India

 UCDVO run two volunteer projects in India - one in Delhi, which has been operating since 2003 and another in Vijayawada, South India since summer 2010. As with all our overseas projects we partner with local NGOs who are working in some of the more disadvantaged communities, assisting families and children in the areas of education, healthcare, nutrition and improving their physical environment.

In Delhi, our main partners in Delhi are an NGO called Society for Working Life (www.societyforworkinglife.com), The Salaam Baalak Trust (www.salaambaalaktrust.com), Habitat for Humanity India (www.habitatindia.in) and local community workers concerned with the needs for education among children in the slum areas. UCDVO has continued to focus on education in Delhi through various literacy programs and the construction of three schools. The sustained partnership with SWL involves running several literacy programs which have been in operation and successful for several years now. In 2004 UCDVO first began working with the Salaam Baalak Trust, a home for street children many of whom have been abused. Of this project one volunteers said:

"Had I not seen this place with my own eyes, I certainly would not have believed that the sixty children we subsequently worked with had experienced such hardship. All I met were boys who were just as fun-loving and caring as my own nieces and nephews. The month that followed is one that I will remember for the rest of my life. A month I suspect I will never equal if I live ten times over. Ultimately, the greatest difference we made to those children’s lives was being in a position where we could give them the love and support that they are fundamentally entitled to, but were deprived of."  

 In 2008, UCDVO constructed St. Anthony’s Education Centre in the slum area of Sangam Vihar. Funding for this project was received from Irish Aid. The school now serves over eighty girls from the area, many of whom did not have access to any other forms of schooling. Volunteers continue to work with the teachers in this centre to provide support and assistance with English teaching, educational games, arts and crafts while also carrying out basic maintenance tasks to ensure that the children have a bright and comfortable learning environment.  

In 2010, the first group of volunteers from UCDVO travelled to South India to work with an organisation called Care and Share. See www.careshareindia.org for more information. Volunteers organised sports camps, youth clubs, and health education classes at the Care and Share campuses for one month.

 See where we work:

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Delhi

Volunteers worked in a variety of different schools, shelters and care homes. Donations enabled volunteers to establish a mid-day meal scheme at St. Anthony’s Education Centre which was built by UCDVO in 2008. The eighty children who attend the school now receive a hot, nutritious meal each day. Volunteers also established a new physiotherapy programme at a homeless shelter and funds were provided for basic equipment and training. English classes, arts and crafts, music and dance were the order of the day in many of the schools with volunteers providing an abundance of new resources as well as their boundless energy and enthusiasm. Construction of two houses, along with painting and decorating ensured that volunteers got their hands dirty while interacting with local communities in a way that allowed cultural exchange and friendship to form.

 South India

A second group of volunteers work in Vijayawada, a city in Andhra Pradesh in the south of India. UCDVO established a partnership with the international NGO ‘Care and Share’ which run two “Children’s Villages” for over one thousand children who have been orphaned or abandoned as a result of HIV/AIDS, extreme poverty, inability to cope and provide for the needs to children. Care and Share house over 1000 children and run a child sponsorship programme to support their living costs. UCD volunteers lived with the children for one month and organised youth clubs, sports camps, and health education workshops. In 2010, volunteers organised a HIV/AIDS awareness rally in the centre of the city. Thousands of people turned out, the children were mobilised with banners and chants, the local mayor opened the rally and the TV crews came to record all the action. Volunteers distributed pamphlets to generate awareness about HIV/AIDS and set up a mobile testing unit in the city-centre – 30 people got tested that day! This was a huge achievement for UCDVO and a mark of the innovative nature of our volunteers. This valuable work was continued in 2011 - volunteers renovated a large school in the centre of Vijayawada while also funding educational resources such as uniforms, books, school-bags for over 500 children.