IICD is a private nonprofit organization located in western Massachusetts, which trains and sends volunteers to Africa, Asia, and Central America to do community development work in rural and urban areas. Since we are not supported by any governmental /non-governmental organization, our programme is depending on donation from people who agree with our concept. Each volunteer raises fund for 5,500 dollers by the time we leave for Angola /Central America. This money goes to train us to work as a development instructor in those 10:59 PM 5/14/2003countries. We know some people want to donate their money directly to the people in those countries not to train volunteers in the U.S. we don't give away money or things to the people there but we bring ideas and skills to the people to help them help themselves. During this 6 months preparation period, we learn language, culture, history and economy of where we are going to.

   To raise fund, we visit some major cities for 1 to 2 weeks. We ask for donation mainly by talking to the peope on the street or visiting families door to door. We are often asked why we don't do it where IICD is at. IICD usually holds more than 20 volunteers at the same time. To raise fund for all volunteers, we sometime need to make a trip to neighborhood. We drive all the way to the destination squeezed in a van, stay at church which kindly give us free housing, eat with tight budged of 3 dollers a day, and ask for donation more than 8 hours a day.

   Yes, it is hard time for all of us, but we sometime meet very generous people who do understand our project and give us small but nice words which give us more energy to keep fundraising on the street, sometime in the rain, sometime in the snow. To concentrate studying for being development instructors, we hope our fundraise trip will be successful and finished in time.