Volunteering experience by Odin & Holly

                                                                                                                                   

Before we started our volunteering in Koseli School, we were full of uncertainty and questioned a lot. How would be the students, teachers, school like? We hoped that our work could target on the students' need. What do the students need? Would the volunteering be effective in helping the students?Or...

 After our first volunteering day, we realized that the School was welcoming. Entering the school gate, we were surrounded by a few students , who were curious about who we were, where we were from, etc. Since then, we had run a 5-day volunteer work , conducting education about the issues such as safe sex, drug prevention and bullying; introducing Hong Kong culture and making some handicrafts . We also played some 
Hong Kong games with the students. Surprisingly, they enjoyed the games very much and had much fun which was what we wanted.

 Besides the welcoming atmosphere, we also were deeply impressed by the school’s seriousness and openness. Before our volunteering, we had a long discussion with the School about in what way our volunteering could benefit the students. The School also invited us to put an element of conflict management and bullying into our volunteer work. We felt that the School trusted us and valued our volunteering.

 In order to stress that the students should have more profound understanding on the consequence of drug use and unsafe sex, the School allowed us to include some photos, such as the wound of drug-abusers , infected sexual organs , dead infant caused by abortion; and teach the students a proper condom use. This openness deeply impressed us.

 Students, on the other hand, were funny, polite, energetic, curious and attentive. It was really a nice and encouraging experience of getting along with them whose cultural backgrounds were different from us. Not only we taught them some knowledge, but also we learnt a lot from them. For example, they requested us to write the Chinese version of their names on their palms. We, in turn, learnt how to speak Nepalese. It caused some laughter when we pronounced their names incorrectly.

Indeed, we could have such a wonderful and smooth volunteering experience thanks to the opportunity given by the School and the teachers' assistance. Five days were short, yet, full of joy and memory. We do really miss the students! Hope they grow up well and have a good future.