Volunteer Summer School in Buryatia
- WHAT: Teach kids, travel and explore Buryat culture, food and nature.
- WHERE: Eurasia -> Russia -> Buryatia
- WHEN: 2011.
- HOW MUCH: Cost
- WHO: Volunteers from different countries of the world, those who want to visit the place they have never been to, want to see what they haven't seen, want to live unique experience, broaden own mind and help local children to get a wider exposure to the world and opportunities of the education.
Make change - educate yourself and others!
Please download our poster to spread the word!
Make change – educate yourself and others
Ayuna Shoyzhitova
Subject: Media.
Hello, well for me this School was … well, it will be a very subjective story.
If I’d describe it only in few key words, I say: It was very hard, challenging but successful.
In few more words: It was very successful in everything concerning kids and classes, It was unexpectedly very hard in everything concerning communication besides classes: with locals and within the team.
I’ve learned a lot doing this School! I’ve learned something more about patience, about cultures, about communication. Every mistake, all the mistakes – well, it’s all experience. Now we know.
Now we know that one of the most important things before the project runs is to express the expectations of everyone in the group. The very first, ever!, foreigners in this virgin place, the first people from other countries the locals saw in their life… the first edition of the Volunteer Summer School in Buryatia in 2009 was a test.
I just wanted to see how it will work out. Many many things went just the other way I expected. I came back to Moscow with a copybook filled fully with notes of what should be improved and changed. But this School was absolutely worth doing! I never regret that I got this definitely enriching experience, knowledge, not only about cultures but also about the sides of own personality. Travelling is a travelling within yourself indeed.
The key word for the second edition of the VSS in Buryatia’ 2010 will be: sustainability. Of course, I would like this project to be long-existing. I want this project to have future even without my direct participation in the following years.
I see problems like alcoholism, abuse, lack of cultural education and in general lack of courage to study amongst the young. The last is the most important for me, this is what I want to change. I want to make them believe that education is a way to change their life for better, is a way to open the world.
I want other people from different countries to discover Buryat culture and to see this beautiful wonderful part of the world. I tried to have a look on things with the eyes of Volunteers of the School’ 2009 and I feel like it’s worth to see it…
I want You to understand that it absolutely won’t be easy for both sides.
If You want to come You have to be ready to many many things You are not used to. People, food, living conditions… well, everything, I guess, will be very different for You. First of all read carefully everything what is written on the website. We spent a lot of our time editing it, improving, optimizing, downloading… hundreds of times… We ask you to spend some of your time (much less) to read what is given here to prevent claims, tensions and dissapointments.
If You are seeking new experience, new knowledge, new challenges in Your life, please, come, COME! But think well, What if not?