Interested in having a similar experience? Here are 2 project options in Dachau! DE-SCI 1.32 and CPD10

Other eyewitnesses who lived through the rise of National Socialism and the war, gave us a glimpse into that intense, violent world. They assured us, that contrary to popular belief, everyone knew about the camps and there had been resistance in Germany. One woman, I’ll never forget, was named Maria. She was a nun and wore a habit. Coming from a Lutheran family, I’d never met a nun before. We met with her for a couple of hours in one of the meeting rooms at the memorial site and sat in a circle of chairs. Like Hannah, she told her story in German and someone translated for her.

As a teenager, Maria had entered the convent in Freising, a small town north of Munich that dates back to the year 715. During the last year of the war, she traveled to Dachau each week under the guise that she was purchasing fresh herbs from the Plantage (plantation) across the road from the camp. The trip was approximately twenty miles, one way, and she was lucky to have a bicycle, she said, to make the trip faster. Usually she took the train part of the way and cycled part of the way. Rail conditions during wartime were not very reliable and weather also affected how long the trip took.

There was a large concentration of Catholic priests interned in Dachau and many of them were forced to work in this Plantage, one of the most physically grueling work details in the camp. The SS wanted to grow medicinal herbs and spices, many of which were tropical in origin, in greenhouses in the Bavarian alpine climate. It was part of a bigger plan that Nazi Germany not be dependent on importing such goods from abroad.

Some of the herbs were on sale to the local public, a proven example of contact locals had with the camp. The SS were always looking for ways to make money and this was one of them. Maria smuggled out letters written by the priests, buried under the fresh herbs in her baskets, and posted them to family members and friends, thus allowing for some communication between the clergy held prisoner and their loved ones.

Kate and Ben had taken us over there. We saw the old greenhouses and buildings. They pointed out that the city of Dachau was still using part of the area as a city garden to grow fresh herbs. The sign said Stadtgärtnerei. Most of the buildings were a bit dilapidated and not in the best condition. Every Monday for a year, Maria made this trip.[1] I gazed at her. Would I do such a thing, should circumstances demand it of me?

Marie-Luise, is another woman I’ll never forget. Looking back, I think part of it is that she spoke fluent English. I could converse with her and ask my questions directly without the help of a translator. Marie-Luise was involved in die Weiße Rose – the student resistance movement in Munich known as the White Rose. The original six members of this group wrote, published and distributed six pamphlets in university towns across Germany containing anti-Nazi messages.[2] On February 18, 1943, Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans were in the main university building in Munich. It was early morning and they were laying the flyers around the common area when they were caught. Five days later, both were executed by the SS. Christoph Probst, another White Rose member, was also killed that day. The SS found and killed the remaining three members.[3]

Marie-Luise was not part of the original group, but after the executions, she and her boyfriend, Hans Leipelt, decided to continue the effort. They had a copy of the sixth flyer and retyped it with the headline “Und ihr Geist lebt trotzdem weiter!” (And their spirit continues to live!). Towards the end of the year, both were caught and sentenced to death. Hans was in prison until he was executed in January 1945. Marie-Luise was interned in a women’s prison that was liberated by American troops in April 1945. This is also why she spoke English because the American military gave her a job. Eventually she completed her studies and became a medical doctor. She was involved with youth work in Dachau for over twenty years until her death in 2010.

All three of these women have passed away, but their life experiences have not been lost. They are with me and carried by everyone who met and listened to them.

[2] The six pamphlets can be read in their original German online: http://www.bpb.de/themen/ZGSY8R,0,0,Flugblatt_I.html

[3] An award winning film about the White Rose called Sophie Scholl: The Final Days tells this story.

We have a very unique opportunity! We have 4 spaces reserved for Americans in a month-long project in France this July and all 4 spaces are still available. Volunteers must pay for their transportation to/from the project location but they receive a travel stipend of 300 Euros (approx. $385 USD), which offsets the cost of the VFP registration/membership fee of $380. Food & accommodation are covered for the entire month!

This is a trilateral project which means it’s specifically for volunteers from France, Germany and the US. Register today, email with any questions and see below for project details!

CODE = SJ16

PARTNER
The Fai international residential center organize every year two local festivals that gather up to 400 spectators every time. The current path that the spectators use to drive to the center is quite inappropriate since they have to drive across the living area and cannot reverse.
WORK
This project consists in building another path around the center that will be accessible to cars. During the project you will be able to get involved in the cultural and musical festival named Festifa that we are organizing in July at the Fai center and Caf du People in Veynes. This project offers the opportunity to meet with young people from all over the world, discover rural living, go for walks in the mountains, visit the region and share many festive moments with all the young people who stay at the Fai farm.
ACCOMODATION AND FOOD
In tents
LOCATION & LEISURE ACTIVITY
The Fa Farm, 3 km from the village of Le Saix, 30 km from Gap
REQUIREMENTS
Participants: 3 groups of 4 participants from Germany, France and the US

I am eagerly applying for a Volunteers for Peace Youth Education Scholarship in hopes to make a positive contribution to our global community by sharing my compassion and strength of convictions. Throughout my life, particularly as an undergrad in college, my passions for global study and philanthropy have blossomed. For the past ten years, I’ve worked one-on-one with special needs students in the Bloomington community, focusing on both academic development and social interaction skills. The rewards of this experience for my personal development have been innumerable, leading me to seek a Youth Education Scholarship. I believe I not only have past experience that would serve me well on this type of service project, but also a love for working with children and helping them reach new heights.
In addition to this voluntary service, my past international experiences better equip me to serve as a volunteer. I have been fortunate enough during my tenure at Indiana University to study abroad twice: on an emerging economies program to Ghana for two weeks and a semester of study in Milan, Italy. My experience in Ghana was extremely unique as I both studied the culture, emerging business markets, and political climate of the country and worked side-by-side with native entrepreneurs and families in the villages surrounding the capital city, Accra. The experience greatly increased my understanding and acceptance of a culture and lifestyle starkly different from my own American upbringing. During my semester in Milan, I enrolled in two social psychology courses that afforded me an in-depth education of the social justice system of the country. I visited a number of political and non-profit agencies and studied some of the conflicts the social system of Italy faces today.
A popular topic of social conflict I studied in Italy is illegal immigration. Italy’s legal policies against illegal immigration have historically been perceived as quite lenient. Geography working against governmental policy, the southern border of Italy is apparently very easy to access and those that are apprehended crossing the border illegally are rarely deported. Turco-Napolitano Law, 1998 immigration legislation, stipulated two main goals: first was the integration of immigrant minorities while creating an environment of low conflict between nationals and migrants, and of respect for immigrants’ personal integrity; and secondly, the act also requested full rights for legal immigrants and basic rights for illegal immigrants. I was fascinated by the policy differences between Italy and my home country of the United States. The idea of basic human rights is a foundation for international and cultural understanding and acceptance. The implementation of similar policies that provide emergency medical care and respect for immigrants’ personal integrity, whether they crossed the border legally or illegally, would be a step in the right direction for increased tolerance and the resolution of immigration conflicts.
An opportunity to work on a service project with Volunteers for Peace would undoubtedly be a life-changing experience. I believe such a profound experience should be shared with others to increase the impact of my lessons learned. To accomplish this, I plan to utilize a student organization I founded at IU, the Undergraduate Leadership Initiative, Lead[IN] for short. The mission of Lead[IN] is to aid businesses in the local and global community, while providing members the forum to develop leadership skills and turn their ideas into action. Past projects of the group include: writing and implementing new streamlined operational and financial procedures for a nonprofit organization in Bangalore, India; implementing an innovative, grassroots marketing campaign and standard accounting procedures for a student-run entrepreneurial venture; and hosting an array of world-renowned speakers like Kelsey Timmerman, author of Where are you wearing?. Through the organization’s campus-wide blog I would share my experiences and encourage fellow, like-minded students to participate in Volunteers for Peace, as well as develop student support for the service organization as a whole.

Photo Credit: X.J. Shu

1)         Last year, I applied for, and did not receive, a Volunteers for Peace scholarship. Still hoping to spend my summer working on some kind of international project, I reached out to and obtained a research position at the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Applied Economics and Agriculture, where I cleaned and analyzed data from 90 interviews with peach growers from Bolivia. Although the work was often tedious, I found myself quickly feeling connected with the farmers, whom I could never meet but whose living situations, hopes and worries I read and entered into the ever-growing data set. I developed a much deeper appreciation for the environment, realizing that I had taken clean water, parks and fields for granted, while the livelihood of farmers in the interviews depended on the quality of the water that irrigated their orchards and the delicate balance of nutrients in the soil. I gained an awareness of international agricultural and environmental issues, and this summer I would like to help in a direct manner by participating in a Volunteers for Peace project. Although I will never be able to meet the peach growers, whose concerns occupied most of my summer last year, I hope that this year I can make an environmental difference while interacting face-to-face with the community in which I am placed.

2)         I participate in service regularly through a group at my University, and this past fall we volunteered with a group of middle-school students to create a large garden and prairie on the school grounds. Turning gravel and neglected lots into garden space was rewarding, but I was most impacted by the way the middle-school and college students felt united by the common goal of helping the environment while increasing sustainability. The fact that my group was many years older than the middle-school students was of no importance, and I worked alongside students and teachers alike to hoe and till former weed patches into garden plots for vegetables. The success of the project and the sense of unity I felt working towards an environmentally-related goal is one of the many reasons I hope to volunteer this summer to work on an environmental project with Volunteers for Peace.

3) Currently, there is a conflict between illegal timber harvesters and native inhabitants of the Amazon rainforest. The situation is not black and white, as many of the woodcutters are poor and need the income to support their families, but a better understanding of the indigenous people’s way of life and philosophy regarding the forest would help the woodcutters understand the native people’s (often violent) hostility towards them. More importantly, through a dialogue with the native tribes, the woodcutters might understand also why unsustainable logging, while tempting, is worse-off in the long run because it prevents future generations from benefitting from the rain forest.

4) As a student at a large university, I will share my experience with my fellow students and teachers through the University newspaper and university community service newsletter, which features a spot for student activities. If I receive the scholarship, I will also create a blog linked to my Facebook, where I will post real-time updates, photos, and stories of my volunteering experience. I will be sure to send the blog to VFP, and if they would like, other people could read my story.

Photo Credit: J. Lozoff

“Teaching (Insegnare) and Learning(Imparare) with Italian Children”

Over my 30-year career as a certified teacher, researcher, anduniversity teacher educator, I‘ve planned, facilitated and refined educational experiences for children from pre-kindergarten through adolescence, as well as for adults who teach (or were preparing to teach) in New York, Connecticut, Texas, and Arizona.During the summer of 2008, I served in Italy as a member of Volunteers for Peace, an international non-profit global immersion program directed towards arts, education, andcultural exchange, I was assigned to Barra, an economically disadvantaged area southeast of Naples. Despite my advanced degree, I was considered an adult “counselor” during the summer. I was issued a pair of navy shorts and two red uniform t-shirts. The camp-like program was housed in a sports andaquatic center and was intended to offer children ages 3-13 a safe place to engage in movement and learning experiencesfrom 8:00 am —4:00pm, Monday–Friday. With my professional background, I assumed that I would be mentoring older students, but found that my assignment was to support a lead teacher in her work with 24 young children.

After a few days, I resigned myself to the “learner’s seat,” aposition to which I was not accustomed. From this vantage, I realized how advanced the thinking of the four and five years olds under my care appeared to be. The pre-schoolersseemed to believe that they were charged with re-educating me, a middle-aged career teacher, professor of education, andmother of two grown children. As the weeks progressed, I began to perceive ways that these children were using their innate thinking skills to achieve, create, communicate, negotiate, and formulate decisions. I wrote up eight realizations, hoping thatthese observations, vignettes, and tips (or suggestions) mightbe of use to other educators.

1. Kids Think Like Economists: Whether in a lunchroom or classroom, children as young asthree and four can be rather like expert economists. Theyare interested in the movement of goods. They assign value to things, create markets, and negotiate sales. Kids know howto get what they want (not just what they need).I watched stealthily as kids in Materna (the bambini group, who were ages three to five), barter items of food. Children examined their own home-brought lunch or snack, and thenperused the goods of their peers. There was no trading if a child placed a high value in what he or she already owned ascompared with some other child’s food. But if a trade was to be made, it took only a matter of minutes for transactions tooccur and goods to be consumed. No adult interference was sought or needed in these “kid deals.” In fact, when adult observation became obvious, the arrangements become covert,going “under the table” so to speak. These trades often involved a hunk of mozzarella,pollo(chicken) in a metal container, spaghetti, paninis, homemade meatballs, or a mass of cream cheese (known in Italy by its American exported brand name,“Philadelphia”). Tip: Provide time in the classroom setting for students toexamine, handle, assign value to, and trade “stuff”(such asshells, coins, baseball cards, plastic figurines, sports caps,minerals and other ‘artifacts’ that teachers might keep in an artifact tub or “treasure chest”). Post an activity chart: “KEEPor TRADE?” Students can then develop their decision-making and negotiation skill sets by working in groups to assign valueto various items and list them on the chart as items to keep, orgoods to trade away. Then the groups can negotiate and tradewith each other.

2. Kids Think Like Lawyers:I never met a young child who didn’t have a clear opinion onan issue that affected him or her…

Read the rest of Barbara’s article in the publication, Social Studies and the Young Learner

Project Information

If you want to apply, please send us the following documents:

• VFP registration form & $380 registration/membership payment
• Resume
• Motivation letter  - Specific for the project(s) you want to apply for
• Completed questionnaire (Q) http://seeds.is/files/2012/seeds-interns-ltv-candidates-questionnaire.doc

Applications should be submitted by May 12th. Selection will be made on May 16th

Job is to start as soon as possible, the latest on June 1st and for a minimum of 3 months; longer stays are desired for some of the positions.

We were thrilled to receive the release announcing volunteer, Ken Budd’s upcoming memoir! The Voluntourist chronicles Ken’s journey of personal discovery through his involvement short-term volunteer projects in New Orleans, Costa Rica, China, Ecuador, Kenya, and a VFP partner project in Bethlehem City, in 2009. THE VOLUNTOURIST: A Six-Country Tale of Love, Loss, Fatherhood, Fate, and Singing Bon Jovi in Bethlehem, goes on sale tomorrow, May 8th.

“THE VOLUNTOURIST is a journey that is part insider look at the growing trend of voluntourism, part do-gooder manifesto, part personal journey. Wry and funny, heartbreakingly honest, as exotic in location as it is familiar in its concerns, Ken Budd has penned a memoir that will inspire you, captivate you, and linger in your mind long after you’ve turned the last page.”

HarperCollins buy links page: http://www.harpercollins.com/books/The-Voluntourist-Ken-Budd?isbn=9780061946462&HCHP=TB_The+Voluntourist

Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgCP5aHwd-A&feature=youtu.be

Twitter: @WmMorrowbks

Website: http://www.thevoluntouristbook.com/

Today is Climate Impacts Day at 350.org, an organization that aims to build a global grassroots movement of environmental activism. In October of 2009, they “coordinated 5200 simultaneous rallies and demonstrations in 181 countries, what CNN called the ‘most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history.’” The website serves as an online tool for organization and action. So, what’s in the numbers? Currently at 392 parts per million (ppm) of CO2, the ideal number for our planet’s atmosphere is 350ppm. This is the LIMIT for safe human habitation on our planet, and historically the number has been well below–around 275ppm.

Join VFP Executive Director, Meg Brook, today at 1pm in Waitsfield, Vermont at a rally for the environment with 350.org’s Connect the Dots Day . Connect recent local events, namely Hurricane Irene, to larger global trends of global trends through stories, discussions, public art, and other family-friendly activities.

1. Why do you want to participate in a Volunteers For Peace international voluntary service project and how does your specific scholarship choice fit in?

I was first informed about Volunteers For Peace this week when I emailed my professor, Siri Terjesen, about opportunities to spend my summer abroad.  The first response I received from Siri was all about Volunteers For Peace and how great of an experience it was for her when she was my age.  After researching several of the projects offered, I am extremely excited about the opportunity to spend part of my summer working with children and even improving the environment in a foreign country.  I have grown up loving to spend time with children, and I have dedicated time in my own country to have an impact on their lives.

2. How has a past voluntary service and/or international experience impacted you?

When I was a senior in high school, I was one of fifty students chosen by the Indiana High School Athletic Association to represent my school in the IHSAA Tobacco Free Role Model Program.  I signed a pledge to be tobacco, alcohol, and drug-free for one year and spent time going to local elementary and middle schools talking to classes and explaining the dangers of tobacco use.  The children I spoke to were very responsive to the information I gave them, and I left the program with a great feeling knowing that I had an impact on the future decisions of these young students.  I have also spent time volunteering in a downtown elementary school helping in a first grade class.  This was a very eye-opening experience as I learned the differences that existed even within my own community.  For example, these children had to be given breakfast at school and kept toothbrushes in the classroom, because neither would be available in their homes.  The time I spent in this classroom was incredible and was worth it every time I was able to put a smile on someone’s face.

3. Identify a local or global conflict. How do you think international or cultural understanding could have helped to prevent or could help to resolve this conflict?

This semester in my international business class, I was lucky enough to hear James Kofi Annan speak about his organization called Challenging Heights.  James, a survivor of child slavery, started Challenging Heights in Ghana to help educate children who have been rescued from slavery or any form of child labor.  Child slavery is a major issue in Ghana and other parts of the world.  The resolution of this problem requires a vast amount of resources, including the means to educate the world on what is happening and what needs to be done to help.  James is helping the cause by educating people on the culture in Ghana and what caused the problem to happen.  By understanding the underlying problem, people like myself realize this is a slow process that requires participation from people around the world, the families in Ghana, and even the children themselves.

4. How will you share your experience upon return to the US? Be specific.

I will begin sharing my experiences even before I return to the United States.  During my project, I plan on sharing stories, pictures, and even videos through the use of social media.  This will give me the opportunity to reach a large audience of close friends and colleagues who will take a true interest in the volunteer work I will be doing.  When I return to the United States, I will share my stories face-to-face with my friends and other students in my graduate school.  My goal is to have an impact on at least one person such that they will decide to sign up for a project through Volunteers For Peace.

Photo Credit: L. Smolic

Interested in having a similar experience? Here are 2 project options in Dachau! DE-SCI 1.32 and CPD10

Each day was full and meaningful. We listened to survivors, tried to take in their life experiences, asked questions, and nodded intently when they insisted we vote and participate in our democratic systems. It is critical, they said over and over again, to understand what your government is doing. Do not turn a blind eye and think that politics has nothing to do with you.

Hannah was the first camp survivor I met in my life. When I reached out to shake her hand, she met my eyes. She was about my size and smiled warmly at me. I told her my name and where I was from. I’m sure she asked how old I was. Her skin was soft like a baby and she held my hand longer than I expected her to. We were a small group of six or seven and sat with her, around the table, in the creativity tent. The night was rainy and cool. I wore jeans and a sweater for the first time in weeks and a white candle burned in an empty Coke bottle placed in the center of the table. The light splashed onto the heavy, canvas walls. One of the German participants, who had been an exchange student in the U.S. the year before, translated Hannah’s words into English.

She sat at the head of the table and occasionally pulled her black sweater tight around her chest like a bathrobe. Her glasses were spotless. Her short, dark hair, gray at the temples, was tucked behind her ears.            She had lived in Munich since the end of the war, but was originally born to a Jewish family in Hungary. She told us about her parents and grandparents, her brothers and sisters. She was the oldest of eight. She and her next oldest sister were selected on the ramp at Birkenau to work. Her mother, together with the six youngest, was sent immediately to the gas chamber. There were one hundred and thirteen people in her extended family. Five survived.

I did not see the number on her forearm. Only in Auschwitz were the prisoners tattooed. I went to southern Poland to see Auschwitz before coming to Dachau. I spent one day there and it drained me completely. It was so hard to believe that this woman, sitting here at this table, with me, had survived that. I stared at her. Her energy so clear. I felt the presence of something, but I didn’t know exactly what.

Hannah helped me understand that Hitler leveraged centuries of anti-Semitism to murder six million of the nine million Jews that lived in Europe before he came to power. She compared the rise of the Nazi movement to a thunderstorm. “If one was awake, you could see the storm coming. We thought it would never end, but eventually it did”. Someone asked her if she hated the Germans. “No”, she said. “I don’t hate the Germans. Germans and Nazis are not the same thing”.

I received a gift from Hannah in the mail a couple of months later, when I was back in the States. She had photocopied a book about parenting that was out of print. She believed that one way we could prevent repeating this history in the future was to raise empathetic children. As it turns out, she sent out dozens of copies of this book to young people over the years….

Interested in having a similar experience? Here are 2 project options in Dachau! DE-SCI 1.32 and CPD10