I am Zsuzsa, I grew up and was raised in a lovely city, in the heart of Hungary, called Kecskemet. After my childhood I moved to Szeged, to study at the university, where I finished my bachelor degree on the field of Journalism, then my master degree in Cultural Heritage Protection. What maybe seems a bit odd pair, but shows my main 2 interests: the people with their own unique stories, and the world with all the amazingly colorful cultures. So soon I started to travel in a low-budget way, with always the help of local people and families (hitch-hiking, volunteering, couch-surfing). Tried to get to know them, their ideas, their point of view, how they see the world, what they believe in… All the things what is unique, what is only theirs, and still, after long conversations I always felt that under the surface we still share the same feelings, we are the same.
When I saw the ESC opportunity, I got curious, maybe with the help of professional local organizations I can dive even deeper. I can get to know more about the challenges what local people are facing with, how they handle it. How they live and how mainly the minorities live, mainly those who doesn’t have the loudest voice and are more invisible in the society. Mainly in India where so many ethnicity, so many religions, so many social groups exist but still entwined, I think on my own would be almost impossible to untangle and understand this colorful, vibrant and vivid culture. And there came the chance to apply for work with SCMI in Bangalore, India in this great project.
So first of all I hope I can learn and get to know more about the real India (not the postcard version), I can connect with local people. I hope I can see and hear about the people’s goals, their dreams, the challenges on their way and their answers for these obstacles, and how a local NGO like SCMI can help them on this journey. Finally, I hope I can share my experiences in a way that maybe can open-up the world for other people, can give a better understanding of each other, maybe a bit hope and a feeling of togetherness.
Zsuzsa is a Phiren Amenca volunteer in India, hosted by the Student Christian Movement of India, within the Erasmus+ KA2 Capacity building for Youth project “My Story of Resistance- from exclusion to active participation”.
