Short-term experience leads to long-term goal

BEGINNING an internship with VMM International in April this year, a short term volunteering opportunity arose and I jumped at the chance as I have been eager to experience development in Africa first hand. 

Although the internship has given me valuable knowledge and skills on the topic so far, I truly believe you need to experience development in the field to get a true insight into how it works.

Spending four weeks in Nansana, on the outskirts of Kampala, in Uganda, was an incredible eye-opener for me. I split my time volunteering in two primary schools during my spell overseas.

Both schools were dealing with very different situations, one being a severely unfunded school owned by the Catholic church, and the other a government run school with more access to resources but dealing with an issue of overcrowding.

My time at the two schools was spent assisting with the teaching of English through comprehension and dialogue sessions, in addition to carrying out art, music and physical education lessons.

I was an extra pair of hands to help relieve the busy teachers. The children were some of the kindest and most polite I have ever met and had such a positive energy that I couldn’t help but soak it in.

Hearing some of their stories truly upset me, but they always managed to maintain happy and upbeat; their strength was inspiring to see.

My experience taught me that development and growth doesn’t happen overnight, things take time. However, knowing that each step I take is working towards a bigger picture gives me the inspiration to continue with what I do.

I believe that in the long term the sharing of our skills with these communities and providing them with an ability to carry out the work themselves can help so much more than merely throwing money and resources at them.

Uganda, along with other developing countries, has such potential for growth and I believe that we have a responsibility to help make this happen.

Yes, there is poverty, illness and sadness, but there is also love, happiness and hope. After spending a month immersed into Ugandan life, it frustrated me to see the misconception that the media gives the rest of the world about Africa.

There are charities and organisations who send out distorted, disrespectful images that do not clearly represent the communities. These images now make me wonder if that is what life is truly like for these people or whether it’s what the organisation feels it needs to portray in order to get donations.

My short experience in Uganda sparked a passion within me, left me with a feeling of determination and a motivation to continue this work, and convinced me that development is the right career path for me.

Seeing the work of development first hand made me realise that every little act that we perform can help in some way and every little thing we do has the potential to make a difference.

If more people got involved in development work, the change we could see might be astonishing. Uganda is only the beginning of my adventures to Africa as this first trip awoke a desire in me to travel and explore more of it.

Joanne Mulligan