The many faces of development
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IMS/ MEI 2015
Volunteers for Change!
Both of us need each other
One year overseas to help development of developing country. Who gains the benefit at the end?
Eric Zulkarnaen is executive com mittee of Indonesia International World Camp, one of host organizations -that recruit volunteer from “weltwaerts”. Even though a lot of critics argue the effectiveness of this program, Zulkarnaen is optimist that both part gain much benefits than most of the people could imagine.
By: Tonggie Siregar
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This decision brings her to Pekalongan, a small citz in Indonesia known for its batik production in central Java Province. “It was hard. In the beginning, most of the teachers spoke only local language and showed no interest to engage with me. Perhaps because foreign volunteers come too often to their school. At the time I was not sure what I can do there,” Johanna recalls. For eleven months, Johanna was assisting English class lectures at Islamic Primary School Muhammdiyah. Her main tasks were to prepare the material for the class and to correct the exams. “I do not really like this task, until the English teacher went on maternity leave. When I took over the responsibility, I tried to change the teaching style by applying play method. It was not easy because the pupils were not used to this kind of learning. Other difficulty was the big number of pupils in one class,” says Johanna. As a substitute teacher, Joanna was responsible for classes from four to six year, which usually consist of 34 pupils.
PHOTOS: JOANNA ERNST, FABIAN FISHER, ERIC ZULKARNAEN
herever Johanna Ernst goes, she always takes one piece of her new homeland with her. In the small apartment of this 21 years old student in German city of Bonn, you can see a lot of colorful details from different corners of the world. Her favorite piece is brown printed sarong, traditional slipcover cloth called ‘Batik’. These are reminiscence of Indonesia, a country in South Asia, where she spent one year as a volunteer. In 2014, Johanna was just finishing high school in Münster, a city in West Germany, when she decided to be a volunteer. “In high school I joined exchange program in Thailand. It was great experience and I wanted to do something similar for a longer period. I just wanted to go again to Asia, so type of the project was not important.” Together with her colleague and pupils, Joanna Ernst spent one year as volunteer in Islamic Primary School in Indonesia.
“I found out that 90 percent of the projects were to teach English classes. I was not interested to go abroad for a year to do teaching. I was looking for more active project and found bike tour guide in Cambodia. That was a dream job. Every morning I woke up excited to prepare my project,” says this young man form Cologne. With the support from his organization, Fabian helped developing new touristic experience around Seam Reap Province, a place where UNESCO heritage temple Angkor Wat is located. “In our tour, we escorted different art of bike tours that are already offered in Cambodia. We created another route, which is only known by the local people like path trough villages and the jungle. Our costumers liked it, and more costumers booked our trip,” explains Fabian and adds: “during this project I also trained one local boy. I tried to implement western tourist service, as we used it in Germany. This is the beauty of taking and giving. That’s why I enjoyed this project.”
Path to be volunteer
orting his bike Fabian Fischer was esc mbodia tour participants in Ca
Different place, different challange In neighbour country, Fabian Fischer experienced an entirely different situation. He joined local organization named KKO – Khmer for Khmer Organization – where he worked as assistant in mechanics workshop.
Both Johanna Ernst and Fabian Fisher joined the same program, the “weltwärts”, which is supported by the Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (GMZ). Since 2008, “Weltwärts” or translated “in the direction of the world”, sends young people between age of 18 and 28 to 5000 places in 80 countries around the world. Although the German government officially runs the programs, the projects are organized by more than 200 local and international organizations, which are directly responsible to prepare the volunteers in the host country. “I took part in two preparation seminars in Germany where they gave us general explanation about customs in Asia. My host organization, Indonesian International World Camp (IIWC), taught us more detail about Indonesia and a little bit of Bahasa language,” says Johanna. Eventough they were being prepared, these young volunteers had to try to find a way to “survive” through
the year. “In the beginning, I felt that people do not want to communicate with me. Unexpectedly, one friend showed me how to wear headscarf. I remember, the first day I came to school with headscarf, people at school started to change and be friendlier. Using headscarf becomes a way to get closer to my pupils. It also changed my perspective. When we don’t know someone, in tendency we always make a distance,” explains Johanna. In Indonesia, 87 percent of it population is Moslem.
Young volunteers for development Young with little experience - this is how people usually look at these volunteers. Such prejudices open a lot of critics and questions if this young people can really help development in host country and how? “It’s a tricky situation. There is prejudice: volunteer project is just like discount tourism. It is just like an easy way to have a cheap holiday for whole year in a developing country. You event got money trough this project. There are examples of volunteers that not put less interest to work”, says Fabian. Every participant gets monthly financial support that covers tickets, 100 Euro pocket money, dailz accommodation and project cost. In Cambodia, Fabian went together with 20 other volunteers, mostly were fresh high school graduates. “This project changed my life. Without this program, I would not have found my dream job – working in tourism sector. Perhaps, I could gain benefits from this project since I was already a graduated student. I was 23 years old at the time. On the other hand, most of other participants were too young and I’m not sure that this experience is really important for them or even useful for the projects.” Johanna has different opinion since she joined the program as a fresh high school graduated participant. “I could not say that those children could really learn English, but at least, through this project the children built self confidents towards foreigners. These can motivate them to learn foreign language as an important factor for their future,” says Johanna. This project was also an inspiration for Joanna, while she now studies Indonesian language in South Asian Department.
Who help whom? Joanna believes that in the end volunteer is who gain benefit from this project. “I am not a real teacher, who know exactly what to do in the class. Perhaps if I am a proffesional, I could help more to the development of the society. For me, it’s more as ‘Learn Service’, because I am the one who learns something new. My perspective about the image of developing country also had changed a lot”, says Johanna. Benefit is not only for the volunteers, argues Fabian. For him both sides gain benefit. “For sure, volunteers learn a lot, but on the other side, this organization cannot work without us. They gain a lot of money from German government,“ explains Fabian. Between 2008 and 2010, BMZ made a total of 84 million euros available for the weltwaerts program. Besides all the weakness, improvement needs to be made. “If we said we want to develop these countries, the number of volunteers should be equal. Since last year, there are opporunity for foreigners, but it’s 1 in 10 Germans that goes abroad. We have to have balance, so other nations can learn different cultures in Germany,” states this girl who now fluently speaks Indonesian. Fabian criticizes another point. “I agree most of the volunteers are too young, but on the other side German institution have to ensure a proper contract with the hosting organization, and not just sent random volunteers without really check both sides. If the organization is trusted, not corrupted and wise enough to maintain a useful project, of course it will be a win-win solution, where both sides will gain advantages. ” Since 2008, more than 20.000 young German had been sent overseas. Starting in 2013, “weltwärts” is also open for foreign citizens. Already 150 foreigners had an opportunity to come to Germany as volunteers and the numbers are rising. This year already 250 participants from 29 countries entered this program. Huge number, a lot of money and big hopes that main goal will be achieved – fostering development of both the volunteer and the partner country. But seems no one has an answer what if its only waist of money and bogus change?
Mr. Zulkarnaen, what does host organization do to prepare the project? Firstly we make seminar as orientation that involves every local partner. During this time, volunteers get to know what kind of project that they will do for a whole year; what kind of society and its culture that they will meet. Even tough the volunteers engage directly to the local partner, we also support them by dedicate one staff that work full time as mentor. Do this process really worthy to make the project useful? Some said host organization did not prepare it well. There are w e a k Eric Zulkarnaen: nesses in voluntary program is its process. like milestone for both Therefore, sides. we make regular evaluation to know the progress and dificulties that they encountered. As a voluntary program, to make this project useful, also depends on the volunteers, if they are motivated and creative to involve in the society. Do this young people have a significant influence to develop the society? Their participation is really important, because most voluntary project existed in the countryside. It is difficult for rural children to establish contact with international world outside this type of program. For both sides this project not only as learning proses, but also a way to develop their mentality. As I only graduated from high school, self-confidence and strong mentality is an important key to success. This voluntary year is like milestone that you cannot imag-
WHERE I CAN JOIN? Volunteers outside Germany
•Intercultural exchange: www.yfu.org •Educational foundation: www.twoworldsunited.com •Practicum and working field: www.praktikawelten.de Volunteers in Germany and Europe
•In social sector, educational or in sustainable agriculture: www.weltwaerts.de •Voluntary for peace issue: www.vfp.org •Voluntary for special need or disability: www.freunde-waldorf.de