Voice from participant of ILDC2024 – Abayed
My motivation for applying to ILDC2024
I’ve been part of a volunteer organization/CBO since my student life, and in my professional life, I work as an NGO staff member focused on sustainable community development. With this background, I felt the ILDC course was the ideal opportunity to meet my learning needs, particularly in enhancing the capacity of Community Health Volunteers (CHVs).
New learnings
Living and working closely with people from diverse countries and cultures was also invaluable. In the first week, I faced challenges because each participant brought different values and ways of thinking, making it tough to align on common ideas. Sharing in front of the group sometimes felt more challenging than presenting to supervisors. Through this process, I learned to view these differences as opportunities for growth. Listening to their questions and suggestions taught me to refine how I present my ideas, improving my presentation skills in a diverse setting.
For example, in my target communities (particularly Rohingya Refugee communities) due to gender norms it’s very common to reach out to females through female volunteers to sensitization on any issue. However, some participants find this unethical to accept this gender norm, believing we should work to break this gender norms. Initially I was shocked to hear this. Later I realize it’s due to his/her cultural practice and he/she doesn’t understand the context. Then I tried to know his/her cultural practice and shared my target community’s contexts. After that he/she understood why it’s important to respect gender norms for my target community. Considering the experience, next time whenever I shared any ideas or suggestions, I tried to consider both my and other communities’ contexts (as much as possible) and then share with all so that everyone can relate and understand.
The most exciting learning experience
ILDC promotes a behavior change process with the idea, “If I discover it, I use it.” During the sensitization session, I discovered many ideas for using social media for sensitization. I realized that there were several ideas I hadn’t utilized before. Even though I successfully utilize social media for various social causes, there were lots of things remaining which I didn’t apply before. This participatory training process helped me brainstorm these ideas, and I now feel encouraged to put them into practice.
Uniqueness of this training program
AHI’s volunteer and internship programs were innovative, which I’ve never seen before. Volunteers supporting activities like cooking or guiding outings added a unique dimension to the program. Engaging with these volunteers, who showed such kindness and hospitality, made my time in Japan even more special.
I have experience working with various types of volunteers for different purposes, and I have also volunteered on some platforms. However, I had never seen volunteers assigned to guide participants on outings, which allows both participants and volunteers to exchange experiences and knowledge.
This benefited both participants and volunteers. The concept of cooking volunteers was also unique to me—volunteers from different societies and backgrounds dedicating their valuable time for us. I learned from this that in society, everyone can contribute; it just requires an appropriate platform like AHI.
I deeply miss the times spent with participants, coordinators, AHI staff, interns, and volunteers. Without their incredible support, this learning journey wouldn’t have been possible.
