Natalie

A Swabian girl travelling through South India

My name is Natalie Felger, I’m 19 years old, I’m from near Stuttgart, and I’m heading to India on 1 September. I’ve always been certain that I didn’t want to go straight to university after my A-levels, but wanted to go abroad first. Mainly, of course, to see a bit of the world, but with the underlying intention not just to dip my toes into the culture and live on the fringes like a ‘tourist’, but to really get to know it, adapt and integrate.

I liked the Christian aspect of development volunteer work at EMS, which is why I chose the ÖFP. My intentions for undertaking a ten-month volunteer placement are as follows: I want to contribute to a mutual cultural exchange, broaden my horizons and simply be a source of support for the local people. I am aware that I cannot and will not save the world through my voluntary service, and that is why I am not going to my placement with such expectations in the first place.

EMS is sending me to Satchiyapuram, a small town near Madurai in the state of Tamil Nadu. In Satchiyapuram, I will be working at the ‘Elwin Centre’, a home for children with intellectual disabilities and a school for the deaf. I don’t yet know my exact responsibilities, but I’m already very excited to see what new experiences I’ll gain and what challenges I’ll face. I’ll probably mainly be supporting the teachers and trying to lighten their workload as much as possible. I hope that I can put my years of experience in working with children and young people to good use and that we’ll have a lot of fun together.