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Tuesday 15 August 2017

What Is International Service About?

What Is International Service About?

Written by Julia Chabasiewicz, Photos by Agnes Ishimwe


“Helping some of the most marginalised groups in the Global South”, “Human-rights approach to development”, “Sustainable socioeconomic development” “Life-changing experience”, “Eradicating poverty”, “Gender empowerment” etc. , etc. ….

You’ve probably heard these vague phrases many times but many of you are probably wondering: what do the International Service  volunteers actually do? This is why, in this week’s blog, we decided to tell you more about our work.


At the office working hard!


The International Service group based in Huye works with a small Rwandan charity called LUTI (Let Us Transform Life Initiative), aiming to provide the most marginalised groups in the local community with new skills, ideas and employment opportunities. Our role is to assist the NGOs in meeting their target, while keeping in line with the Int Serv values. That means we often need to negotiate, compromise and come up with creative ideas to make sure that the goals of both organisations are met.

Each UK volunteer is paired with a work counterpart from Rwanda, which gives us a good balance of various skills and perspectives. The in-country volunteers are invaluable when it comes to the knowledge of the local language, lifestyle and culture. To work more efficiently, we divided ourselves into two groups: half of us works primarily with women, the other one focuses on the youth. This way, everyone can do something they are really passionate about. In the sector there is a wide variety of beneficiaries, organised into cooperatives, clubs and informal associations. There are tailors, woodcutters, artists, sex workers, dance crews, indigenous people communities, school clubs… Each of this groups is very different, so there is no one-size-fits-all recipe for action.


Getting to know the youth dance group from Mukura sector.


The first stage of our work is to get to know our beneficiaries and find out as much as we can about their current situation, experiences and needs. We also attend many meetings with local authorities, NGOs and community workers, conduct interviews and online research. It can sometimes get challenging or tedious but we know we can’t bring any long-lasting change without forming good relationships with the community and understanding the local reality. Only after this thorough preparation we start thinking of the best ways to help the beneficiaries. This part requires a lot of innovation and thinking outside the box – the whole team keeps brainstorming ideas for various activities, training and workshops. Once our plan is approved...

…the most exciting part of our job can start!



Meeting with the Rango Artists.

This week, we are starting to have our first community interventions. We prepared a session of teamwork, communication and conflict-solving for a group of single mothers who study sewing and want to establish a handcraft cooperative. We can’t wait for all the fun games and group activities! Moreover, team-working skills may turn out to be very important for the success of their future business. 

As the motto of LUTI says: “if you want to go quick, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. Moreover, next week we are planning to conduct sanitation and cooking classes for mothers of malnourished children. Through teaching them basic practical skills, we are hoping to help improve the health of themselves and their kids. These are just a few examples of the kinds of trainings happening in the next few days but we keep planning, scheduling and organising… 

So, stay tuned, there’s many more exciting things to come!

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