Sarees are a highly popular unstitched dress worn by many women in Sri Lanka and this tradition is often carried our by our volunteers as well! 

Here is a few examples of our volunteers wearing their Sarees to work, to a seminar or just at home with their host family: 

Personally I love sarees and most of our volunteers share my opinion though it's rather difficult to do the whole dressing up part and it can also be quite tiring running around like a princess lifting your skirt and making sure not to get caught somewhere for a whole day. Honestly I don't know how these gorgeous ladies do it hour after hour, day after day!  

Anyway... Usually we suggest that the volunteers get their host mum to help them out which often leads to great fun for both the volunteer and the host mum - letting your host mum dress you up in a saree is truly a great bonding session! 

Here you can see how difficult it is (especially for us westerners) to wrap the saree:

 Here's a link if you need to watch how to it (which you probably will): 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf0PTuw1VdQ 

I would like to tell you about our monthly workshop for our teaching and care volunteers. The workshop is created to be a forum for volunteers to gather and exchange experiences and get new ideas for activities at their placements. Volunteers are great at sharring ideas with each other and discuss what works in practice and what doesn’t and their ideas and experiences will be supplemented from our brilliant care and teaching supervisor Aruni.

Sometimes these workshop have set themes and other times the workshops are more casual and open for the volunteers to choose the themes of discussion. The most discussed subjects are new ways to approach teaching and how to overcome the challenges they meet. For many of our volunteers this is their first time abroad and the first time for them to teach or work at a care facility and these workshops are usually very helpful to them. 

The workshops provide an open space to share tears and laughter. It’s no secret that it can be tough to work at some of our placements and to see how tough life sometimes can be here but the sky often seems brighter after a few hours with the other volunteers, our care and teaching supervisor and not to forget having some lovely cake at the end!

As challenging some of our placements are as giving and fulfilling, they can also be when you learn how to approach them – this is a point that often is much clearer after these workshops! 

Ayubowan/hallo! My name is Nichole and I am the new Social Manager for Projects in Sri Lanka. I’m a 23 year old chick from Denmark who is currently taking a break from my studies to come to Sri Lanka and help volunteers adapt to their new surroundings and any upcoming problems/queries.

I’ve previously been a volunteer myself with Projects Abroad in China teaching English at a migrant School and working at a rehabilitation centre for children with physiological and mental disabilities. I loved my stay there endlessly and had great benefits from the Projects Abroad staff in China, so I decided to apply for a position here in Sri Lanka and here I am: Very happy and excited to be here and meet you all!

I feel that my previous experience as a volunteer will definitely help me relate to what it’s like to be a newbie in a new country with a different culture and as well as I know what it’s like to feel homesick and I sure know methods to cure it as well. I’m aware that I’ve just arrived to this country, where cows walk around and pass the streets freely, you randomly see lizards and monkeys around, women wear saris and men sarongs and seatbelts are a town in Russia, and I’m sure it will take me a little while to get used to all my new tasks. Even though I’ve been traveling quite a bit before so hopefully I feel confident in this new position in no time. My travels have by example included a 3 months stay in China and a 6 months long exchange in Australia.

My first week has consisted of visiting different placements and volunteers, learning about Sri Lankan culture and traditions, learning how to get to different places and how to pronounce different places and towns. This training has been so consistent that I’d ...

Ten reasons to volunteer with Projects Abroad Sri Lanka

1-The volunteers

Projects Abroad Sri Lanka generally welcomes around 400 volunteers per year. We arrange monthly social gatherings so all of the volunteers can meet and travel together during their time in Sri Lanka. At these socials we always try and do something to benefit those who need help (usually we arrange to work at one of our different placements). Additionally, we sometimes arrange for the volunteers to have a Sri Lankan cookery class, or Sri Lankan yoga lessons etc. Our volunteers in Sri Lanka are the biggest asset to the organization. They have helped so many people and this help definitely does not go un noticed.

2-The host families

Most of our volunteers live with Sri Lankan host families during their time in Sri Lanka (we also have a couple of apartments where they can choose to live). The host family makes three meals per day for the volunteers and they give ongoing support to the volunteers during their time in Sri Lanka. This is always a great experience for the volunteers, because when they live with a host family they can experience the real Sri Lankan culture and learn what it is like to be part of a Sri Lankan family. I have seen too many people crying when it’s time to depart and I always hear the words, ‘my Sri Lankan parents’ from our volunteers.

3-The placements

We have so many great placements here in Sri Lanka, and all of them are helping people who are in real need of help. We have teaching placements, medical placements, sports placements and care placements. Here is an extremely brief overview (I am bound to miss out on something great!)… At the teaching placements, our volunteers can teach children, aged between 6 and 21, in any of the government ...