Well, now we have our shots, visas, tickets, and are trained, cleared, and ready to go. The packing and the training someone to cover my work at Communities for People are still to be completed.
CUSO is committed to combating world poverty by placing volunteers in developing countries. Mainly, CUSO provides experienced, capable volunteers who carry out real jobs working with local hosts and colleagues. CUSO doesn’t do grand projects building roads, power plants, sewage treatment, hospitals, or dams. It doesn’t provide relief. It provides people who can have a lasting impact in a village, neighborhood, school, government agency, or NGO (a non-profit like Communities for People, where I have been working for more than 15 years).
CUSO believes the cultural and professional interaction between volunteers and those with whom they live and work can foster meaningful, lasting change, a potent ingredient for economic and social development.
We leave on January 9th headed to The Gambia. This is the smallest African country, a tiny sliver of land shaped like a finger sticking into Senegal, pointed at Mali. It is about two-thirds the size of Connecticut and has a population of about 1.7 million. The average per capita income is very low, less that two dollars per day with one-third of the population living below the international poverty line of $1.25 per day. The economy relies on farming, fishing, and tourism. Farmers grow ground nuts for export. Rice is important for The Gambia, but not enough rice is grown, so rice is imported.
I will be working at the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) station in the Central River Region, about 200 km from the coast. This station is devoted to promoting more productive rice cultivation methods. The station has 16 extension workers who teach farmers how to improve their yield. Also, I understand, there may be experiments designed to test possible additional improved alternatives to current methods.
How can a social worker who understands something about information technology help, you may be wondering. My work will be to set up a computer system and train NARI colleagues to use it. The ability to use computers will enhance the effectiveness of NARI and ultimately the farmers. Closing the digital divide between advanced and developing countries is Target 8F of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. There are more and more requests for help with IT coming from developing countries.
I am packing a couple of laptops, lots of software, a few books, some training material, an electronic classroom, anything I can think of that I can bring. One thing for sure, there is no computer store nearby, the nearest may be a days’ journey each way. We’ll find out more when we get there. So stay in touch as we discover how this adventure unfolds.
(Views expressed are my own.)
