Mr.Paul Führlein, Volunteer , Germany
Hey there, my name is Paul and I stayed at IRCDS in Tiruvallur from March 2019 through December 2019. 9 months full of learnings and adapting, sometimes spiced with a few challenges. After returning to Germany, I now live in Frankfurt am Main where I study law at Goethe University.
I remember being extremely nervous on my day of arrival, but the IRCDS staff treated me like a family member from the first day on. So Tiruvallur soon started to feel like home, and I was able to focus on the work IRCDS is doing. That gave me the chance to learn a lot about how to do effective social work and how to create a lasting impact.
Before I came to IRCDS I thought about social work as an rather abstract thing, connected it only to multinational world-know organizations and United Nations bodies. However, working with IRCDS for 9 months really changed my view on social work, since I learnt about the enormous impact of hard, well monitored, grass root level work. By doing this kind of effective, hard grass root level work, IRDCS creates long lasting, sustainable changes in Tiruvallur District.
But besides grass root level work, I also learnt about the effects of networking with other organizations and government agencies. By doing so, IRCDS created an effective way of joining forces with other like-minded agencies and mobilizing resources. By combining the networking on the top level with their effective grass root level work, IRCDS brings about structural changes in the area.
At the end, I have to conclude that IRCDS gave me a chance to have insights into a very hard working, successful NGO and to learn about to create an impact. For that I’m still truly thankful. At the same time, I am proud that I had the chance to be part of this wonderful organization for 9 months.