International Volunteer Camps : Yoko part 3

Continuing the interview with SCAN Committee member and super-active volunteer Yoko.

Yoko

Here she relates her experience of working alongside international volunteers at various "workcamps".

Before coming to Newcastle I had joined a workcamp in both Myanmar and Cambodia and thought it was the best way to communicate with local people. I love visiting other countries but I also like communicating with local people. So I thought doing a workcamp is a way to get instant access to local culture and people, and I wanted to try it in London as well.

 

[So before Christmas] I asked the SCAN office to lend me a sleeping bag because I joined a workcamp in London organised by a British non-profit organisation. Volunteer Action for Peace. It’s an international workcamp in London for learning about urban environmental issues.

 

It's quite brave to join a group of people who are all strangers to you, and in a new place. How did you hear about it, and decide to take part?

On the internet - almost everything I’ve done is through online. I found the workcamps in Myanmar and Cambodia through a Japanese organisation. So I knew how to find this, I just needed to be brave! The organisation I applied for has different kinds of workcamps in different countries, so it depends on you – where you want to work and where you want to try. For me I wanted to try an environmental one and I also wanted to visit London so there’s only one workcamp that matches my interests!

So SCAN lent you a sleeping bag - and a torch! - you went down on a train and then what happened?

I took one train to London, and then to Brixton and also then took a bus to Dulwich. I stayed in a small scout centre with six people from different countries – Russia, France, Philippines, Korea and England. And there was a campleader from Austria and she organised us and we worked together for one week. By doing different kinds of conservation work we learnt different viewpoints about urban environmental problems. For example they are worried about vandalism, and if nobody takes care of the wild nature there then conditions would be worse so someone needed to take care of doing something!

We went to different places like local parks - and the Olympic park as well - and also we joined conservation work and the London Wildlife Trust.

An interesting experience for me was to visit the Olympic park [pictured above]. It’s not so big, but this park is created, is planted & constructed for children. I met the designer of the Olympic park who told us in the city there are few places where children can experience nature, and many parents are worried for example about children getting injured, but he said it’s very important for them to experience nature - to play in natural places. So the park is the kind of place where they can play, and discover nature themselves.

They had spiky bushes – at first I thought that’s very dangerous for children, but the planner said yes it’s a little dangerous, but children can learn from it. They learn to be more cautious. There is no instruction on children of how to play in the park, so can they create their games and activity themselves.

What’s your overall experience of the workcamp?

It’s very useful I think. The main thing why I think it’s useful is it’s international, and naturally our conversation is going to be a cultural exchange. For example we had a dinner where we talked about how do you eat dinner with elderly people. For example - do you have to be polite etc? So we exchange our cultural differences naturally. By doing the workcamp I realised it was very important to be aware of my own culture too, of Japanese culture. Because this is the only thing I can introduce and I can share with people from other countries.

Would you recommend it to other students?

Yes definitely. The best skill you might get is communication skills, because some people can speak English well, and some people can’t, so you have to think about how you can communicate with different people from different countries; how you can change your way of speaking; how you behave, by body gesture for example. You should be creative as well. The opportunity is : How you can communicate in an international occasion. How you can share your experience, your culture, with people from different countries.


Since this interview, Yoko has arranged to participate in another international workcamp, this time in Iceland, so we in SCAN will be lending her a sleeping bag one more time!


If you would like to join international volunteers on one of our projects, come into the office or contact scan@ncl.ac.uk Students on the SCAN committee, like Yoko, can suggest projects they have worked on and that you may enjoy.

If you would like to learn some of the skills that Yoko worked on, such as hedge-planting & pruning, we advertise opportunities for organisations more locally such as Northumberland Wildlife Trust so come in and talk to us.

 

If you are more adventurous still, we recommend international volunteering with Madventurer.