You Don’t Just Travel During the 10-Month Programme – You’re Transformed by it

I completed my 10 month programme on February 7th 2026. I went to Jaipur, India and was teaching primary school kids in a Humana public school. During my time there I felt so grateful that for once in my life I had a purpose more than only providing for myself. My job suddenly became a responsibility to encourage the growth and learning of the students there, a position I took very seriously and an experience I cherish.

Why this programme is different from traveling

The programme is structured into three sections. Three months study and preparation in Denmark, six months at the project and 1 month of Bring It To the Public. The thing that makes it different from traveling is that during your project time you must reflect and gain understanding of your role, you must reflect to understand what your impact was and you must present your understanding and impact to the public in the last month. The approaching reality of this final month remains at the back of your mind throughout the project and ensures that you will participate fully in the culture and project to gain the understanding needed to present your efforts to the public.

Living the experience instead of passing through

Throughout my time in India I was fully immersed in my work and in the culture of India and because of this I had no fear of Bring It To the Public. This immersion in the project gave me confidence in myself so that I could easily tell about my experience, my failures, my impact and personal development as a volunteer.

Everyday I woke up and sat with the students before class started, then I would participate in the morning prayers, I would drink tea and share lunch with teachers and students, I would dance for students in Indian style, I’d let the male teachers hold my hand on the street, I’d taste all the food I was offered. This acceptance of the culture allowed me to be accepted and respected by the people I was working with and also this acceptance of foreignness allowed me to grow.

India as a mirror for personal growth

Personally I felt like I was ready for a place like India and it helped me understand some important things in life. Being in India made me realise how we form understanding and that this is a cycle which repeats throughout our lives. India made me see that reflection is only the beginning of understanding like witnessing is just the start of participation. There is a cyclical progression between participation, reflection and understanding. My personal growth became evident when I understood that reflection does not equal understanding.

The project in India also helped me to understand that values are not things that we possess but rather they are things that we choose to temporarily inhabit. When I was teaching the students there, often they would misbehave or they would not listen and in these times I felt frustration building in me but each time I was able to subdue frustration and this is when I became patient.

Plans would often change and other teachers would take my class, or they would tell me I shouldn’t teach my planned class but instead I should teach from the book. In these situations I chose not to argue or allow my ego to take over, instead I chose to become flexible and divert my energy positively according to each situation.

Staying through discomfort and uncertainty

There were times during my project where I was living in extreme heat, being bitten by mosquitoes, being kept up at night by dogs barking, navigating the language barrier. There were times when I questioned myself, my teaching skills and the impact of my efforts, these thoughts were consistent, yet the choice was mine to make. Persistence is choosing not to give in when the mind is trying to convince you to take the easy path. Persistence is choosing to wake up every morning and performing your duties diligently. Persistence is defying the voice of comfort seeking and continuing through uncertainty, this is exactly what you must do to transform and this is the opportunity that the 10-month programme offers you.

How the journey reshaped my priorities

Now after completing the programme I no longer wish to return back to my old life where my priorities lay in providing for only my own progress. My old life rewarded working for a salary that only benefited myself. After completing the 10-month programme my priorities now lie with supporting the progress of others, understanding the world and learning how I can support and have some impact in promoting and creating solutions for those less fortunate than myself. For this reason I joined Humana and I will become a DI teacher. I will be sent to the International HQ of Humana in Zimbabwe for pedagogy training. There I will learn and gain practical teaching experience so that I can give the future volunteers the best experience during their time preparing for the 6 month project.

Who I am now compared to when I started

It’s difficult to assess yourself when you are living the change.

I now see that development happens in micro and macro stages. I am now a person who sees that we can develop understanding in the space of ten minutes or over many years. Whether it’s understanding how a student didn’t understand the lesson and creating another lesson to reinforce the gaps, or whether its understanding the journey of becoming an outsider in a foreign culture to realizing your role during the project, or whether it’s realizing how an entire community’s way of living, teaching, and supporting one another differs from my previous worldview, and integrating that understanding into how I approach life and work moving forward, this revelation will forever change how I will be able to process and adapt to new challenges.

The 10-month program has formed me into someone who now wants to use my experience and knowledge to aid and support the progress of others and to encourage understanding of the mindset and choice factors needed to be adaptable. I see myself now as someone who is able to contemplate and present my ideas confidently in a public setting, something I never thought I would be able to do a year ago, the program has given me a new purpose, a fresh perspective and a new type of confidence molded by the challenges I overcame during these ten months.

If this experience resonates with you and you feel the desire to step beyond simply traveling and instead grow through purpose, challenge, and reflection, I encourage you to learn more about the 10-month Volunteer for Change programme.

It is an opportunity not only to see the world, but to understand your role within it.

Learn more about the programme here