After my graduation
I wanted to go abroad and a Development Traineeship with AIESEC seemed to be a
great opportunity. I planned to do a traineeship in Delhi during the first two
months of my stay and afterwards I wanted to travel. Some of my relatives were
surprised when I informed them that I wanted to go to India because India is
crowded, poor, dirty, extremely warm (I went in summer period), smelly, noisy,
polluted and so on.., but even though this is all true, India is an incredible
country! I had a great time in India; it was a great experience and I had a lot
of fun!
My traineeship..
I agreed to
participate in sessions about HIV/AIDS in order to inform youngsters about this
subject. First of all, I was supposed to be trained by an NGO and afterwards I
was supposed to be able to educate about HIV/AIDS. This DT was a project organized
by AIESEC Delhi University (DU) and they arrange the NGOs and sessions. By the
time of my arrival in Delhi the project was not really organized, or maybe I
should say not organized at all… I decided to accompany some other AIESEC
trainees who were having a similar project. We were able to speak to doctors
about HIV/AIDS, went to a slum area to see the projects of harm reduction (e.g.
drug addicts can get free clean needles and are informed about the risks of
using drugs) and went to a women’s rehab centre. After two weeks their project was finished
and I had the opportunity to spend some more time in the women’s rehab. There
were about 10 women staying in this rehab and during the day they were having
activities like Yoga, making jewelry and post cards, literacy classes, and of
course sessions with a counselor. In addition to the rehab there was also a
crèche and a small school for poor kids from this neighborhood. I spend almost
one month at this place and most of the time I was joining the women with their
activities or I was helping in the crèche. Although I didn’t really have my own
tasks I tried to help them whenever I could and gave a lot of attention to the women
and kids.
My personal
experience
Going to India for
a traineeship was a great experience! This traineeship affected me a lot. I
learned that life is good in the Netherlands; we don’t have to worry about
money that much, we are able to choose what we would like to do in life
(work/study) and we are able to choose who we love (we don’t have arranged
marriages). These things are often taken for granted… This trip also changed me
on the personal level. For example, I’m well organized but my traineeship
wasn’t at all! I didn’t panic and decided that I didn’t want to wait for AIESEC
(because they were not responding to my request to find something else) and
waste my time, so that is why I arranged some work by myself.
AIESEC Delhi
During my
stay in Delhi, I met my AIESEC coach twice and he is the only person of AIESEC
DU that I met! AIESEC DU didn’t really organize activities, drinks, trips or
anything.. I have to admit that they organized a meeting once, but they only
informed the trainees a couple of hours in advance so everyone was already gone
for the weekend of having other plans! To my point of view this doesn’t really
work out this way… Although AIESEC DU is not what it should be, the AIESEC trainees
were great! I lived in an AIESEC apartment and my flat mates and I were going
out for dinners, drinks, sightseeing, parties etc with other AIESEC trainees.
There are always many trainees in Delhi and these trainees are having a lot of
fun together! So if you are planning to come to Delhi, focus on the trainees
instead of the LC…
Incredible India
India is a huge
country with a lot of different regions, habits, climates, subcultures etc.
There is a lot to see; like beautiful places in the mountains and the Himalayas,
the desert, national parks with wildlife, beaches and of course huge cities!
Like many Asian countries there are a lot of temples and historical buildings
in India but besides these cultural places of interest there are a lot of other
things to do and so see. Travelling in colorful India is a must!
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