Handicrafts and gorillas
on Geri Skeen (Rwanda), 08/Dec/2010 20:39, 34 days ago
I'm off to Rwanda on 14 January with VSO for six months, maybe longer.  For many people in the UK, Rwanda is almost synonymous with genocide - the genocide of 1994 in which a million people were murdered.  I first became aware of Rwanda though in my teens as one of the three countries inhabited by mountain gorillas.  The gorillas roam in a forested mountain range straddling Rwanda, Uganda and DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo).  Since watching David Attenborough being introduced to a family of mountain gorillas, it has been the one wildlife experience I would choose above all others if given the chance.  I can hardly believe my luck!My VSO placement is as a Marketing Advisor to YWCA Rwanda, which is based in Gitarama, a town of 80,000 an hour's drive South West of Kigali, the capital.  Rwandans are encouraged to form work co-operatives and the YWCA helps workers through the registration process.  The co-ops I will be involved with consist of women, girls and orphans who produce handicrafts to make a living. Those two paragraphs above represent my two main motivations for doing VSO.  The 'What's-in-it-for-me?' is that I want to live in another country, experience another culture.  The other motivator is wanting to do something useful, to make a difference.  I was reassured at one of the VSO courses to hear a trainer say that they look for people who are motivated by both selfish and altruistic factors and that a balance of the two bodes well for a successful placement.