Thank you Toto!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCca5mPMp9A

This Be Ghana

Since the other two CCA interns were so quick to the ball I guess I'll add my little post. After a week in Ottawa with Tyler and Anna, I will find myself back in Ghana for another crack at it. This time around I will be living in the capital city of Accra and working with the Ghana Cooperative Credit Union Association (CUA) as a Youth Savings Officer. My primary responsibility will be working with high school credit union clubs to improve their savings habits and also establish new clubs. I think there will be a lot of presentations and workshops for me to facilitate and I am hoping that the CUA will start moving outside the city to allow me to travel quite a bit.
Although I was more focused on going to East Africa for my internship, I am so happy to be returning to Ghana and seeing some old friends and classmates. Of course you are all invited to visit the Gold Coast and take in some live high life music at anytime. For the rest of you kids going to Africa we'll see you in the African Cup. GO BLACK STARS GO!

Off To Kampala, Uganda!!

Hey ladies and gents! I recently found out I will, like Anna, being doing a 6 month internship with the Canadian Co-operative Association. I will be the new Environmental Protection Officer in Kampala, working on some ToT and capacity building programs (some existing already, some need creation), documenting and reporting on the positive natural resource management initiatives in the beneficiary communities and how these approaches can be upscaled, helping to design and implement a tree planting reforestation project, marketing capacity building for the local agricultural co-operative, as well as some work on a fish farm. I am super excited. This is exactly the stuff I want to focus on, as the end goal of the partnership and project is to strengthen overall food security in Uganda while conserving and protecting the environment. It is an extremely grassroots, community driven and owned initiative. Co-operatives truly are an effective, sustainable model for long term community based positive progress (trying to move away from using development. John kind of turned me off the word).

I too would love for you to come visit in Uganda. I will be living in a group home, with about 5 or 6 other international interns from around the globe, coming and going as our contracts end and renew. I am sure it will be somewhat of a cultural animal house. Lots of new people to extend the hugs too!!!

I really want everyone to know that this year has been an absolute blessing. You all really have kept me inspired that positive change is possible and that there is endless goodness in the world. I am really looking forward to all the adventures to come and being able to share those experiences and help each other out in this field along the way.

Moving to Malawi!

I found out the other day that I got accepted to do an internship in Malawi! I'll be heading to Blantyre on August 1st to start at 6 month position with Canadian Co-operatives Association and the local partner MUSSCO. As the new HIV/AIDS and Gender Project Officer, I hope to be able to put to use some of these skills that we've been learning all year! I'm really excited about the position as I'll be heading in exactly the direction that I want to be heading. Hopefully this will be the start of an amazing experience, and this job will lead to the next, which will lead to the next and I'll keep getting to do things that inspire and motivate me.

As Corey said in his e-mail to the class, it has been an amazing experience taking this program with all of you this year. It's hard to believe that its almost over! If you had told me at the beginning of the year that I would have been in a class with the most inspiring people I have ever met, and that we would all be as close as we are at the end of 10 short months, I'm not sure I would have believed you! It's been better than I ever could have expected!

Now, as we all head off on new adventures and venture out into the working world, its nice to know that I have such a strong network to draw from and I'm sure that in this small little field of development, we will run into each other again and again. I'm looking forward to it more than you know! I'll be in Malawi for the next 6 months at least and if any of you are passing through Blantyre, you have a place to stay! This is not one of those polite invites that I don't actually expect people to take me up on - you have to come and stay because fully intend on traveling around and sleeping on all of your couches!

See you in the field

Anna

IPMP Takes Humber Bay Park East

June 7 - In a mind boggling display of comraderie, IPMPers from all corners of the GTA and beyond came together at the Humber Bay Park in Etobicoke for a full afternoon of delicious food stuffs, high quality discussion, tossing of flying discs, playing of bocce ball and soccer, slack lining, swimming in Lake Ontario, children, laughter, and more. The event was deemed an overwhelming success, with one event organizer estimating the IPMP attendance rate at an alarming 72.5%. The weather was astoundingly cooperative, leading some devoted attendees to preside onsite for a whopping 9 hours over the course of the day. Much thanks to Nathan and Colleen for putting it all together.

KellyB's off to Malawi!!

I thought perhaps I should post a note on my work placement - seems like this blog is the place for it :) I'm going to Malawi from July 9 to Oct 3. My placement is through SWB/WUSC Canada and CADECOM Malawi (see volunteering and extra-cirrucular activites really do pay off, the time I spent as secretary of wusc Humber was time well spent!!). My title is Research Officer in Agricultural Economics (hey I'm impressed just with the title - sounds so pro!). Basically I'll be doing impact assessments of their livelihood recovery projects. Mostly small scale agriculture projects throughout the country. I'll be based in Lilongwe. I'm really looking forward to it, and I'm glad that it starts 2 weeks after we finish class so I don't have to leave all you wonderful people early. Besides I'll need that 2 weeks to finish the DIP...er...I mean Pre-departure placement report for Rupen.
So what happens after Oct? I have no idea yet. Absolutely no idea...but if I've learned anything from IPMP its that we have to network, network, network. So I'll be doing alot of that in Malawi - especially since the WorldFish Centre (I might have mentioned them in class) have some aquaculture projects ongoing there, and besides, I hear that Lake Malawi is full of fish.