The most incredible and heart-warming experience I had this summer, was working at a school in Sri Lanka. The school is specialized in teaching children with autism and down syndrome. An exceptional aspect to mention about the school, is that the principal is a 70+...
In the summer of 2019 I participated in the Medicine Project, organised by AIESEC. I got the chance to go to Ghana for 6 weeks to experience the culture and work at the hospital there. Before I left I was already in contact with people from AIESEC in Ghana. They...
I strongly believe it is an intense and enriching experience that everyone should have at least once in life! My AIESEC story in Colombia started at the end of September 2019. I decided to apply to a project only a few weeks before leaving and everything went very...
Never forget to love Transform project in Patras, Greece, 5thMay – 14thJune 2019 By Jingjing Jiang “I was so happy to share my culture with them and show the diversity.” From the Netherlands to Greece – after 4 hours flight plus 3,5 hours by bus I arrived at my...
Exchange Standards - what are they? By Jesler van Houdt What are the exchange standards? The AIESEC exchange standards are 16 promises from us to you. They describe what you can expect from us once you decide to go abroad with AIESEC. Why does AIESEC have exchange...
Visiting the Children of the Aspiration Fund, Vietnam By Marille van de Rijt The children see that there are people who care about them and support them. Arriving in Que Phong, Nghe An, Vietnam During my volunteering project in Vietnam, I had the opportunity to visit...
In the months January/February I participated in the “We Speak”-project for Aiesec in Bogotá, Colombia. I taught women from the “Casa de Igualdad” (house of equality) English in the hope for them to become more self-confident and make them stand out from the crowd. It...
One of the benefits of volunteering with AIESEC is that you don’t have to worry about your accommodation once you’re abroad. All AIESEC projects provide, and sometimes even cover, a place for you to stay. But what will this place look like? In general, there are two...
AIESEC Kilimanjaro, Women Empowerment My idea to volunteer abroad arose a few days before New Year’s Eve, when I was listing up my resolutions. One of them was to make the most of my long long summer holidays. So, when I went back to uni in January, the first thing I...
Order a drink on the streets in Solo (officially named Surakarta) and you will get a plastic cup with a plastic lid, a straw for easy drinking, a plastic bag to protect the cup and one small plastic bag for easy take away. Take a look around and check where you can...
Last summer I went to Georgia to volunteer in a project hosted by AIESEC. It’s been a very interesting journey with many ups, but certainly many downs too. . Volunteering abroad is not for everybody. It’s a challenging endeavour and through this post, I would like to...
AIESEC is a fantastic way to take a great leap beyond your comfort zone and truly submerge yourself into a whole new and completely different way of life. Preparation This year, as the buzz of summer break came ever closer, I decided that I wanted to do something...
Brazil – Smart Project in Florianopolis Introduction Brazil – Florianopolis, 7th of July 11pm. After my 10-hour flight from Lisbon to Brasilia, a clumsy request for a subway sandwich in the little Portuguese I learned 5 minutes earlier, and another 2-hour flight...
Feminism and Islam – a combination that seems to boil from tension. I know how difficult this topic can be: I am a Pakistani girl, grew up in Germany and live in the Netherlands. To analyze this topic, I went to Morocco for 6 weeks to interview people. In the last few...
A brief story of my experience volunteering for AIESEC in Mendoza, Argentina this summer and how the work of the local committee there provides an encouraging example to all of us Welcoming Culture “Our place is open to anyone that is seeking refuge in our city and...
"How lucky am I to have found a place and people that made me cry when I left?" The project The interesting thing about AIESEC is that they offer many volunteer programs for many interests. You don’t just volunteer and travel, but you put your knowledge into practice....
Even though I could only spend six weeks in Brazil, I am sure I made a difference in their lives. And they made a difference in mine. I came to Brazil after my first year of university and a lot of enthusiasm to leave my marks in another country far away from Europe....
People who say they can't are usually right. That is what these 6 weeks as an Exchange Participant (EP) in iCare were about for me. We arrived as a diverse and not-yet-cohesive group of young graduates and undergraduates. On our first day in YPAC, the school that we...
Experiencing an international exchange and living abroad always were one of my biggest dreams. However, due to several reasons it never happened during the time that I was a student. When I started working fulltime, I noticed that the desire for a longer travel and...
One summer in Iran, I went excited but also unknowing what to expect. The hosts, the people from AIESEC, people in the streets, in the metro, in parks, everywhere, everyone was so incredibly welcoming, kind, curious and hospitable. I did not expect this and soon I...
Approximately 6000 kilometers away from Holland my AIESEC experience started. Because of my gap year I wanted to do something. Not only travelling but also something related to my study. Then I found the Medicine Project, the perfect combination of learning in a...
Last year I went to Uganda for an internship. My biggest fear was moving into an unknown country and leaving my family and friends behind. I had to prepare myself six months before departure and on that D-day I was like, … ok this is it! I was really curious about the...
It is around midnight, when I am waiting at Barranquilla airport for someone to pick me up. Due to poor communication about this pick-up and my malfunctioning brain after an 18hr journey, I feel rather small. Fortunately a man points at his phone with a photo of me on...
My name is Gwen, and this year I got the opportunity to travel to Guatemala to check out AIESEC’s volunteer projects. I fell in love with the country, its culture, and I was amazed by the enthusiasm and dedication of the local AIESECers to make their country a better...
Pretty last minute I decided to go to Morocco for the Nour project. Having been to the Middle East before I figured I’d be a perfect candidate. I expected Morocco to be similar to the Middle East, since it has the same religion, language and sort of the same culture....
Get the local vibesBy Stijn Vrerik Finally, my trip to South-America has started, with a project in Medellin. Some months before leaving the Netherlands, I tried to learn some Spanish with a self-study course. Unfortunately, at the day of departure, I could probably...
Marokko lijkt geen haast te kennen. Op straat bewegen mensen zich op hun gemakje vooruit. Langzaam, al kletsend met gezelschap gaan ze op weg naar hun bestemming. Vaak komen mensen later op afspraken dan afgesproken. De enkelen die op tijd komen lijken niet...
Hier in Marokko betekent gastvrijheid meer dan het Nederlandse kopje koffie met een plakje ontbijtkoek. Als je bij mensen thuis wordt uitgenodigd krijg je in ieder geval muntthee met 4 suikerklontjes en worden er schaaltjes met eten voor je neergezet. 'Coelie', krijg...
Waar droom je van? Ik vind het altijd super interessant mensen deze vraag te stellen. Ik ben nieuwsgierig naar dromen, en hou er van als mensen iets onverwachts antwoorden. Mensen beginnen te stralen als ze over hun droom vertellen. En als ze niet precies weten wat ze...
'Als mensen eens geen vooroordelen zouden hebben, dan zou de wereld een stukje mooier zijn', zo luidde onze conclusie gisteravond. Het was de conclusie van een gesprek dat ik had met mijn kamergenootje, Oumaima. Een gesprek over vooroordelen, monarchie of republiek en...
Because I’m always eager to give something back to the world, I decided I wanted to do volunteer work in another country. For me this is also the best way to really get to know a country and its culture. People had told me that AIESEC is the perfect organization for...
It’s October 28, 2017. I’m getting off my plane at Tan Son Nat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City. For the past six weeks I had an amazing time backpacking in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Although I visited beautiful locations and had the time of my life, being in a...
8 december 2017. Het is inmiddels al de laatste week van mijn project in Brazilië. Samen met Antonin en Tiziana heb ik het al vijf weken prima naar m’n zin. Mijn project heet Planet Heroes. Het doel van het project is om kinderen bewust te maken van hun omgeving,...
When I arrived it was already dark outside, but everything went (surprisingly) smooth; we were picked-up at the airport by car immediately and went to the accommodation, all on a quite road with nice African music on the background. By the time I did not know this...
The moment I walked out of the airport, I was overwhelmed by all the unknown impressions. Everywhere were people looking at us and calling for us. When Luc and I finally found our guide, who would bring us to the place we would call home for the upcoming seven weeks,...
It was only 6 days before departure that I booked my flight ticket to Amman, Jordan. The couple of days I had left in the Netherlands were just enough to finish my last tasks as an AIESEC board member and to pack my bags. With almost no expectations I got onto the...
6 weeks ago, when I was still at home, I didn’t really know what to expect. I was excited to go, but also really nervous. First impressions Then I arrived in Malang. I thought I was experiencing cultural differences: the crowded streets with all the motorcycles,...
Boarding the airplane, that would first bring me to Singapore and then to Kuching in Malaysia, I was very much doubting my decision to leave Amsterdam for over 6 weeks; missing out on a few of my best friends’ birthdays and leaving everything I know to dive into this...
Lesgeven aan kinderen in de Filipijnen, voorlichting geven over ziekten in Indonesië of mensen bewust maken over het milieu in Brazilië. Reizen, tegelijkertijd anderen helpen en jezelf ontwikkelen. De wereld een stukje mooier achter laten. Dat klinkt perfect, toch?...
Experience Story: Thu-Yên Pham, Hanoi, Vietnam After my graduation, I wanted to travel through South-East Asia and do some voluntary work in Vietnam. The main reason for seeking voluntary work in Vietnam was that I wanted to learn more about my background. The project...
After finishing my second year in medicine in the Netherlands, I felt like I wanted to experience more somewhere else in the world. I’m very interested in tropical medicine and Ghana was one of the country’s that offered a medical project in a tropical environment. A...
My grandma was from Indonesia, I really wanted to discover the country on my own. But I didn’t want to be only a tourist. I also wanted to experience how it was to live with local people and give something back to the country by volunteering. I choose to go abroad...