With the help of AIESEC, Nathalie Rätzo went on an internship to India for six months, specifically in the bustling metropolis of New Delhi.
This summer, I had the chance to go abroad for two months with AIESEC. The student organization provides a global platform for students to build international networks, it gives leadership opportunities to its members and offers over 15’000 internships in professional and social fields.
Present in over 111 countries, AIESEC tries to have a positive impact on society; this is what I want to do, too. For this reason, I decided to organize a summer internship in New Delhi, India. I chose a project called «UDAAN», consisting in impacting underprivileged children.
I left right after my last exam, and fortunately I was well prepared to the cultural shock I had. India is a diffenrent world! The whole AIESEC team from the Delhi University did a lot to help the 20 international interns working on the UDAAN project adapt to other living standards and integrate into the local life. The first time we all met, we knew that we could do a great job together; we came from Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, England, Switzerland, Russia, China, Taiwan, Canada and India, and we all had the same vision: we wanted the 40 children who were assigned to our project to learn something for life and above all, to smile, have a good time with us, to feel important and beloved.
When we first met them, we were very excited, but also a bit anxious: how will communication work? Will they be interested in the activities we prepared for them? And even: will they come at all? Finally, our first session went pretty well, and some Indian volunteers from AIESEC came in order to translate for us. Then, we used to meet the children four days a week outside in a park, after school. We mainly played together and tried to teach them through our games some English, the importance of communication, tolerance, respect, civil responsibility, protection of our environment. Even though these children do not have much, they were always smiling and happy to be there with us. We became really attached to them and every day it got harder to say goodbye.
Besides running the project, we had enough time on weekends to travel all over Northern India; we went for a camel ride and slept in the desert overnight, visited the Dalai Lama’s place, took thousands of pictures in front of the Taj Mahal, went trekking in the Himalaya, visited a mosque, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh and Hindu temples the same day. We had a lot of fun, enjoyed amazing parties and met interesting people.
This intercultural experience was very enriching for me and I learned a lot about myself. It gave me the opportunity to discover another country with a very rich and diverse culture and to build a global network with AIESECers from all over the world. I will never forget all the beautiful moments I shared with the children, the other interns and the AIESEC team from Delhi.