Between late August and early November, eleven young people will begin their voluntary service in the North-South exchange. Their placements range from a girls' school in India to an agricultural centre in Japan.

For eleven young volunteers in the Ecumenical Volunteers Programme of the Evangelical Mission in Solidarity (EMS), an exciting new chapter is about to begin. Over the next nine to ten months, they will live, work, and learn in their host countries. To prepare for this experience, they took part in a nine-day seminar at the end of July, which also gave them the opportunity to get to know one another.

Emilia leads the way at the end of August, joining the congregational work in Seoul and Gimhae in South Korea. One day later, Hannah departs for India, where she will serve at a girls' school in Madurai. In early September, the largest group heads to Indonesia: Omran and Helen will support the university in Tobelo, Sophie a children's home in Singaraja, and Luna and Janina a children's home in Lambuya. Shortly afterwards, Hanna begins her service at an agricultural centre in Japan, and in mid-September Marlene starts in environmental education in Accra and Anastasia on the children's ward of a hospital in Agogo, both in Ghana. Finally, in November, Leevke sets off for a kindergarten in Mamasa, Indonesia.

A school, children's homes, a hospital, environmental education, agriculture: the placements of this year's cohort show just how varied voluntary service in the North-South exchange can be.

As the German Federal Foreign Office is currently advising against travel to Jordan, placements through weltwärts, the federal government's funding programme for development-related volunteer service, are not possible at this time. In recent years, the Ecumenical Volunteers Programme of the EMS has regularly placed young people at the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf and the Theodor Schneller School. These institutions open up educational opportunities regardless of religion, gender or physical impairment.

"Our volunteers set out to listen, to learn and to become part of a community," says Kathrin Lehrbach, coordinator of the North-South exchange. “We hope they will embrace the unfamiliar, stay open – and, in the end, feel how much this year has changed them, too.”

Apply now for next year

Would you like to do voluntary service abroad yourself? Apply by 31 October for next year's cohort – you will find all the information and the application form at ems-volunteers.org.

About the EMS Ecumenical Volunteers Programme

Through the Ecumenical Volunteers Programme, young adults between 18 and 28 spend nine to twelve months volunteering in social, development-related or church projects – abroad or in Germany. The programme is run by EMS, an international fellowship of churches and organisations in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Alongside the North-South exchange, the programme also includes the South-North exchange, in which volunteers from partner countries carry out their service in Germany. The voluntary service is funded through weltwärts, the development volunteer programme of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).