As with previous volunteers, bagpacking was the foundation stone of our financial efforts. Augmenting this staple diet were some rather more esoteric delicacies, including a 24-hour sponsored silence and a slave auction. Other fundraising events included a Ceili Mor, karting grand prix and a wine evening; as well as several table quizzes.
Conor James McKinney, DAS Team, Kolkata
Fundraising is a word which became rather familiar to all the Suas 2008 volunteers, not least for those of us in the Jahangirpuri group. Since the first training weekend in February it was all go!
Raising €2,995 is no easy feat, especially for those who were also juggling a degree, and some with full time jobs. This is why, after knowing each other only a day, we got the thinking caps on and dreamt up imaginative ways of gathering together the necessary funds.
Sorcha Pollack, Prayas Jahagirpuri Team 2008, Delhi
We worked on raising money for the our own trips as well as trying to raise for Suas Partner Schools overseas. Two girls from the team, Jess and Rosie finished the Phoenix park 10k run. And Conor (Our Coordinator) completed a marathon in Paris for his fundraising, which was amazing!
Other volunteers organised bag packing, which proved to be very successful, and an easy enough means of raising money. A few of us have sent sponsorship letters to local businesses, most of whom were very generous! Some of us in the team also got in touch with our old secondary schools.
Jessica Pakenham-Money, Vikramshila Team 2008, Kolkata
While visas and vaccinations were taken care of straight away, our communal efforts at learning Bengali were somewhat dubious. That said, Investigation of Indian culture generally met with more success; with Ghandi, V.S. Naipaul and Bollywood all coming in for scrutiny over the past few weeks.
Conor James McKinney, DAS Team 2008, Kolkata
The extensive use of internet resources for learning Hindi was invaluable. Attempts were also made by us all to familiarise ourselves with some of the historical, cultural, socio-economic and political issues relating to India, and Delhi in particular.
The team's need to acquire some teaching skills and classroom experience was addressed by talking to former volunteers; the uploading of excellent education resources by Catarina (our team coordinator) and a visit to a Polish school in Christchurch.
This visit was extremely interesting as it allowed group members to observe teachers who are communicating with children in a different language and therefore was something of a pre-cursor for what is to come in Delhi. It was also very interesting to observe some of the dynamics and energies of Ireland's most prominent migrant community at work.
Donal Holohan, Prayas Team 2008, Delhi
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