Volunteer Abroad Program - International Volunteer Placements in Kolkata, India

India

Calcutta
Term: Throughout the year
Durations of Program: 2-4 weeks, 5-8 weeks, 9-12 weeks, 3-6 months and 7-12 months
Typical Duration of Program: 2-4 weeks
Dates: Whole Year

Description: Crawl welcomes all international and national volunteers to participate in our different welfare activities for the underprivileged children and women in India, primarily Kolkata (Calcutta) and its outskirts. We have different projects for their benefit.

1. Long term Volunteer Programs [ 4-12 months]
2. Medium term Volunteer Programs [2-4 months]
3. Short term Volunteer programs [1-2 months]

1. Shikshan (Non-formal Educational Centre) Project
2. Patashishu Unnayan (Street Kids Beneficial) Project
3. Mahila Shachetanata (Women Awareness) Project
4. Swanirvar (Self Help Group) Project
5. Sasthya Pariseva (Free Medical check-up) Project

Types of Volunteering:
- Long term Volunteering [5-7/7-9/9-10/10-12 months]
- Middle term Volunteering [2-4 months]
- Short term Volunteering [3 weeks-1 month]
- Internship Program [2-12 weeks]

In all these volunteering programmes, our international volunteers get the opportunities to share experiences in diffrent projects.

- Teaching English and basic Mathematics, Social Science, General Knowledge to the poor slum and street kids,

- Nursing care to the needy persons as per their requirements, Health related programs.

- Participate in regular food distribution; occasional clothes distribution; attend various entertainment programs with the poor street and slum kids in different projects.

- Participate in intensive Craft Training Program for the poor kids and women to make them self-sufficient in future.

- Participate in different Women Awareness Training Program related with HIV AIDS, Pre-natal care and Family Planning.

- Manual Volunteering in the different projects related with poor kids and women.

- Helping the officials of the organization in different welfare projects, official works like Advertisement, Internet and Web Designing, etc.

Internship Programmes (2 weeks to 3 months for the international students, ages 16+ years)

The organization has a special facility for Internship Program. We welcome all international students for this program. The students who are willing to do volunteering in their holidays and like to gather experience and knowledge to work in different cultures are most welcomed to our Organization. They can join in our following programmes:

- Teaching English and other Indian languages,
- Indian culture and tradition,
- Social survey in various parts of Kolkata (Social-cultural condition, educational system, behavioral patterns, life style etc.),
- Different women and gender issues,
- Learning Yoga.

During these programs, the interns are provided a separate flat as a group or individual. They will prepare a report of these programs. The organization will also provide the food and accommodation. Travel expenses between the flat and the project will also be covered by the Organization. They get constant support from the local people and the staffs of the organization in every sphere. The volunteers will also learn about many things regarding Indian heritage, its society and its culture by the Social Science Experts. The volunteers can join with us at any time of the year.

Highlights: Our vision is to establish non-formal free schools and vocational training centers for the poor kids around India. We also have a plan to arrange different training programs to enlighten the poor women. These are some of our highlighted projects:

This Project is designed for the special benefits of the kids who are living in the slum areas of Kolkata (Calcutta). In this center, we give them educational training (Basic Mathematics, Languages like English, Bengali and Basic Hindi, Social Science, General Knowledge and various crafts training,Physical Exercises) along with necessary educational materials, entertainment programs, cloths, medical support and other kind of help if any. To give support to these kids we establish Shikshan where they get the all facilities of education by a group of experts. Here they get the proper environment for education. Now we have already started one non-formal educational center under Shikshan project at Khardah slum area. We have a plan to establish similar educational centers at the different slum areas in and around Kolkata for the betterment of the needy slum kids.

The Project is started to help the street kids where we provide educational support, food, cloths, and first aid medical treatment for the poor kids and lactating mothers. It is our one of the main Projects and the first center of this Project, which is running at Sealdah Railway Station. We recently establish another center of this project which is at Dumdum Jn. railway atation.

We are now arranging the different awareness programme for the slum women in the spheres of nutritional care, pre natal care, family planning, sex education and HIV AIDS. Here we also give a guide line to the women 'how to give your child a better health against malnutrition'. The women are also taught about different herbs and its usefulness - that is different herbal medicines, herbal cosmatics etc. We give them different herbs and seeds and by these they grow different useful vegetables for their daily life. We also try give them some ideas about our nature and how to save our nature. Other than these, we also teach them different crafts. It is a short trainig programme for three to four weeks in every month with due course of interval.

To make Self-Help Group of children between the age of 12 to 15 years, we will arrange crafts training program for them by a group of experts in the slum and street areas.

We also have also started the similar type of project among the women folk of the slum area to reduce the economical need. In their crafts, they are making different Indian ethnic as well as trendy jwelleries like necklaces, wristlets, anklets, ear rings. Also they are doing glass painting, fabric works. They are doing different stiching works like wall hangings, wall pockets, pillow cases, bookmarks, table mats, napkins etc. We are planning to sell their products and make them self sufficient economically.

This is our proposed project in which we will arrange free medical check-up by a group of medical experts for the needy slum kids. Medical check-up will be arranged by the organization at regular intervals. We will also arrange vaccination to these kids to prevent different transmissible diseases.

For this program we need huge help from the Volunteers, who will help the organization to serve for these needy and poor kids. Therefore we invite Volunteers from all over the World to join with us, to teach the kids and to make a better future for them.

We will arrange various internship programme for the International Volunteers thrice in a year at the interval of four months. Interested Volunteers and Groups are requested to come and join in the internship programmes.

Qualifications: The volunteers should be 16 years and above of age. The volunteers from any qualification are welcomed to join Crawl Society. Experience not required. But we also welcome professionals with any background. As our projects are mainly highlighted on street and slum kids and women so the volunteers must adopt the soft kind hearted mentality to work with these poor street & slum kids and women. They must be willing to adapt to totally different cultures and different people. Volunteers will need to be flexible and expect different situations, though the local people will help them at every aspect whenever they will need.

Typical Volunteer: A volunteer must adopt the soft kind hearted mentality to work with Crawl projects. He/she will need to be flexible and accept different situations during the programmes. He/she will have to adjust with typical Indian food, accommodation and must be willing to adapt to totally different people with different cultures.

This Program is open to Worldwide Participants. This Program is also open to Families, Couples and Individuals

Crawl's Mission Statement: CRAWL (Children Resolution and Women Learning) is a Volunteer Organization, who welcomes all National and International Volunteers and Students to participate in different Welfare activities for the under privilege children and women in India. Our foremost objective is to make better world for the poor children and women. Through our many projects, we have a plan to communicate many poor children and women as possible. We need many volunteers, who have the same desire to make a better world for our children. We invite volunteers around the World to join us, for the more progress we can achieve. Our vision is to establish non-formal free schools and vocational training centers for the poor children around INDIA. We also have a plan to arrange different training and awareness programs to enlighten the poor women.