ICS blog

Lily Bland, a Progressio Empower volunteer spending time in El Salvador, has sent over these photos from the group's third week in-country.

At the end of last week we were given a tour of the local school by the Principal, who warmly welcomed us, despite the whistles and stares we tend to receive from the young people - we're pretty foreign-looking!

Sexual health

That afternoon we attended a workshop at the clinic by IMU (the partner organisation that we're working with) about gender equality and sexual health. It was delivered to a group of around 15 'popular' young people from the area, and also a few local parents, as we were told that schools don't really provide sexual education here.

I decided to get started on the poetry whilst I'm here, as I'd fallen out of the habit after all the busy-ness of day to day life! This morning we went to meet the principal of the local school, who showed us round, next we're off to participate in a workshop with the parents of some youths who undertook a sexual health project at the local clinic.
 

Vitalie Duporge reports from Peru at the end of week 2, where an exceptional town celebrates 40 years of life.

Villa El Salvador, a ‘pueblo joven’ (new village) is situated on sand flats next to the Pacific Ocean. It's a good example of a new and rapidly developing area in Peru. Villa, one of the poorer urban districts in the Peruvian capital Lima, was recently awarded the UN Peace Messenger prize for the efforts it has made in powering its own development.

Progressio ICS Empower volunteer Rob Pears reports from Malawi at the end of week 2 of the Empower placements.

In the last couple of weeks of our in country orientation we have been learning about culture and language to be put into use when we go into the field. This became particularly important to us when on Wednesday we were invited to Kalolo Village, which is a traditional authority village just outside of the Capital Lilongwe.

Read some extracts from pamelainperu - an Empower volunteer's blog...

Read some extracts from Empower volunteer Katherine Wright's blog:

12 July: During the thunder storm which hit Suchitoto this afternoon the training venue was hit by a stray piece of lightning. No one was hurt, but the sound of the lightbulb blowing was enough to send us all jumping out of our seats! These first few days in El Salvador have challenged and surprised us all and we are just at the beginning of this amazing experience.

After a few emotional farewells to our friends and family, we set off on our 10 week adventure to ‘The Warm Heart of Africa’. We all arrived at Heathrow and made our way to the departure lounge, all eager to embark on our journey. After boarding the plane the pilot announced that we would be delayed for three hours which meant that we would miss our connecting flight in Ethiopia.

Having never volunteered abroad before I am really excited for this once in a lifetime opportunity, which could be life-changing. My time in El Salvador will give me a first-hand insight into the issues I have read about while studying for an MA in International Intervention at the University of Surrey.