At the weekend we had a reunion for the Rwanda team. It was the first time the team had been together since saying good bye to each other at the airport on the way home, and there was a lot of catching up to be done!
But as well as the catching up, there was also the first draft of the Rwanda CRED video to be seen, which reduced some of the team to tears as all the memories came flooding back - I'll let you know when it is uploaded to you-tube.
The third main component of the reunion was the time of reflection on the impact of the trip on the team members. It is this part that makes a reunion for me. I am in the privileged position of reading all the evaluation forms that the team members fill in immediately post-trip, and of course as a team leader I also see transformations taking place within the team members throughout the trip. But one area that I am always interested in is seeing how much of that impact remains, and how much just dies away on returning to the UK and getting sucked back into normal life.
So I was delighted to hear some really good accounts of the longer-term impact of the rwanda trip on team members.
Two of them reported that they have received promotions at work since coming back, and in both cases the reason given was that the employer had noticed a very positive change in their work ethic, and was acknowledging this through the promotion. According to the girls in question, one said that the improved work ethic was due to realising how lucky she is just to have a home, food, education, job etc; and the other said she came back realising how much she just took everything for granted, but how actually her responsibility as a person was to play her part in life with more enthusiasm and care for others.
One of the lads said how he now watches the news on the TV and is interested in world affairs. And when the Philippines hurricane struck, he was so much more impacted by it and did something to help, because he had seen the reality of living with nothing when we visited the street kids.
One of the team spoke of how she has more direction with her chosen career now, and sees it as a chance to help others, and not just as a means of earning money.
Others spoke of being less fussy with food, more grateful for education, more grateful for family, home, clothes, even just having a bed to sleep in! And how they are sharing those feelings with friends and family and so making others think about their own attitudes as well.
It was a lovely evening, and a reminder, if ever I needed one, of part of the reason why we do these trips. Of course it is always important to know that the main beneficiaries are the project themselves, and evidence of that has been given to us in several ways during and since the trip, so there are no worries on that front. But it was lovely to hear how the impact of the trip is living on in the young people that we took to Rwanda as well. Long may it last, for them, and for similar participants on the other trips!
But as well as the catching up, there was also the first draft of the Rwanda CRED video to be seen, which reduced some of the team to tears as all the memories came flooding back - I'll let you know when it is uploaded to you-tube.
The third main component of the reunion was the time of reflection on the impact of the trip on the team members. It is this part that makes a reunion for me. I am in the privileged position of reading all the evaluation forms that the team members fill in immediately post-trip, and of course as a team leader I also see transformations taking place within the team members throughout the trip. But one area that I am always interested in is seeing how much of that impact remains, and how much just dies away on returning to the UK and getting sucked back into normal life.
So I was delighted to hear some really good accounts of the longer-term impact of the rwanda trip on team members.
Two of them reported that they have received promotions at work since coming back, and in both cases the reason given was that the employer had noticed a very positive change in their work ethic, and was acknowledging this through the promotion. According to the girls in question, one said that the improved work ethic was due to realising how lucky she is just to have a home, food, education, job etc; and the other said she came back realising how much she just took everything for granted, but how actually her responsibility as a person was to play her part in life with more enthusiasm and care for others.
One of the lads said how he now watches the news on the TV and is interested in world affairs. And when the Philippines hurricane struck, he was so much more impacted by it and did something to help, because he had seen the reality of living with nothing when we visited the street kids.
One of the team spoke of how she has more direction with her chosen career now, and sees it as a chance to help others, and not just as a means of earning money.
Others spoke of being less fussy with food, more grateful for education, more grateful for family, home, clothes, even just having a bed to sleep in! And how they are sharing those feelings with friends and family and so making others think about their own attitudes as well.
It was a lovely evening, and a reminder, if ever I needed one, of part of the reason why we do these trips. Of course it is always important to know that the main beneficiaries are the project themselves, and evidence of that has been given to us in several ways during and since the trip, so there are no worries on that front. But it was lovely to hear how the impact of the trip is living on in the young people that we took to Rwanda as well. Long may it last, for them, and for similar participants on the other trips!
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