Fafali Experience - Katharina Droege from Germany

meet Katarina from Germany who dedicated eight months of her life to volunteering with the fali organization she embodies the profound truth that our livelihood is shaped by what we receive but our Essence and fulfillment are derived from what we give hello my name is Katarina I'm 19 years old and I'm from Germany and I've been volunteering with the fani organization for 8 months [Music] now yes uh when I was in Germany I also volunteered um I also volunteered as a coach for athletics and some other like small activities like with the church um and other [Music] projects um my responsibilities started with recruiting the kids so first year we recruited the kids um I started putting training sessions together visiting the kids at home um getting to know the children and everything that comes along with working the kids every time um I did something with fani I wasn't the only one um having all the responsibility all the task to do I always had help from other staff members other volunteers so for example in in the now training I mostly wasn't the only coach on the field I always had some help um yeah from Office uh members or outside volunteers and also um for planning event I also got um much support from um the whole team uh when I had questions when I had an idea but I wanted to make sure um yeah I have the right thoughts how it could be and yeah I always could ask the others sometimes it seems be a cach um yeah for up for the fit for project is just about there 2 hours training putting some kids together doing some training but it's much more than this and you have to visit the kids at home make sure you really understand their problems um maybe understand why they're not concentrated in training um sometimes it gives you some headache um how the kids live um you see the reality outside in cha and and yeah seeing the real reality and dice of the kids and yeah sometimes it becomes like overwhelming but as I said you're not alone with all the responsibility so um yeah um I would like to separate this into um like personal um relationships to the K and on a sportive aspect like how I did the training um for the sportive aspect uh we had the fit for fun games in April and yeah we did some athletic disciplines like 100 met Sprint herles and we won with our team against some other teams from fali so I think this a yeah quite good a sportive achievement on the other hand um yeah looking on the relationship with the kids I realized that the more and more I work together with the kids and getting them know better um the kids also open up to me so I was able to talk to them privately to find some uh Solutions and yeah helping them in their daily [Music] struggle [Music] as a coach for the fit for fun project you are the um head coach or I was the head coach for this project that means I was the one and going out um to the field and being in charged of the whole program as a program assistant program cordinator it's more like an overview um asking the other coaches how the uh projects are going on if there are any problems it's more like um report and finding out what are the problems in the organizations what can we do better um and yeah reflecting on what we do in the trainings and working with the kids the FF organization has taught me a many ways um they give me such a new experience being in a whole new environment working with uh younger kids working with um kids who have yeah like daily struggle and um also being in the office seeing how an NGO Works um what are the challenges what are the strength how you develop an organization and um yeah one was of course at the Fit For Fun training I really really loved it and um I put so much energy into it um and the second one was yeah I could name one example when I was and I said outside the office in the evening and had like a normal talk and I saw a kid um passing by it was quite late in the evening that asked my colleague um was she outside this late and was she working like searching for something then she he my colleague told me that probably the girl is looking for her mother and seal for her because um yeah probably she's in a bar uh drinking alcohol because she's an alcoholic and that means a 8 years old kid has to go out late in the evening to find her mother to bring her [Music] home um yeah the fact that um I wasn't just in the office and also outside and they being hard of the community and sometimes there were some situation that seem weird to me or I was questioning why are people doing that and they were always um my other colleagues who who are open to explain me everything it starts from how you greet people how um people see you as very a white person um where it comes from how people think um what are their yeah like values what um is their goal in life every yeah everything that comes with um a society human being and the more you spend time with people the more you spend time with your colleagues the more you get to know about the [Music] culture yeah I would fully recommend uh the faf organization um as an organization to volunteer with I show myself that I will come back uh one day I don't know yet when the time uh will be yeah available but I can say go I will come back and also if um my friends um people I know come to me and say oh I was interested in doing something similar you did volunteering um going to an African country I always um yeah recommend for fun as an organization I would like to say thank you to everyone and from my colleagues from the faf organization everyone I met here and also the people in kiss the kids the adults everyone for yeah welcome me this friendly I really enjoyed my time I felt so like part of the uh community and there was always someone who BR me Catarina or BR me the kids yeah how the kids come here and I was I felt like I'm not just a tourist coming here to see how the people will um live but being a part of the uh Community myself so thank you very much to everyone bye