Local Core Team
Volunteers

Testimonies

Raphael Zepeda, Guatemala 2015

My friend Josué told me of his voluntary work at an organisation called Vision Guatemala in San Juan La Laguna and asked me, if I would like to help him give a creative workshop about photography and audio-visual documentation. The next week we started the workshop with the goal to produce two short movies, one about the woman and one about the children and youth program.

My group covered the woman program and we decided to tell the story of Iris. We started to develop the idea and during the process learned a lot from our experiences. During the time of the workshop we had exercises covering “contents”, “movement” and “perspective” and made some very short movies about the subject of “story telling”. The participants could learn from watching the result of their own exercise and by analysing their own work, which they did to perfection and with a lot of passion.

Personally, thanks to the great group of people at Vision Guatemala I learned lesions for life and had a lot of inspiring moments. The biggest satisfaction is due to the fact, that I could pass on the passion I have for making movies to one of the young men I worked with. Thank you very much for this opportunity.

Laila Savare, Switzerland 2012

A few years ago, I travelled to Guatemala full of excitement and curiosity. I was also a bit nervous because I wasn’t sure what to expect. My father had kept telling me about his former inspiring collegue Nickie who was now dedicated to the creation of new opportunities for the Guatemalan Society. I was driven by the idea of joining her in her mission to help others who weren’t born with the same luck of possibilities. I grew up in a country where I never have to worry about the next day.

Looking back I have to admit that I probably learned a lot more from all the wonderful, warm and positive people I had the pleasure to meet at the Lake Atitlan, than they learned from me. Nevertheless, I believe that the kids I was working with during my four months teaching experience have been able to acquire new and helpful knowledge that will improve their lives in many ways. I am proud of being a part of the ongoing institutional development until today, connecting new volunteers. I will never forget my marvelous time in Guatemala. Thank you Nickie and the whole Vision family!

Corrado Zenesini and Simona de Nicola, Italy 2013

We joined Vision Guatemala and helped us to investigate the public health system of our working area, Lake Atitlan, in order to improve our methods of intervention and ways to help people emerge from difficult situations. Corrado is a statistician, working in healthcare area: along with doctors, he studies diseases, analyzing how they develop along the course of history and how they distribute in different geographical areas. Simona works in communications, mostly in educational and cultural area: a master degree in Semiotics, she is very into anthropology and original cultures studies.

At Vision Guatemala we worked on a survey aimed to detect prevalence of common diseases in the villages of San Juan, San Marcos and San Pedro La Laguna. To better understand the context, we run an introductory survey on indigenous people spirituality and their use of medicine. The main aim was to identify which socio cultural factors may influence on perception of “health” and “disease” between Tzutujil populations. Furthermore we investigate how traditional medicine practiced in small towns around Lake Atitlàn may interfere with a health approach based on a western model of medicine.

The survey was conducted putting together both data already available in local archives both information gained with field research.

Nadja Obreschkow, Switzerland (2013)

I spent about 2.5 months volunteering at Vision Guatemala in 2013. I wanted to improve my Spanish while working for a good cause and a friend of mine told me about Nicola and her project. Very quickly, it was clear to me that an engagement for Vision Guatemala would be exactly the right thing for me. Already back in Switzerland, I was fascinated by the courage and strength of this young woman, Nicola, who had built up Vision Guatemala all by herself. And when I arrived at Vision Guatemala I was immediately caught by the enthusiasm of Nicola and her team for what they do. They gave me a very warm welcome and I was immediately integrated into the team.

I first started with some paper work that needed to be done and I could help the Guatemalan staff members to get some computer skills. I also took part in various school or free time activities with the children such as English classes, swimming or an acting workshop. It was very satisfactory for me to see that they could really need my help and, with my lawyer background, I just enjoyed it so much to do something completely different for once. But the most intense experience for me was the work with the women. I took part in writing our basic accountancy classes, in workshops on teeth brushing or other health subjects and in the regular meetings where the women pay back their credit and speak about their progress and plans.

To see the blinking in the eyes of these women when they talk about everything they are able to do thanks to the help of Vision Guatemala, to see how happy and grateful they are that they have been chosen to be part of the project, to see just how the support of Nicola and Vision Guatemala truly helps families to improve their lives was for me the most touching and enriching experience of all. I am extremely thankful that I had the chance to be part of the Vision Guatemala-family for some time and I will keep this experience in my heart forever.

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