One school + three organizations + one govt. branch = one fantatic (yet confusing) year

You're going to Peru? But you're also going to school? And you're also doing the peace corps? AND you're representing Stromme Foundation? These are questions I've gotten a lot. And the answer to all of them is YES. Here are a few words of clarification..

Hald Internasjonale Senter is the name of the school I'm going to. Through this school, three organizations organize exchanges with their respective partner organizations in different countries. Young Norwegians are sent out to work with the partner organizations, and the partner organizations send young adults to Norway to work here. For six weeks at the beginning and the end of the 6-7 month exchange, we are all gathered at Hald Internasjonale Senter. The three organizations working through Hald are the Norwegian Mission Society (or NMS), International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (or Norges Kristelige Skole og Laget), and Stromme Foundation (or Strømmestiftelsen). I will be representing the Stromme Foundation while I work with their partner organization, La Restinga, in Iquitos, Peru.

All of the programs are sponsored by the Norwegian equivalent of the peacecorps, FK (short for Fredskorpset), which receives it funding from the government. FK provides financial support and guidelines for Hald Internasjonale Senter and many other exchange programs like it. In 2000, FK changed their approach from just sending Norwegians abroad to requiring that all their programs included an exchange. Far too often, international service programs implicity or explicity sends the message that the Westerners have all the answers and the competancy, which pacifies and disempowers the recipients of their help. FK's vision is that developed countries (including Norway) need the perspective and help of people from developing countries just as much as the other way around.