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