Settling in India

I came to India with excitement and fear: I was on one hand excited to move to India and start my internship with EduCARE, and on the other hand afraid that my internship with EduCare wouldn’t be as I had imagined. Despite of my mixed feelings, I booked my one-way ticket to Delhi. Looking back, I’m so happy that I decided to come to India. So much has happened since I left my comfortable life in Norway 2 months ago... Let me start from the beginning.

My first week with EduCare was amazing! I spent 5 days living with a family in Naddi, learning about their culture and costumes. When I wasn’t attending workshops or interacting with new interns, I usually spent my time observing my host family everyday life.

Savita and Sunita's family 

After spending 5 days in Naddi, I moved to Rait, a centre which is located 2 hours from Naddi. During my first week at the new centre, I spent my days getting to know the community. I didn’t start my After School Program project – Fun Club – before my second week at the centre. My first day with the kids in Fun Club was a lot of fun! We did different activities and games to get to know one another. One of the activities involved tossing a ball at a player while remembering his/her favourite hobby. We also did some drawing. After my first Fun Club, I felt confident and that my experience with EduCare would be good.

 

Children from Rait attending Fun Club

A girl making a drawing during Fun Club

Besides from Fun Club, I taught English once a week at our main office. Teaching English was with no doubt my favourite activity during my entire week; it was immensely rewarding to see the kids learn English, and improve their speaking. Because of the kids’ eagerness to learn English, my job felt very meaningful.

Hellen teaching English to the kids in Rait

Even though I loved my job as a project manager for ASP, I had a desire to gain more responsibility in the organisation. When the HR Coordinator position became available in late October, I had a talk with the administration team about my interest in changing job position. After several conversations and a weeklong training, I became the new HR Coordinator. Since I took upon the job position, I have been busy recruiting prospective interns to join our organisation, facilitating induction, and communicating with project coordinators. Though HR is completely different from ASP, I still get to engage with projects that EduCARE has in Himachal Pradesh. Once a week, my team and I have Girls’ Club with the girls in Matti where we show films, draw, make bracelets, and dance. Next week, we are going to celebrate the Universal Children’s Day, a day to commemorate children around the world. I’m very excited to celebrate this day since we are planning some fun activities for it. Stay tuned!

Hellen - Norway

HR Coordinator, Maiti, Himachal Pradesh