Testimonial

I have just got back from 3 months' volunteering for i2i in Rocinha and can honestly say it was a life changing experience. Everything about Rocinha is intense: the sights, the sounds, the smells, but you'd be hard pressed to find a volunteer who hasn't in some capacity fallen in love with the place. I know I did. From the beautiful views at the 'visual' to the Sunday morning markets on Lago da Boadeira – it truly is breathtaking.

I had the opportunity to work with hard-working, fun and open-minded volunteers from all over the world – which made spare time and the work at i2i so much more enjoyable. Besides the volunteers, there is a great team of Brazilians at i2i who became some of my closest friends during the experience. One of the great things about the i2i organization is that because they are in a critical growth stage, as a volunteer I felt empowered as I could come up with ideas and see them through to fruition. One of these initiatives included a month long intensive English course for adults which another volunteer from Australia and I started over the summer holiday period. It was really rewarding seeing these individuals' passion for learning, and hearing stories of how they were able to apply the skills they learnt in the workplace. We also developed a summer sports program for the children that were already a part of the i2i community. This month long program included a field trip to a beautiful park on the other side of Rio where we were able to treat the children to a picnic with face-painting, three-legged racing and even some improvised fishing in the lake!

If anyone reading this is considering volunteering for i2i my advice would be: go for it, but go prepared. Go with the expectation that as a young organisation, they might not always have work to hand to you on a platter, or a pre-prepared slot for you to fill ; but they will try to use your talents where they can and will always be completely open in supporting any ideas and intitatives you might have to benefit this great community. Boa Sorte!

Andrew Ridler
New Zealand
andrew.ridler@gmail.com