and a global perspective! The biggest learning for me is to be able to differentiate between culture, tradition, religion, faith and spirituality an area I had very little knowledge of before. I’m developing an understanding of how these issues affect the social cohesion of communities and relate to wider issues of conflict around the world, and it has motivated me to want to work for inter-faith understanding and peace.

On a personal level being able to better understand what people mean by faith has helped me to explore my own beliefs and begin to feel more spiritual awareness. I’m also much more aware of how culture affects the interpretation of these things in society and so I’m able to see the influences that I’ve grown up with and realise I have a choice about the way I want to live.

I feel more centred and confident as a person now, and definitely have more determination and direction for my life. I am more aware of how I can make a positive contribution to my community in terms of my career but also as an individual. I’m motivated to be informed about the issues affecting my country and the world in order to be able to raise awareness and participate in how they are dealt with.

I now feel like there’s so much to learn and so many interesting things to be a part of, I’m really happy to have rediscovered the sense of enthusiasm and ambition which I had lost! I’m also eternally glad for the wonderful people I’ve spent time with over these four months, my new friends and family from countries I’m going to admit I couldn’t have located on a map before this started. I feel more connected to the world now and part of a wider family of people who mean so much to me and I’ll never forget. Thank you to all who have made this special, I wish you all the very best for the future and look forward to how our lives will continue to be connected!

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Now we've been back two weeks, and I'm really enjoying telling all my family and friends what we did on the programme. I'm finding out about lots of organisations working for interaction between people of different faiths, initiatives to help young people develop their skills of reasoning, self confidence and self awareness, and projects to promote global awareness... I'm so excited to find that there is so much going on, its easy to keep up the level of enthusiasm! I'm making contact with different people, and volunteering to get training and experience within these new areas of work - its all going well so far. Hope the rest of the team are having the same good luck : ) miss you all!

The Next Step...

Hey Everyone!

So this is me calling in from LEEDS BABY! I've been at uni for just under a week and I can safely say that it's awesome. My flatmates are James, Julian, Amy and Lisa, and they're all really good fun and lovely people. It's nice to be living with people my age - it was weird living with just my parents after 4 months of living with the team! I'm living in halls called Montague Burton which is really close to uni and the city centre...if I have a lecture at 10am I only have to leave at 9.50am! So I'm really happy with where I am. Leeds is an awesome city too, comparable to Glasgow (Yes, I went there...). I officially start uni, like lectures and stuff, as from Monday...wish me luck! Met a few people from on my course and they seem to be pretty cool.

I talk constantly about Kenya and GX and I think people are getting sick about it already! I have all my pictures as my screensaver on my computer and I have a little reminisce everytime I see them. It seems like a lifetime away though, it's crazy.

Missing everyone a lot. I'd like to echo Kiki in saying thankyou for being such amazing teammates and pleaseee endeavour to keep in touch - I know I've been a bit crap the last week or so cos I've been mega mega busy, but I'll try harder! Also haven't put my significant change story up cos Peppy only sent half of mine...don't worry, it'll be up ASAP when I have it! =]

Massive love

Sabina xxxxxxxxx

Thankyou /Assan ta sana Team 85 !

It is the support , love and understanding of my all friends that made my journey very special in its own way.I just want to say Super Thank you to Debz,Suz,Sabz,Zakee,Alex,Najeeba,Maria,Salma,Rabail,Sarmad and Raheel for being such a nice and loving friend through out the programme. Thank you for giving me shoulder when i needed in tough days and thank you for always there to listen to me and for celebrating my joys. I ll never forget these 5 and half months.I wish you all the best for your future. May you all have all the sparkles of your life.Love you all.Miss you.

Best wishes Kiki

Significant change story

Kiran Anwar- Significant Change Story

“Is this Osama Bin Laden’s home?” one of the children asked me when I was showing different styles of houses in Pakistan. I was mute for a while; I was not sure what to reply. Then I, with a smile on my face, replied politely that it’s not a house of Osama Bin Laden.
The realities are far more away from what media portrays. I couldn’t believe that a child from Glasgow could ever asked me this kind of question. When he asked me such a question there was one thing on my mind that I have to challenge his myth and I did it and I’m very happy about it.
Before joining the GX I always thought that “non-muslims” cannot be your good friends. But through GX I have made new friends who are very supportive, friendly and empathetic. I have grown very close to them. I share all my happy and sad moments with them. I am going to miss them a lot. But me and my friends from the UK have planned to visit each other’s homes in the future and will keep our friendship long lasting.
I thought people in Glasgow and Kenya will stigmatise us as being terrorists, I was tense about it before coming to Glasgow and Kenya. But to my astonishment the people turned out to be very helpful and friendly. I remember one day when a man on a bus started chatting with me. He was so glad to meet me and when he learnt that I am from Pakistan he sympathised with the current situation Pakistan is facing.
I took drawing classes at Nusra Technical Institute in Kenya. The drawings of children were amazing. One of the girls made textile designs but she was too shy to paint on the wall with me, she thought her drawing was not good. I couldn’t see any fault in it. I wanted to make her confident and motivated her to try drawing, I used to encourage her. She was reluctant to paint on the wall but now one can see a beautiful skirt painted on a wall of the clothing department by her. I am proud of her.
I have learned a lot from GX, more than I expected. I enjoyed the whole GX programme as being a volunteer. As the programme is coming to its end but for me it’s a beginning of a change within myself. I realised that my life was confined to myself and to my country alone. My thinking approach is broader now. I can elaborate it with an example like before GX I was unaware of global issues, if there was any issue I thought that “its an issue of X city in Pakistan” but now I compare with other countries as well. I consider myself to be globally aware. I want to learn more and more about different cultures, norms, traditions, issues, languages and histories of different countries. I am thankful to British Council and VSO for providing me this opportunity and I will continue to work voluntarily as I go back to Pakistan.

Enjoy Life Not Drugs!

One of our Community Action Days was to march against drug abuse - we walked through lots of villages to mobilise the community, with banners and puppets, singing and dancing all the way!

When we reached the venue there were performances throughout the day by the different volunteer groups - it was a great event, 1200 people were reached with the anti drug abuse messages, 33 people donated blood and 121 used the Voluntary Counselling and Testing services for HIV.

The photographic evidence of us singing an anti drugs song in Swahili... capturing on camera the reaction to our pronounciation!

Lets meet at MEDA

Najeeba and I worked for the two months at MEDA - Malindi Education Development Association - http://www.medakenya.org/ - who run lots of different programmes to promote, support and encourage education for children, youth and adults. The office always has different people coming in, meeting, working on different things; early childhood development, community outreaches, peer education, youth groups… never a dull moment! They were also the implementing partner for VSO in Malindi, so this was the teams main base and meeting point… the new Central Station! ; )

MEDA have a network youth volunteers who work for free to educate their community, raising awareness of issues affecting youth like HIV/AIDS and drug abuse, helping people access services, supporting and encouraging responsible decisions and behaviour. They have 300 peer educators, and over 100 who work as ‘Ambassadors of Change’ who have a talent like music, acting, or acrobatics and use that to mobilise the community at outreaches, where they then give information and educational performances.

One of our main roles at MEDA was going with Anisa to different girls schools and groups, and sharing experiences of how culture affects women in our countries, which provoked some interesting discussions comparing the equality in education and employment opportunities in UK, Pakistan and Kenya, and debating whether women can do anything a man can do, including be president!

We had so much fun with the girls, who were also keen to ask us questions about ‘girly’ subjects and dilemmas we can all relate to - appearance, self confidence, healthy diets and relationships! On request we also helped with some revision tips, although I don’t think they needed them - I was so impressed by how focussed and determined the girls are in their studies, and how confident and strong they are in their visions for their future! We also did peer counselling, taught life skills classes, and started work on a girls’ magazine, and I’d like to finish with a brilliant piece one of the girls wrote for the magazine;

Fail Forward Fast
We learn by making mistakes
So if we want to learn at a faster pace
The key is that you must learn from mistakes you make so you don’t repeat them.
Although we all make mistakes fear of failure doesn’t have to cripple you. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Have fearless life!

By Jamila Mwang

My new extended family

My and Rabail's host home was with Saumu, a wonderful, fun, strong and independent woman who I loved getting to know and really admired! She's a nurse at the local health centre, and as well as working full time and overtime to support her family, she volunteers for MEDA, sells beauty products as a sideline, is a great friend (to it seems everyone in Malindi), cooks amazing pakora, bajia, pili pili, and makes delicious fruit juice! : ) And I thought my life was hectic... yet somehow none of this makes her hurried or stressed, which I find incredible - and she always found time to talk to me (although sometimes Swahili time' helped out there, the way its acceptable and even expected that people are late for things a LOT!)

She has two beautiful kids, my sister Mulhat and little brother, Boss - aka Abdul Aziz, but called Boss becuase he's the man of the house! I loved having a brother and sister, eating dinner all together around the big shared plate, and playing lots of noughts and crosses, cards, hangman, and my all time favourite, pictionary! They saved me from what would otherwise have been long dark evenings with a tv boasting dodgier soaps even than in the UK, if you can believe it! (Sabina can give you the detailed account of who was dating who's sister and mother at the same time, I'm outing her as the soap addict!)

I will never forget Mulhat's incredulous expression every time I did something 'weird' - which was often! From eating raw tomatoes, to my choice of socks, to drawing doodles, nothing I did went unquestioned and I loved that about her! And Boss with his cheeky smile and babbled stories when he forgot to be shy... and most of all, the massive hugs I always received as soon as I got in the door! Saumu has assured me the house is too quiet now we've left, and the feeling is mutual, I miss them all heaps! So thank you so much to my little family, I had a wonderful time with you and please keep your promises to stay in touch!

4 Days 4 Activities In Muzaffargarh Community,Pakistan!

Hi, After coming back to Pakistan, The GX team 85 Pakistani Volunteers has organized four Consecutive activies on daily basis. The High temperature is a big challenge for them but We all remained steadfast and persevere. Instead of having low energy levels in such a hot weather we ultimately managed to organize our activities and they went well. Now today is our last day in Muzaffargarh Community. The activities we have organized 4 activities in the last 4 days are:
1. SIGN IN Petitions for High Schools In the Vilages,
2.Walk for the Promotion of Volunteerism.
3. Drawing class and Wall Painting in school and session with Parents of Children regarding Health and Hygiene (In theSunakki School where children even don't have enough books and copies),
4. A session on Poverty ,Inequalty and people's Responsibilities in Host Homes Villages.

Tomorrow we will travel to Multan which is about 35kms from Muzaffargarh...there we,ll have one free day for sight seeing and then on tuesdaywe will have Debrief and on wednesday 16th Sept,2009 is our Final Farewell. On Thursday we,ll move to our cities. Our Journey is going to end But i would like to say that Its not the ending but Beginning of Global Active Citizens! WE will miss our UK as well as Pakistani Counterparts and team members a lot and the moments we had together.
Thank You Team 85 You all are Great!

Smile you're in Kenya

As the days in our final phase are drawing to an end time is again slipping swiflty away, I have loved every minute living in Malindi and in a land of hakuna matata adn the friendliest of people warmed by the shimmering sun how could you not. My host family have welcomed Kiki and I into their home unreservedly showering us with love and support. Our host mum Priscilla has been nothing but patient with me as I pestered her each and everynight for the recipes of such tasty tropical delights; choclate has long been replaced by cubes of heaven in the form of vichete. We have provided our host siblings with some right laughs as I tried to learn not only kiswahili but giriama too, hinde!In to this cross cultural experience I have undertaken fasting for Ramazan, and yes this does include no water. No easy challenge in such sweltering temperatures and with a four o'clock alarm buzz but the rewards of Iftar are certainly deliciuous. Salma and I have loved our time at the health centre. We started our day early in the morning awaiting the onslaught of matatu conductors to hurl Watamu Watamu gede in our sleeping faces, before we hopped into a van to hurtle down rainbow flowered roads; sending cyclists wobbling as we bopped and bounced to banging beats. We were even privilaged enough to once board one with a flat screen tv. At the health centre we worked alongside such inspirational people who were deveoted to the betterment of their community. We undertook a plethora of tasks from taking blood pressure, sitting in on councelling sessions, encouraging others to test for HIV and encourage those midwives to continue doing the fantastic voluntary work that the community need compelled them to undertake initially. We ventured to distant villages for outreaches where we witnessed the shocking reality of a developing country and the health implications triggered by something as small as not having a pair of shoes. Again our fellow volunteers and workers at the health centre provided only the best of support especially in unexplored territory. They took us out to lunch to ensure we dined on only the finest African cuisine (and even provided mchicha seeds so I can continue to feast so back in the mother land), climbed coconut trees so that we drank only the sweetest madafu juice and took us on mini adventures allowing us to see the dazzling beauty of the marine park without paying muzungu prices. It has been the most incredible experience so a huge THANK YOU to all those who made it possible and made the experience what it is!!

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP DAYS
The team has covered its global citizenship days in following key areas keeping in mind the theme of the Global Exchange programme which is the
poverty and inequality and youth participation and the needs of the community, the activities were well planned and the involvement of the community was satisfactory. The discussions were interesting and rich in information. The spirit and the enthusiasm of the team were high and exemplary of team work.

Deborah, Sarmad and Rabail on
Tourism IN MALINDI
The positive and negative impacts of tourism
Approach of people towards tourism
What can we do to improve the negative impacts and enhance the positive ones.

Raheel, Zaake and Alex on
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
How poverty is responsible for crime and punishment
The work of Red Cross for prisoners
Visit to prison
The shared stories of prisoners

Kiran, Suzanne and Salma on
SEXUAL HEALTH AND POVERTY
How poverty affects the sexual health
What are STI’s, its effects and precautions
What is HIV, HIV in Pakistan, and in Kenya?
How to live HIV positive, the stigma, and use of drugs

Najiba, Maria and Sabina on
POVERTY AND INEQUALITY
What is poverty?
The impacts of poverty
The role of youth in eradicating poverty
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COMMUNITY ACTION DAY

Community Action Day Building school in Mgoni Village

The team has finished their community action days by building a school at Mgoni village. It was a community demand. A primary school was already there but it was not enough for the children. It had very little capacity to accommodate all the children and the location was very remote so it was hard for the children to walk for such long distance .With the help of MEDA Centre, community people and the global exchange volunteers build a school for the community children. the community was very thankful for their help. The volunteer enjoyed working in the mud and with wooden sticks it was a new experience for them .

Building the school