“All that is needed is the collaboration of everyone doing their little bit to support”

Today’s volunteer story is about Freddies experience at One Happy Family. He stayed with us for three weeks in summer. As a teacher Freddie was involved in the Adult School and did a lot of teacher training to all of our teachers – those who learnt teaching here and those who came with a background in teaching from their home countries.

Thank you, Freddie, for your energy and all your very good advices!

This is my most memorable moment:

One of the most memorable moments was during one of the open stages. First afghani men were dancing and everyone was chanting them, there then was a very loud cheer for someone because he is a very good dancer. And this man, he is from Congo, so then the music was changed into Congolese music. The energy in the room was amazing, equally for both music genres – that was a very beautiful moment to watch: seeing how everybody wants to be together, a community here in One Happy Family.

This struck me the most:

The beauty and strength of human endurance. The fact that the visitors are able to still be positive and people, when they are at One Happy Family.

One Happy Family is…

A community of love and hope!

What I would like to tell other people:

That everybody can help with the so called “refugee crisis”. Because all that is needed is the collaboration of everyone doing their little bit to support. No matter how small or medium the job is.

My tasks in One Happy Family are…

Every day I was teaching in the adult school, I helped to design a curriculum for the different levels and I ran teacher meetings and facilitated the peer support for the short-term volunteers, but I also helped out with daily tasks.

What do you think makes One Happy Family different from other similar organizations?

I don’t have experience but I think something that struck me was how open and humble the coordination team are – which makes it very easy for people to help and to suggest ideas to improve the organisation.