Caroline & Maria

Our names are Caroline and Maria and we are both from Switzerland. After volunteering in Tanzania we have now been for a month in Malawi. We decided to volunteer for help2kids because we wanted to exert ourselves in a place where our help is really needed and where we can help to change things in a good way.

There was always a lot to be done, and if you like you can do so many different interesting things, but it’s “up to you” to figure out which things you want to carry out in the time you are in Lifuwu.

In the mornings we worked in the Nursery School, we helped to give a structure to the morning routine, and supported the teachers in their work. It needed a lot of initiative from us to manage the teachers program and to make sure that each and every child gets his or her daily serving of porridge. Three afternoons per week we had English lessons with the teachers from the Nursery and it was great to see how motivated they always were to improve their English.

At the same time we started every afternoon to host the children’s corner at Kazembe Primary School. There we did different activities in sports, arts and craft or English. We had to manage some difficulties and try to find a way to deal with the children because the culture and habits in Africa are so different from what we are used to. It’s not so easy to organise things here, but we were open with people and we took it with composure and tried not to be disappointed if something went a different way than we had planned. We worked together with the local people to find solutions for the problems.

Our time in the “Warm Heart of Africa” was an amazing time and we had so many good experiences; all the people are so friendly and happy and where ever you want you can chat with somebody.

We are both really happy that we had the possibility to work in the projects of help2kids. For us it was such a good experience and we grew in our personality.