Pathways to Development Wrap Up

EWB & YEA-V Joint event review : Pathways to Development

Posted by Carolyn Elvira Cadan to Victoria Chapter, 5th July 2010, 8:52pm

Over the weekend of 26–27 June, EWB and YEA-V held a joint two-day workshop on pathways to development. After everyone got to know each over coffee and tea, the learning started with the first presentation from EWB State President Alesha Printz. Aleshea explained EWB’s approach to development — the 4c’s (conscious, concerned, comprehend, challenged).

Following this we participated in the Monsoon development simulation experience. This was a role-playing activity aimed at putting the participants in either the shoes of people who suffer poverty or the people who are involved in development work. It was quite a confronting activity, but helped us understand the tough choices that both groups of people face. For the record, the community managed to succeed in securing a lasting water supply in the final round.

After lunch there were two presentations and another activity., The first presentation was by Glenda Laslett from IWDA on the benefits of development programs targeted at females. It turns out that the community benefits more when you target your programs to females.

The second presentation was by Robert Crigan on his experiences in Kenya, Somalia, Russia and Lebanon working with Red R. He related some amazing stories of individuals making a real difference and the ingenuity of people in unfortunate situations.

The activity titled ‘Can’t See, Can’t Talk and Able Body Game’, as the name suggests, challenged us to overcome various forms of communication barriers, which are commonly faced by development volunteers.

Sunday’s morning session consisted of two presentations. In the first, Andrew Newmarch from World Vision gave us all an understanding of how large scale NGO’s work, and some details of their current programs. 

The second presentation was by Alex Zhand from RIDS-Nepal on holistic community development, which showed how simple solutions coupled with an empowered community can make a lasting difference. Alex’s presentation also emphasised the benefits of applying engineering and management principles to development problems, such as quality control, maintenance and continuous improvement programs.

Following lunch, we heard from Bob Fuller on some of the technical details of the technology that is deployed in developing countries: you could tell the audience were engineers with all the questions that Bob was asked.

The workshop concluded with a returned volunteers panel discussion and an information session on how to apply for positions within EWB. What I found most interesting from the panel discussion was that although all the volunteers had faced challenges (language, foreign food, cultural differences and homesickness), these were far outweighed by the people they had met and the positive experiences they had had. The information session provided considerable details on opportunities available in a variety of areas (technical support, and local and international projects).

Further information:

EWB: http://www.ewb.org.au
IWDA: http://www.iwda.org.au/au/
RedR Australia: http://www.redr.org.au/
World Vision Australia: http://www.worldvision.com.au/Home.aspx
RIDS-Nepal: http://www.rids-nepal.org/

 

 

 

 

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