December
on Camarooned Clara (Cameroon), 13/Dec/2009 15:53, 34 days ago
Coucou! One last missive from the dusty dry north before hitting the lush south on Tuesday. Cannot wait to get away! Not seeing it as a 'Christmas' break per se, but some time-out and the availability of fresh fruit and wine sure will be welcomed most heartily.Work's picked up a little this last coupla weeks, put together a fundraising questionnaire for my colleagues to try and identify their needs (am expecting 'more money' to feature highly on that list.). Not something I'm in a position to give! Give a man a fish etc and so on. Not sure how workshops on fundraising techniques and proposal writing will go down when all they want is a neat cheque for millions of pounds. VSO's approach of moving away from the dependency of western handouts is v well intentioned, but I think it will take more than a year to dispel the image of the rich white westerner with a fat cheque in their pocket! Managing their expectations is quite the task in itself at times.Seems to be a tension between the obvious short term needs, and the desire to move away from western interventions and dependency. It's clear the education sector needs more money, and the education of thousands of school children depend on it, but pumping money in from the West is not deemed at all 'sustainable' (vso's favourite word.) The approach is therefore meant to be for the volunteer to facilitate/empower the locals to help themselves.And i'm supposed to do that how?!Answers on a postcard huh!Let us worry about that in the new year. For now, presenting you with a neat summary of my role after 4 months of questioning, confusion and and general self-doubt, well it’s gonna have to suffice!Joyeux noel everyone.clara