I am a Trini who is currently volunteering to become a Development Instructor in Africa at the Institute for International Cooperation and Development (IICD) in Massachusetts, USA. After my 6months training, I will work in Angola for the humanitarian development organization, Humana People to People. I am part of a team of seven people who come from South Korea, Canada, Brazil and the US. Some team members will work in Children’s Towns, which are orphanages for children who have lost their families and those children who were forced to become child soldiers during the Angolan civil war that ended in 2002. Another member will work in the Total Control of the Epidemic Program (TCE), which is a campaign against the spread of HIV/AIDS. Along with three other team members, I will work in a Teacher Training College. Because the war has destroyed much of the infrastructure, there are few schools. Worse still, there are even fewer teachers since many were killed or fled the country. Our job will be to train students to become Teachers who then work in the rural areas providing primary level education.
I am postiing this message because IICD is opening a new training facility in St. Vincent & the Grenadines in February 2007. The school there will train volunteers to work in Humana programs similar to those mentioned above located in Mozambique, Zambia, Namibia and South Africa. We want to encourage more Caribbean people to be humanitarian development volunteers. As visa restrictions are tight for the US, the new training center is being established to facilitate those from the Latin America and Caribbean region. So far there are 30 people enrolled and they are all from Europe, Scandinavia, Central and South America. Thus far, there are no volunteers from the Caribbean. We would like tell as many people as possible about the program and the possibility of becoming an international volunteer.

"Be in the world to change the world - Volunteer!"
Development Programs in Africa - email: stina@humana.org
visit our websites: www.humana.org and www.richmondvaleacademy.org

Kind regards,
Victoria
Member – IICD-Mass. August Angola Team