Nikola, you are currently working as a humanitarian volunteer in Kampala, Uganda. What led you to volunteer abroad? <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I applied for the volunteer project when I was finishing the Teach for Slovakia programme, thanks to which I worked as a teacher of children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. It was the people I met during the programme who reminded me that I had once thought about a similar experience and now the time was right. I wanted to share the experience I had gained and broaden my horizons on the subject of educating children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Working in an international team, in a culturally different environment and in English seemed like a very interesting way to advance myself professionally and personally while doing meaningful work.<\/span><\/p>\n What does the organisation you work for do?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n MCAFS is an organization dedicated to supporting the disadvantaged in the community, with a special focus on helping orphans and underprivileged children. It provides vocational skills training and, through its education support programme, provides school fees and supplies for children, encouraging their return and inclusion in schools. Their aim is therefore to raise the standard of living of the disadvantaged and to promote community development and sustainability.<\/span><\/p>\n Your position is called Junior EU Aid Volunteer for Education and Community Library Development<\/em>. Can you tell us what you do here? <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n My work is linked to the community library, which has been closed for a long time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our goal was to reopen the library. During the holidays we had summer educational as well as leisure activities in the library, and the success was that the number of readers was the highest in the last three years. After the holidays we resumed our literacy programme. As part of this programme, we bring books into schools, work with teachers and do activities with pupils to develop reading comprehension. In addition to these activities, we are working with a group of young people with various disabilities. Together we develop their interests, skills and knowledge through different types of physical, artistic, and handicraft activities, social games and other activities.<\/span><\/p>\n What does your day in Uganda look like?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Like a normal working day. Breakfast and then a trip to the organization. Unlike in Slovakia, here we are transported on motorbikes called \u201eboda boda\u201c. My position allows me really close contact with the community, so the locals already know me well. Some days I spend with a group of young people with various disabilities, other days I spend at school with the children. What I really enjoy are the lunches. As I eat with a family of friends, I have the opportunity to observe the reality of a normal day and also to taste local specialities. After the activities are over, I move back home. Sometimes I run to the nearest market to buy fresh vegetables and fruits. Afternoons and evenings are spent together with the other volunteers. We like to go and listen to local live music. Now the situation in Uganda is a bit complicated by Ebola. There are the first cases in Kampala, so we are being more vigilant and monitoring the situation.<\/span><\/p>\n What projects are taking place in the library? Who is this space for? <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The COVID pandemic has changed many things here in Uganda. The library was closed for a long time and our task was to restart activities and attract readers back. Before the holidays, we visited several schools in the neighbourhood and invited children to take part in holiday activities. We planned various educational as well as recreational activities for the children. We devoted the morning to reading and homework. In order to increase motivation to read, but also to develop reading comprehension, we prepared homework assignments for the children to work on after each book they read. We combined this task with a competition. In the afternoons we devoted to board games, art activities, dance lessons and watching films. Most of our readers were from around the library, and the age range was really wide - from the youngest children who had just learned to read to college students. Uganda has a different education system and students are normally in school from eight to five. This means that the normal functioning of a library as we know it in Slovakia is not possible. Nevertheless, after the holidays we continue to work with several schools. As part of a programme to develop reading literacy, we are bringing books from the library directly into the schools, thus continuing to help develop reading comprehension and a love of books, while expanding pupils' vocabulary and knowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n I know that you were a participant in Teach for Slovakia, through which you taught for two years at the primary school in Lunik IX. in Ko\u0161ice. Even now you are working with children and youth in a school environment. What are the differences between Slovak and Ugandan education? Do you notice differences in the behaviour of children? <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Children are the same everywhere. They are curious, cheerful and playful. It is we adults who educate and guide them. But there are differences in the school system. Government schools, which are free, are few and of low quality in Uganda. Most pupils attend private schools where their parents pay high fees. If the parents do not have money, the child does not go to school. Some children as young as six years old start attending boarding schools, where they spend a whole term without their parents. Pupils are in school almost all day. The teacher is at the centre of the action and the emphasis is on rote learning and classroom discipline. However, I have also visited special classes here, designed for the most disadvantaged children. These were opened after COVID in order to minimize the disparity between children who could not be educated. It's a nice pilot project where the children are being educated using fairly modern methods, using an exploratory approach, group work, developing critical thinking and the role of the teacher has changed to that of a guide as the pupils and their work take centre stage. However, there are very few such special classes compared to the number of children who would actually need them.<\/span><\/p>\n From my experience, I know that in Slovakia we can still find many classrooms where children from excluded communities are taught in a similar way as in Uganda. However, I also see the appetite for change, the passion and the efforts of individuals and groups working in education in Slovakia. I believe that this drive will bring results.<\/span><\/p>\n Did your previous experience prepare you to work with children in Uganda?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n She certainly helped me a lot. However, the accompanying phenomena of poverty are the same everywhere. I think my experience has given me a better understanding of how people think and why they make the choices they do, which many times seem illogical.<\/span><\/p>\n Do you have a funny experience that you would like to share that gave you the conviction that what you do is really meaningful? <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The first one that came to mind was one of our boys with a disability. He is very perceptive, emotional and has amazing speech. He really enjoys the attention, conversations and activities we prepare for them and every time he sees us he tells us that we have brought joy into his life (smile). It's very nice, smiling and a bit sad at the same time, as from the point of view of a person coming from Europe I don't think we do any miracles.<\/span><\/p>\n Uganda is certainly culturally quite different from Slovakia. Did you experience any culture shock or did you encounter anything that was hard to get used to? <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Different skin colour garners a lot of attention in Uganda. Especially at the beginning it was very intense and also a bit exhausting. The children but also the adults are very curious, they want to talk, hear my voice, touch my skin or my hair. They enjoy the interaction and react very positively to the presence of EU Aid volunteers in the country. I say to myself that if only we in Slovakia were this positive towards foreigners.<\/span><\/p>\n I can still mention time, because time is very relative in Uganda. You normally wait two hours for the bus to leave because it is still not full and there is no fixed departure time. When you make an appointment with someone, it is common for them to arrive an hour later. But you get used to that very quickly and later on it is you they are waiting for. I think the more difficult thing will be to go back and go everywhere on time again (laughs).<\/span><\/p>\n Your posting is slowly coming to an end. How do you evaluate your stay so far?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n For me, this is my first experience of volunteering abroad and I'm really enjoying it. I wanted to get to know new people, a new culture and also try what it is like to work in English. I have met very interesting people here and we are enriching each other's lives, which is very precious for me. We learn from each other, we broaden our horizons.<\/span><\/p>\n Do you have time to explore the country alongside your activities? Have you visited any interesting places? <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Uganda is an amazing country with beautiful nature. Together with the other volunteers, we enjoy every place we have been able to visit. Some of the most beautiful ones include Murchinson Falls National Park, where we visited the most powerful waterfall in the world, and also a safari. I will also mention the Sipi Falls or the town of Jinja, where the Nile River rises. At the end of our volunteer stay, we are planning a couple of days trip to Queen Elizabeth National Park, combined with visits to Lakes Mburo and Bunyonyi.<\/span><\/p>\n Future potential volunteers may be reading this interview. Would it have any message for them? <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I definitely recommend them to get involved in volunteer projects and go abroad. It is an unforgettable experience that will broaden your horizons and enrich you personally and professionally. For a humanitarian volunteer, openness and a willingness to understand, to share, but also to learn is very important. You also need to set realistic expectations and be flexible. For me, humility is also very important because a volunteer is not an expert in everything. The volunteer experience is about learning from each other.<\/span><\/p>\n I am very grateful for the experiences and new friendships that I will take away from here. So if anyone is thinking about a similar experience, I definitely recommend going for it (smile).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We talk to volunteer Nikola Barto\u0161ov\u00e1 about her motivation and experiences during her volunteer stay in Uganda.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":27095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[305],"tags":[360,337,339,322],"class_list":["post-27061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uganda","tag-dobrovolnictvo-2","tag-slovakaid","tag-sudhav3","tag-uganda"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27061"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32146,"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27061\/revisions\/32146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.adra.sk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/libary-activities--scaled-e1668167010450.jpg\")
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