Programme Videos

Here are the videos from each ICS team from the January-April group:

Chardakatia: South-West

Sat Vaia Para, Khagrachari: Chittagong

Afjalpur: North-West

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Challenges and Opportunities

One of my biggest challenges here is not having the space to let my guard down. I find it exhausting keeping my emotions to myself and for the most part I do a pretty good job at keeping them at arms’ length so I don’t get swallowed whole by them and I don’t spill them into community life. It feels pretty selfish of me to let this get to me but in many ways the whole point of community life is to support each other with those things which is probably why there are ongoing discussions as to whether to call this a ‘community’ or not. My problem seems to be that when I feel completely powerless that guard slips and the smallest of things will spark a torrent of emotion over something that is actually very small. Part of me know that this is not healthy means of existence at all (all of that has to go somewhere and if you’re a bottler and have been telling yourself to let something go for so long eventually that bottle will explode when it reaches tipping point) and the other part kn...

Burgas, Bulgaria - Day One

First impressions of Burgas aren't too bad despite getting ripped off by the taxi driver and staying in one of the warmest and definitely not the cleanest hostel I've ever stayed in. My initial plan was to take the bus from the airport but since my plane landed stupidly early that meant a long wait in the dark by myself on the side of a road slowly being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Maybe not then. Wandered back to the taxi rank armed with the knowledge that it should not cost me more than about 20 lev (not sure where from, probably Lonely Planet forum) . This information did not come in useful when I discovered that all the taxis were on meters and charged 5 lev per kilometre. My hostel was 10km away. You do the maths... The hostel had a lovely green neon sign above the door, the sort that you might find above a dodgy nightclub or those pharmacy symbols on every street corner in France. Admittedly its reviews were pretty bad but it's the only hostel actually in the t...

The Value of Freedom

After a morning of training in child protection and security we visited the Museum of Independence. It was a moving exhibition following the history of Bangladesh from British Raj to independence from Pakistan in 1971. Once again I was reminded why we should cover the history of British colonialism in school. As a nation we have such an over inflated sense of ourselves that we forget the horrors of what was done in our name in the past. It is quite shocking to be reminded of things that your country has done that are simply glossed over a lot of the time. Things that are still in living memory for many people. The list of political prisoners hanged after having been tortured is only one of many examples on display at the museum. Other countries across the world have lists equally as long I'm sure. As another volunteer put it "it's a wonder anyone still talks to us" The majority of the museum covers the period following partition to independence. A quick recap: Ba...

Ways to See the World

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