A LIFE-changing experience volunteering in Bangladesh has empowered a young Rugby woman to help ‘start a new world’.
Becky Hilditch, 19, spent 10 weeks working alongside young volunteers from Bangladesh and the UK to promote knowledge of sexual health.
She travelled there with international development organisation VSO – for whom she raised £800 before she left – as part of the UK government funded International Citizen Service (ICS) programme.
Becky lived with a local host family so she could immerse herself into the community and better understand the challenges people face.
She worked in a team focusing on sexual reproductive health rights, providing training on less taboo topics to gain the community’s trust and allow subsequent volunteers to build up to more taboo subjects.
Becky said: “Many women in the communities within Bangladesh had very little or no knowledge around their menstrual cycle, pregnancy, child birth or child nutrition. This was because there was a lack of education for the children – and also that these are very taboo topics within the community.”
She said the most enjoyable part of her visit was living and working within ‘such an amazing community’.
“We were welcomed by so many – into their lives, homes and hearts,” she said. “It was an amazing opportunity to be able to live in a host home, with such incredible family members.
“My host mother put her heart into her host children – to her, we were her children. Our host father would constantly check that we were all settled in okay. Both of them looked after us if we weren’t feeling well, like real parents. To them, we weren’t just volunteers, we were family.”
Becky is proud that her group made a lasting impression.
“We affected many lives in a positive way during our short stay, and none of it would have been possible if it wasn’t for the incredible team leaders that we had on placement with us.”
She is now using the skills she developed overseas to carry out an ‘Action At Home’ project back in the UK – a key part of the ICS programme which ensures UK communities benefit from the experiences of its volunteers.
“Since being back, I have become a student ambassador for the Student Switch Off movement, a not-for-profit international campaign encouraging student action on climate change.
“My VSO placement opened my eyes to a completely different way of life, a much more energy efficient style of living.”
She said she would encourage any young person to get involved with ICS projects.
“It is a unique opportunity that will change your life,” she said. “The people you meet will become family, and you learn so much about yourself just by being on placement.
“We, as youth, have the power. We have the power to end poverty, we have the power to end wars; we have the power to start a new world. It starts now, with one placement. Take the opportunity of a lifetime.”
ICS allows young people aged 18-25 to contribute to sustainable development projects in Africa and Asia. As it is funded by UK aid, participants don’t need cash, qualifications or work experience to take part – just the desire to make a difference to the lives of some of the world’s poorest communities.
Visit www.volunteerics.org for more information.
