First published in May 2017. Programs, prices and details may have changed since then. See our current programs.
They say all it takes is a little courage to turn a dream into reality. In 2017, students from Wolfert Dalton School traveled from the Netherlands to India hoping to experience something new, though they had no clear idea what. They had read about India and seen photos and videos of many sides of the country, but had little idea how different a world was about to open up in front of them.
The group of ten students and two teachers joined our street children program in New Delhi to add a little more color to the children’s lives. At first, the students weren’t sure what they could do in India or what their role as volunteers would be. Once they were here, they felt a week was too short to do something meaningful and wished they could stay longer.
Getting to India wasn’t easy, and the students did a lot at home to make the trip happen. As they weren’t earning yet, their main task was to raise money for their flights and program fees, so they organized a fundraising dinner and an auction. They also had to convince their parents, who were a little skeptical about how the whole journey would turn out.
Everything in India was new to them. Rotterdam and Delhi seemed like two different worlds: the crowded streets with cars honking all the time, people staring at them as if they were celebrities, the smells of the city and the spicy food all amazed them for the first couple of days. Delhi’s bustling markets and beautiful monuments won them over too.
The volunteers worked at two project sites. Four students and one teacher went to a slum school, where they taught the children and painted the walls with letters and numbers to make it a more active learning center. With the money they had raised, they bought the school an air cooler, a music system and a water purifier, plus stationery such as rhyme books, pens, colors and other learning materials.
The other six students and the second teacher worked at another school. They played with the children and gave them plenty of love and care, and they renovated the school, painting letters, animals and numbers on the walls to make it livelier and brighter. Their fundraising also paid for a carpet and fans for this school.
Robert, one of the teachers, talked about working at the schools and his time in India. He said there was something extraordinary about the place that kept bringing him back and filled his heart with satisfaction. He saw the trip as a chance for students from abroad to learn about the challenges many people in India face, and how they can be part of change in their own way. He became emotional as he said that the thought of leaving the children behind made him teary-eyed.
Sander, the other teacher, talked about how trips like this shape the way students think. As a teacher, he felt it was his responsibility to show his students a world very different from their own. He believed the best way to learn is by helping others, which is why volunteering matters. Sander had volunteered in Nepal before and wanted to keep doing this kind of work. Before they left, Robert and Sander also wrote us a letter about the trip.
Watch our 2017 video from the street children program:
As H. Jackson Brown Jr. put it, “Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.” It doesn’t matter how much you have; what matters is how much you are ready to give. Love, happiness, care and knowledge all grow when they are shared.
Planning a trip with your school or group? See our programs or email info@volunteeringindia.com.