Published at 14:17, Friday, 04 January 2013

Two young professionals from Carlisle left for India this week on an exchange visit organised by Rotary.

Opportunity: Tracy Calvert and Diane Livingstone will live with Rotarian families, mostly in the coastal city of Mangalore

Tracy Calvert, a communications officer at the University of Cumbria, and Diane Livingstone, an information analyst with the Care Quality Commission, will spend a month in Karnataka in south-west India.

They will live with Rotarian families, mostly in the coastal city of Mangalore. Some of their time will be spent at work, seeing how their jobs are done in India, but there will also be cultural visits to historical and religious sites, and charitable activities.

Tracy, 26, of Denton Holme, applied after seeing the scheme advertised in The Cumberland News.

She said: “I’m going to be working for a newspaper in Mysore, and going to universities and doing a PR job. I just thought it was a fantastic opportunity personally and professionally.

“It’s a big change being away from friends and family for so long but I’ve emailed the people I will be staying with and they seem lovely.”

Diane, 32, works part time as a fitness instructor and complementary therapist, in addition to her job at the Care Quality Commission. She will be visiting hospitals and care facilities.

She said: “It’s an opportunity to experience and observe things I do over here in another country.”

The pair are part of group of five from Cumbria – the others are from the south of the county. You can follow their progress through an online blog at http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/GSE-2013/.

Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk