Through its solidarity fund, the Icam Engineers Association provides financial support for Icam's recruitment of VSI (Volontariat de Solidarité Internationale) volunteers.

Bastien LE DENMAT, Icam Nantes Class of 2017 tells us about his experience:

"In November 2022, my wife and I had the opportunity to go to Cameroon on a Volontariat de Solidarité Internationale (VSI) program. This enabled me to join the campus of the Ucac-Icam Institute in Douala as a project manager. During this period, I was attached to the Business Services Department, and my main mission was to support students during their Industrial Mission period (equivalent to MSI). Integrating into a new country and culture, which can be difficult for the first few months, is a very powerful experience, which transforms the way we look at others and the world. One thing that was difficult for me was adapting to the methods and way of seeing things at work. In Cameroon, I had to learn to take things slowly, to step back and let things happen naturally. So I also learned to let time take its course, and the results were the same or even better than I could have hoped for.

When it comes to volunteering, VSI isn't necessarily the first thing you think of. For positions abroad, we tend to be more attracted to the VIE or even expat life - wrongly so! Unlike a VIE, where you'll usually be surrounded by expats and French people, and where you'll be living in the "beaux quartiers" of the city, in a VSI you're totally immersed in the life of the country, the culture and the living conditions of the people you're working with. My salary was on a par with that of my colleagues, which meant that I could live at a pace in keeping with the environment in which I was working. Likewise, we lived in a district a little out of the heart of the city, and we were the only "white" people in the area, so you really get to know the local way of life.

There's no better way to discover a country's culture than by doing a VSI. The decision to go on a VSI is a deliberate one, and can very well be made after a first professional experience".