For the next three months there will be two Global Xchange volunteers working, in Newham, on the Truce 2020 project with Conflict & Change. The Global Xchange is a volunteer programme that works by bringing together various cultures. There are 10 UK volunteers and 10 overseas volunteers; in this case the exchange was between Newham and Nigeria. Natasha and Abbas have already completed the first stage of the exchange, which was held in Cross River State, Nigeria:
My name’s Natasha and I am a UK volunteer on the Global Xchange project. From October until December we worked in Ikom, Nigeria. We were split into three groups and I was part of the ‘Livelihoods’ team, this involved holding workshops to teach the communities new skills that would help them to lead a more sustainable lifestyle. We also ran Financial Management and Agricultural Diversification workshops to help the communities look forward to how they could save money, start a business, or venture into a new line of work. It was a great opportunity to work closely in the communities and I hope to have a similar experience in Newham. We are now focusing on the Truce 2020 project in Newham and hoping to get involved with the training and experience what the project is all about. I’m hoping to interact with the community as much as possible and get a feel of what it’s like to be part of a motivational project in East London. I also hope to learn new skills that will help me to start on a path that will hopefully lead me to a job in community development work in the future!
My name is Abbas. I am a Nigerian volunteer on global exchange and have been working in a team of 20 vibrant youths (ten Nigerian and ten UK volunteers) for more than 3 months now. We had a successful first phase of the program in Nigeria, impacting lives positively through various community-led development activities like flooring of classrooms, organizing health workshops, sensitizing community members on the use of a library, organizing weekly radio programs on health issues, empowering community members with some vocational skills and so on. Having done all the great work in Nigeria, I feel very privileged now to be a Conflict and Change volunteer in the UK phase especially being on the Truce 2020 project. I look forward to the challenges of bringing people together to effect a positive change in a diverse community (Newham) and hope to contribute my bit in planning/organizing events.
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