A Junior Fellowship placement with Engineers Without Borders doesn't start the day we take off on the plane. In fact, I am not yet gone, but the program has already started for me!
Since December, I have started what is called the Foundation Learning to get ready to go overseas. It consists of readings, assignments, monthly webtrains (online discussions) and weekly coffee shops with two past Junior Fellows from the EWB Guelph chapter that covers a wide range of topics from Rural Livelihoods to Creating Change. I especially really enjoy the coffee shops every Wednesday with Kyla, Janna and Kim. Kyla and Janna, who went to Malawi and Ghana respectively this past summer, are full of resources and are very supportive. Kim is the other wonderful JF from Guelph who is going to Ghana this summer.
Once overseas, I will be working during 3 months and a half with a partner organisation in one of the two following areas: water and sanitation, or agriculture. My role has not been defined yet nor the partner organization that I will be working with. Eli, the Junior Fellowship Support Staff in Southern Africa, is currently meeting with local NGOs to find where the volunteers can have a potential impact.
When I will be back in Canada, my role as a returning JF will be to share my experience with the chapter and the community. I think that this experience will allow me to talk with more confidence about the challenges faced in developing communities and discuss with further depth the approach taken by EWB overseas. I can hear people say: ''but you already had experience overseas.. what would be the difference?'' Well, it is true that I have already volunteered in Cambodia for 8 months and saw some of the challenges in developing communities. But at that time, I knew little about development work and poverty issues. I am not pretending to know a lot more now, but I want to build on that previous experience and see how the approach adopted by EWB can be improved to have a greater impact. Having that past experience will allow me to relate certain things with the current situation in Zambia, but I cannot simply recreate what I have done before. In other words, I should not make assumptions based on previous similar cases that I have seen. Zambia has a totally different history and culture and things that are perceived acceptable in one community might not be in another. Things that worked in a particular context might not work in another. This is going to be one of my challenges, but with the readings that I am doing about Zambia I will have some kind of background to help me out!
Since December, I have started what is called the Foundation Learning to get ready to go overseas. It consists of readings, assignments, monthly webtrains (online discussions) and weekly coffee shops with two past Junior Fellows from the EWB Guelph chapter that covers a wide range of topics from Rural Livelihoods to Creating Change. I especially really enjoy the coffee shops every Wednesday with Kyla, Janna and Kim. Kyla and Janna, who went to Malawi and Ghana respectively this past summer, are full of resources and are very supportive. Kim is the other wonderful JF from Guelph who is going to Ghana this summer.
Once overseas, I will be working during 3 months and a half with a partner organisation in one of the two following areas: water and sanitation, or agriculture. My role has not been defined yet nor the partner organization that I will be working with. Eli, the Junior Fellowship Support Staff in Southern Africa, is currently meeting with local NGOs to find where the volunteers can have a potential impact.
When I will be back in Canada, my role as a returning JF will be to share my experience with the chapter and the community. I think that this experience will allow me to talk with more confidence about the challenges faced in developing communities and discuss with further depth the approach taken by EWB overseas. I can hear people say: ''but you already had experience overseas.. what would be the difference?'' Well, it is true that I have already volunteered in Cambodia for 8 months and saw some of the challenges in developing communities. But at that time, I knew little about development work and poverty issues. I am not pretending to know a lot more now, but I want to build on that previous experience and see how the approach adopted by EWB can be improved to have a greater impact. Having that past experience will allow me to relate certain things with the current situation in Zambia, but I cannot simply recreate what I have done before. In other words, I should not make assumptions based on previous similar cases that I have seen. Zambia has a totally different history and culture and things that are perceived acceptable in one community might not be in another. Things that worked in a particular context might not work in another. This is going to be one of my challenges, but with the readings that I am doing about Zambia I will have some kind of background to help me out!
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