This is me at my workplace at QUEST Alliance

My name is Claire, I am from Germany and currently doing an internship at QUEST Alliance. I came here through the exchange program of the international student organization AIESEC.

I started my internship on March 15th and will be working for QUEST Alliance for another three and a half months. As a student with a Communications background, I am responsible for managing all the Communication work here at QUEST. In the first days of my internship, I read a lot of brochures, reports and articles about the work of QUEST Alliance to get an insight and a better idea of the whole organization. I then started working on an integral Communications and Branding strategy to push ahead our perception in public. It was a necessary step as there was almost no external communication taking place so far. I set up a strategy and a plan through which channels (online/offline) we should communicate, why, how often etc. In the end, it was also up to me to implement the planned measures and carry them out. QUEST Alliance is now present on the major Web 2.0 channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, Vimeo, Youtube and this blog) and we could already score some success with that.

Another area of work for me was and still is the creation of our first Annual Report and our first Newsletter since QUEST Alliance has become a separate entity from the International Youth Foundation in 2009. Both  will be issued pretty soon and will then be available on our Website as a PDF. Apropos Website: I also worked a lot of hours for our new website which will be launched within the next days.  I chose suitable pictures and uploaded them as well as most of our content. Soon all the effort that has been put into all those projects can be seen. We will keep you informed!

In the upcoming weeks, I will try to push forward our online channels in order to promote the organization and increase our visibility. Furthermore, I will work our Media Relations and try to establish sustainable and long-term partnerships with relevant media houses. We also aim to have a good-working and effective CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool in order to manage our partnerships which will be another area of focus for me.

On top of all that, I was offered by my colleague Abhijeet to volunteer for one of our partner organizations, Dream A Dream to get a better insight of grassroot work and what is behind the programs of QUEST Alliance. So I signed up as a volunteer and have been already quite active since then. I attended one Adventure Camp for children as a Leader (see last blog post) and have been co-facilitating in an IT-class for students that undergo a lifeskills program. Volunteering and having contact to the target group of QUEST Alliance’s programs help me a lot to understand the ground reality in India. Furthermore, it is a great feeling to be able to help children and young people and to improve their chances in life.

I always wanted to go abroad but it never worked out before. It is really a coincidence that I ended up having my exchange experience here in India. Which, looking back, has been the best thing that could have happened to me. It is always a challenge to live in a different country. Yet, I think, the challenge is even bigger if you are in a country that is so different from your own. It leaves even more space for personal growth and development.

Before coming to India, I read a lot about the traditions, customs, mentality etc. and I also talked to friends who had spent some time in India. I felt somehow prepared for my experience in India. Once I was here, reality struck me hard and it took some time to get adjusted to everything. I learnt my lesson that you can never really be prepared for another country unless you arrived.

I have been here for almost three months and I can now say that I really feel comfortable and enjoy the otherness of this wonderful country (which had caused me a lot of trouble in the beginning). To me, this is what an experience abroad really is about: dive into a new culture, accept its differences and learn something from it for yourself. This gives one the opportunity for personal growth and development as well as a new view on the world. Or as my motto in life puts it right: “Constantly challenge your world view!”. I am glad that I can have my experience abroad here in India which definitely challenges my world view. It is an experience of a lifetime! When I go back to Germany, some things will have changed for sure – I will have changed. Not in the fundamentals of my character but some attitudes and views. And this is what an exchange experience is and should be all about!

Until then, I just enjoy my time here with all the great people that I met and will still meet and my really interesting internship with nice colleagues and a great work climate that leaves enough room for own ideas. Thanks to QUEST Alliance for giving me that opportunity in my life!

About three weeks ago, my colleague Abhijeet forwarded me a Newsletter from our partner organization Dream A Dream. They were looking for volunteers to take part in their 4 to 5 days Adventure Camps for underpriviliged children. As I had stated from the start of my internship that I would be interested in field visits and grass roots work, I gladly accepted Abhijeet’s offer to take part in one of those camps.

Dream A Dream organizes those Adventure Camp every year. The target group are underpriviliged children. The objective is to increase the children’s confidence and to provide them with essential lifeskills through different activities. The level of difficulty is being increased continuously to challenge the children.

We, i.e. 13 girls, 15 boys and four Tour Leaders (one of them a doctor), left Bangalore on Monday night. An overnight bus brought us to Talaguppa, close to Jog Falls. A short taxi ride later, we reached the camp which was situated directly next to the Linganamakki Reservoir. After a recuperative breakfast, we directly started with some acitivities. First, we took a walk around the whole camp site which is quite a big area. After that, the children, all between 11 and 13 years old, faced their first challenge: they were supposed to swim (with life jackets) for the first time in their life. Some of those kids were very courageous and didn’t think long to get into the water. Others were really scared and even started crying. In the end, everyone had been at least in the water even if some hadn’t left the bank at all. Yet, for the first time, those children had done it pretty well.

The upcoming three days were full of challenging activities like paddling, camping, trekking, more swimming and teambuilding games. The biggest task was waiting for the kids on their the last two days. On the last night, we were supposed to spend the night on an island in tents with the children cooking their own food there. For that, they were supposed to compile a list of things we needed for the night. For whatever reason, they only included food in their list. The rules of the “game” said that they would only get those things mentioned in the list. As things like paddles, boats, tents etc. were missing completely, the idea of the night on the island had to be cancelled. The children found an alternative and were sent alone to the place we now would spent the night. Without any help of us Tour Leaders, they managed to make the most of their situation and cooked a simple, yet delicious meal. After that, you could literally see the change setting in those kids. They had faced a big challenge which they had mastered quite well. As they realized it, they were  jolly for the rest of the camp.

The next morning, the kids had to take the last and I would say biggest challenge. We first paddled over to the island we should have spent the night before. After having explored it for some time, another extensive swimming session was on the agenda. But the biggest challenge was yet to come: swimming back to the bank from the island with a stop-over on another small island. A handful of kids accepted the challenge and just swam straight on. After the stop-over, even more kids decided to swim back to the bank rather than paddling back in the boats. The look in their faces when they reached the bank is something that I will never forget in my life! We left the camp the same day, all exhausted but happy and aware of the fact that something was different now.

For me, being part of that camp was an experience I will never forget in my life. I took it as a personal challenge for myself, dealing with kids from an underprivileged and culturally different background and trying to help them to bring out the best in themselves. It was really interesting and at the same time rewarding to see the development those kids went through during the camp. I would like to compare it to a flower: in the beginning, the petals (=kids) were closed but after those four days, it was in full bloom. It makes me very happy to see that we actively contributed something positive to the kids’ lives who really have a hard life and an unknown future ahead. Having had an impact on young lives and having been a part of something small but at the same time big like that is something that will always mean a lot to me in my life. Or let me express it more clearly with the lyrics of a song I really like: “I’m starting with the man in the mirror. I’m asking him to change his ways. And no message could’ve been any clearer: if you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change!” (Michael Jackson) I hope that I could make at least a little change in this world by actively contributing to that Camp and the children’s future.

That's me

The kids listening to instructions

Every Tour Leader had a certain group to look after - this was mine

On our way to the first swimming session

Paddling on the lake

The kids definitely had fun during the paddling

Building the campsite for the second night which we spent in those tents

Dancing and singing around the campfire

On day 3 we made a 3-hours trek up a hill with a nice view on the lake

The kids during the trek

Dances and songs were constant elements during the Camp

Happy faces on the last day

The four Tour Leaders (from left to right: Shalini, Priyanka, me and Dr. Mahesh)

Ever since from the start, QUEST Alliance did not execute programs by itself but through partner organizations across India.  QUEST’s role was and still is to facilitate and support innovations. It was  built to establish partnerships of public, private and non-governmental organizations. Working together, they were to create, pilot and institutionalize technology tools for improving the quality of education and workforce development training for disadvantaged youth.

From 2007 on, a greater emphasis was put on policy advocacy for ICT in education. There was a shift in focus from making grants to anchoring knowledge sharing through research and dissemination. As it was already becoming clear that QUEST would not persist as an IYF program on the long run. Therefore, partners reconvened to brain storm on a future for QUEST.

By September 2009, when the IYF mandate officially ended, QUEST had been established as fully operational independent entity. As such, QUEST is now responsible for its own strategic planning, a quarterly review process and funding that is independent of US AID and the IYF. Even though some former programs are still being carried out, the focus is now clearly on vocational education through ICT based solutions. Through new projects like Livelihood Connect and Skills for Youth, innovations shall be enabled and new paths shall be chosen.

Innovate – A multi-disciplinary approach that seeks to immerse in varied contexts and build human centered solutions can create models for relevant and lasting change.

Collaborate – Developing new knowledge is a collaborative process that ought to leverage experiences and expertise of diverse partners.

Empower - Well designed systemic solutions have the potential to open a world of possibilities and enable learners to construct knowledge meaningfully

Our work involves intensive research into existing interventions in School Education & Vocational Skills training. Our diverse team spends much time in the field capturing good practices, analyzing gaps in the existing eco-system and interacting with inspiring teachers, students and success stories from across India.

Our pilot projects with a host of prominent partner organisations bring out interesting insights into teaching & learning methodologies, especially those that are technology led.

Our events and workshops bring together various stakeholders in the Education & Skills Training context to ideate, interact and share insights and explore collaborations.

Through this blog, we hope to share the experiences of our teams, partners and beneficiaries of our programs. We are a diverse group of individuals with a strong belief that design, technology and learning can be combined to create transformational learning experiences for young people. Please do visit our blog at regular intervals or add our RSS feed to your browser to know of updates.