My oversee's travels include Teaching English as a Second Language in Rachitova, a tiny village outside the Transylvanian Mountains in Romania. This was the summer after my first year of University. In University I played Volleyball and 2 summers after that I was fortunate to travel to Moscow and Smolensk, in Russia to compete in volleyball against different club teams and University teams. While we were there we also volunteered in several different orphanages putting on sports camps and serving the orphanages in whatever ways we could. Summer 2008, I travelled to Nampula, Mozambique to teach children from Grades 4-6, whose parents are there either working for mission organizations or aid organizations. During this time, the students had a 3 week holiday, so I travelled to Pemba, Mozambique where I volunteered at an orphanage and ran sports camps for the children there. First hand experience is very valuable and I quickly learned the pros and cons to community development in the communities that I visited. Before I travel oversees again, I would like to have more wisdom on how to effectively help the communities I visit. I think that part of the problem currently in some oversees countries is that too many people have travelled there without first learning about their culture and way of life, and thought they were helping by instilling their values and beliefs on the people they met. This is both condescending and will continue to oppress these people if we go there with the attitude that "we know it all." My most overwhelming, frustrating moments throughout my travels were ones where I was put on a pedestal based purely on my skin colour.
The reasons I am seeking more information on International Community Development is because I have a huge responsibility to my students to provide them with information about what is going on in the world around them. I do this in hopes that it will open their minds to the injustices in our world and to motivate them to think critically in our local communities as they 'consume' so they are aware of the consequences our actions here can have on human beings oversees. Also, I really hope they see that they are capable of seeing a positive change in these countries through their purposeful actions; whether they stay in Calgary or travel oversees. Secondly, I would like to increase my knowledge on this topic so that when I do travel there again, I am as productive as possible and not going based on my selfish desire for adventure and beautiful pictures.
Websites on International Development
1) War Child - http://www.warchild.org/index.html
I believe that psychological damage that children go through when forced to kill is very detrimental and probably irreversible without the proper support for the child. War Child International (based out of Holland and Canada) has helped hundreds of thousands of children from the negative realities of war. Children are the future of their countries and if they grow up being desensitized to killing their potential as adults is horrifying.
2) Canadian International Development Association - http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/home
This site links to news articles on different international development projects that are going on around the globe. This organization's mandate is to see sustainable results in developing countries to reach the Millenium Development Goals.
3) International Development Research Centre - IDRC http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-1-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
This site provides research that can guide future development projects based on the analytical results from previous ones.
