Adele Hopcott, from Leicestershire & Rutland FYFC, was one of 12 YFC members who recently took part in a Volunteering travel opportunity to Nepal with Projects Abroad through the YFC Travel programme. The group spent two weeks in the country in South Asia, supporting local communities. Adele shares her experience of learning about a new culture and the impact it has had
A. Incredible! The first half of the trip we stayed in mud huts at Edu Farm where we split our time between helping here and at another farm at an Olgapuri Children's Village.
This involved preparing land for planting, germinating seeds and crop maintenance, such as weeding or stringing up vines. We helped harvest, weighing and bagging the crops to take to market for people to sell. We also milked cows and buffalos.
We played with the children when they got home from school – including football, gym competitions and plaited their hair.
The second half of our time in Nepal was spent working alongside some of the local female farmers from the village in the padi fields, learning about the different stages of rice and helping them to weed out the rice plants.
We finished our trip spending time in schools delivering educational programmes about farming that we had created. We compared Nepalese farms with English farms, drew farm scenes and showed the children photos of farms in the UK.
A. During the evenings we did activities such as learning how to speak Nepali, took a cooking class on how to make Momos and went out for a team meal.
We also went to Pokhara (the city of lakes) for a weekend of sightseeing, which included plenty of temples representing different religions, a boat trip on the Phewa Lake and saw parts of the Himalayan mountain range (as well seeing what a Nepalese bar looked like!)
A. Before I left the UK, I researched the Nepalese way of life, their greetings and religion and some of their history as it plays a huge part in how the country and culture is what is it today.
Throughout our time in Nepal we had a guide who was Nepalese. He taught us common words and phrases in Nepali and further educated us on the culture of the 4 Dham of Nepal and what they mean.
He translated a lot of our conversations so we could understand more about the activities we were doing, which also ensured we were doing things correctly.
We spoke to lots of adults and children from different parts of Nepal. It was fantastic to speak to one of the founders from Olgapuri Children's Home to understand the ethos behind what their work. We also spoke to the children about how it has changed their lives.
We saw how they farm as a community and how it's everyone’s responsibility to look after the padi fields. It was also very interesting to see how Nepal is made up of different religions, but they all live together in harmony and allow their neighbours to practice their religion in a safe way.
A. It has been eye opening, as I have never experienced anything like this. It was fantastic for me to see how two different countries can do things so differently but make them work.
I have a passion for agriculture and education as these are both two things I do within the UK. It was particularly interesting to see how they are executed and delivered in Nepal, which I think was one of my favourite parts of my experience.
A. This has been my first YFC Travel trip and I'm so glad I did it. It was the opportunity to travel to a country that I would otherwise have never visited. I was able to explore the country as well as volunteer to help others who needed support. I met like-minded people from YFC across the UK and exchanged agricultural practice from around the UK and within Nepal. An experience I would never have had without this opportunity.
YFC Travel will be open for applications in September 2024.
