Volunteer Stories

My name is Leonhard from Germany, I am 18 years old and I did my work experience in a school for HIV infected children in Nepal. In this following text I will describe my work and experiences in Nepal. To begin, I want to outline how I got the idea to do my work experience in Nepal.

First of all I read an article in a magazine about four german girls who have done this work experience before. I was very fascinated about their work in a school for HIV infected children. Furthermore, I was and I am very interested to help other people. So I decided to do the same.

From the beginning of my work experience the people were very friendly. I arrived in the holiday time, so there was no school for one week. In this time the people in the accommodation took me to different places in Kathmandu so I saw many holy places. Furthermore the people taught me about their religion and culture. Besides, we sometimes ate in typical local Nepali restaurants, so you can delve into the Nepali culture and on this way you will get to know the real Nepali food. I am of the opinion that it is very nice to know the food of an unknown country.

A further and a very important point is that the people from the VFC in Nepal helped me with every formal things like changing money or getting a SIM Card for the cell phone. I think that is very important in an unknown country.

You will enjoy the time in school, the kids are very cute and thankful that you come from another country. In the lessons you can play many games, but it is important that you create your own games because thereby the kids will receive personal ideas of you.

The school is located outside of Kathmandu and the environment is very peaceful.

Every morning you will go to the school by motorbike or with the bus. If you like you can also go to other places for work where you can teach other children. That can be a very interesting alternative.

If you want, the people from the organisation will take you to a Jungle Safari in a National Park. For me it was the first time in a jungle and I saw many different animals while I rode an elephant. When you come to Nepal as a volunteer, I would say that you have to do this very nice trip to the National Park.

The accommodation is a very good place, you have an home stay feeling there. In the accommodation you always have somebody who will take care of you. The rooms are very comfortable and cosy. You will get the food in the accommodation, and it is very tasty and if you want you can use the kitchen to cook your own meal.

Also it is an important point that the accommodation is not far from the city so that you can go out alone to buy something In brief, I can say that this work experience is full of new, interesting impressions, so if you are interested in helping other people, you have to go to Nepal.

I am convinced that you will gain many new experiences.

If there are any questions about this work experience or if you want to get some more information, write me and I can try to answer your questions.