As we arrived on Saturday we had to wait until Monday to meet the staff members, they are all very nice people and treat us very well also Céline takes care of us and makes sure that we’re comfortable.

These first two weeks of the traineeship have been all about introductions to the SAJV and its different departments and, of course, the South Project. It was very interesting for me find out how complex the Swiss political system is, seems to be very complicated and so different from my country.

So far we attended to an Amnesty International meeting in Zurich where they explained how and why it started and their work currently and also to a round table called ‘Battle of Ideas’. We took part of the topic: ‘A human life. What’s it worth?’ I must say it’s such a polemic topic! There were four panelists talking about life, abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide… It was shocking for me to know that here in Switzerland there is an organization helping people ‘to die with dignity’. Although I didn’t agree with many of the panelists I think it was an interesting experience to listen other people’s points of view. I believe life is a gift and nobody has the right either legal nor moral to take it away and that society plays an important role in our life; however I don’t expect people to agree with me.

Yesterday we went to Lausanne to visit the SAJV’s office there. We had the introduction to ‘Social Affairs department’ apparently migration it’s a big problem here and the SAJV team is trying to show that migration shouldn’t just be seen as a problem but as cultural diversity which in fact contribute to the country development.

Despite the difficulties Swiss organizations might find in the way I consider they receive a lot of support not only from the government but from the people which is remarkable.

As I said it’s been very interesting.