Exchanging ideas among national and international volunteers to gain transformation.
In SCLC, we believe teaching and learning is a two way process. Our community serves as a school that welcomes international and local volunteers to come and learn while offering their skills.
Internationally, we have hosted university students from Finland and Germany, as well as professional or expert volunteers from Vietnam and Japan. Volunteers can choose to homestay with the local community, or to stay in one of the many monasteries or hotels in the Pharping area. Upon arriving in our community, we will give an orientation about our work, and volunteers can choose the thematic area they are most interested in, such as education, agriculture, health, marketing, etc. Volunteers are able to gain cultural knowledge in addition to their volunteering experiences. When volunteering is organized via institutions such as universities, we are able to generate a small amount of income to support our work.
Locally, we have welcomed students of social work, public health, nursing, rural development and others into our communities. They engage with our works in three manners:
(1) Orientation Visits: Students visit for a day to see our work in the community. We will present about our organization and what we do, before bringing them for a tour around the village. Depending on the wishes of the visiting group, we can also arrange for them to serve as volunteers for a small amount of manual work.
(2) Internships: Students regularly visit and work for us in the community for a couple of days a week in programs or areas they are interested.
(3) Learning Camps: These camps could be 3,5 or 7 days, and students will be usually involved in a range of activities. For instance they can experiment with conducting community surveys, from designing questions to visiting communities. Some have also done street drama among our communities
For more information about international volunteering, please refer to this document: those who are interested to volunteer, please call 98510-13055, 9813525770, 014710037(office), or contact Niroj Shrestha at niroj@pharping.org.np