Thursday, August 3, 2017

Martha Mc Garry Blog Post (Wildflower Home)

Hi I’m Martha and I am volunteering with CCT for four weeks. I am 19 years old and study law with social justice at home in Ireland.  I decided to get involved in overseas volunteering because I have always wanted to travel and experience a new culture. I have also always been interested in global relations and creating a more equal world. Therefore I really wanted an opportunity to learn about what inequality looks like in practice. I spend a great deal of time writing about how the Global North is damaging the Global South through over consumption and how this must end. However I always felt that my opinions were invalid if I made no effort to actually se the consequences of this global inequality. 

Furthermore women’s rights is a matter I feel strongly about and so when I heard about the opportunity to work in The Wildflower Home for single mothers I really wanted to get involved. My friend Cara and I decided to travel here to Chiang Mai together. So far I have had an amazing experience in the home. There are currently five mothers in the home. There is a great sense of community among the mothers, the Sisters and the children. They have made us feel really welcome in the home and the experience has been so enjoyable. The work we do is very varied, from minding the children to gardening to making a cement path. 

It can be challenging at times to see the stark contrast between how these children grow up and how I, or many people in the West, grew up. It makes little difference to them, as the kids are all happy, healthy and adorable. There is always something to do in the home and the biggest challenge is having a noticeable impact. The staff, mothers and other volunteers already do a fantastic job of running the home. Many of these volunteers have been coming for years and have a settled role in the home. A challenge for the rest of my time will be figuring out the best way I can use my own personal skills to be helpful in the home.

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