DWC team leader Dan Couture holds up a child of Chamcar Bei, Cambodia, where the team volunteered in 2008. (Jennifer Farquharson)Feb 25, 2010
Carmen Kuntz
Martlet (U of Victoria, Canada)
Summer is coming and, for some students, that means filling a backpack and boarding a plane to participate in a much preferred form of post-secondary education: travelling.
For many, following the well-beaten path to typical tourist destinations or drinking out of buckets on a beach in Asia is where it’s at. But, for 20 UVic students, it means joining the Canadian non-profit volunteer organization Developing World Connections (DWC) and a team of like-minded people to work in under-developed villages across the globe with a community in need.
DWC is a volunteer-driven, registered, Canadian charity with no religious, political or professional affiliations. Founded in Kamloops B.C. in 2004, this relatively young organization offers students, families and adult groups a chance to travel while participating in sustainable community development projects like digging wells, building schools and helping communities become self-reliant.
In 2007, UVic students Jennifer Farquharson and Dan Couture finished their first year at UVic and joined DWC and a group of other students on a volunteer trip to Cambodia. Stationed in the small town of Chamcar Bei in southern Cambodia, the group participated in collaboration with the local community to complete a number of sustainable community development projects like repairing houses, harvesting rice, planting gardens and painting the local school.
Whether it was the feeling of positively contributing to the global community, the friends they made or the chance to use their traveling shoes again, these two were only back for one semester of school before they took off again in 2008 back to Chamcar Bei to continue their work.
Now studying in their fourth year at UVic, Farquharson and Couture are DWC team leaders, preparing to lead a group of UVic, Simon Fraser University and Thompson Rivers University students to Rwanda. The students will work with DWC and host organizations in the community of Gashora, a village in south-east Rwanda.
“We’ve taken on a leadership role to share this experience with students and friends” said Farquharson.
She praises DWC as a well-organized Canadian organization that, with no administration fees, gives a large sum of money directly to the community.
“On top of that, [DWC] allows you to travel as a group, and make friends [while] working for a common cause,” she said.
Buzz words like “development” and “sustainability” can mean so many things, but Farquharson specifies what DWC’s sustainable community development projects actually are.
“[The group’s projects] are sustainable in the sense that all projects are designed in the community, by the community members in partnership with host organizations,” Farquharson said.
Projects can include whatever is most needed — everything from livestock integration programs, agricultural aid, construction and repair of schools, development of women’s resources and water resource improvement projects.
Host organizations are local NGOs and groups acting as partners with DWC. In Rwanda, DWC is working with Building Bridges Over Rwanda to help the community design the exact project they want, then DWC brings in students.
Participation of the host organizations is extremely important as they ensure the projects are finished and continue to be productive, even when DWC volunteer teams leave.
“DWC makes a five-year commitment to the community to ensure their goals and expectations are met,” Farquharson explained.
Travelling is appealing and affordable for students and, with volunteer trips becoming more popular, why volunteer with DWC? Why volunteer at all?
“It allows students to travel in a culture rather than through a culture,” said Farquharson.
Couture has even more reasons.
“I enjoy trying to see a different way of life,” said Couture. “How these people live is quite admirable.”
Participants are responsible for funding their trip and are given resources to fundraise.
They are especially encouraged to raise money for the $500 that is an obligatory donation each student makes that goes directly toward supplies and tools for the project.
DWC trip leaders also offer a number of strategies and hold events to help the students raise money.
Farquharson and Couture recently held an event at Plan B nightclub, where cover and proceeds went directly towards these trips.
Fund-raising often covers plane tickets, but there is a fee of $1,500 which covers in-country costs, including transportation, accommodation, food and a cultural or tourist activity, like the genocide museum in Cambodia or gorilla watching in Rwanda.
Most trips last from about four to five weeks.
“DWC plans the route, and makes sure that in-country activities stay within the hands of locals, like, staying only in locally-owned hotels,” said Farquharson.
During the trip, group members stick together closely, travelling and living together. Accommodations and work are always done as a group.
If you’ve heard about the “volunteer holiday” but never had the opportunity to get involved, here is your chance. DWC offers volunteer projects in Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Cambodia, Peru, Guatamala, India, Kenya, Rwanda and Hati, where DWC will be assisting with the rebuilding efforts leaving in mid-March.
So get involved. See the world. Travel with purpose. If every travelling student dedicated just a couple weeks to a volunteer project, imagine what a difference we could make in the world.
For more information, contact Farquharson at jennfarq@uvic.ca. The group is still looking for a few more people for the July trip this year.
For many, following the well-beaten path to typical tourist destinations or drinking out of buckets on a beach in Asia is where it’s at. But, for 20 UVic students, it means joining the Canadian non-profit volunteer organization Developing World Connections (DWC) and a team of like-minded people to work in under-developed villages across the globe with a community in need.
DWC is a volunteer-driven, registered, Canadian charity with no religious, political or professional affiliations. Founded in Kamloops B.C. in 2004, this relatively young organization offers students, families and adult groups a chance to travel while participating in sustainable community development projects like digging wells, building schools and helping communities become self-reliant.
In 2007, UVic students Jennifer Farquharson and Dan Couture finished their first year at UVic and joined DWC and a group of other students on a volunteer trip to Cambodia. Stationed in the small town of Chamcar Bei in southern Cambodia, the group participated in collaboration with the local community to complete a number of sustainable community development projects like repairing houses, harvesting rice, planting gardens and painting the local school.
Whether it was the feeling of positively contributing to the global community, the friends they made or the chance to use their traveling shoes again, these two were only back for one semester of school before they took off again in 2008 back to Chamcar Bei to continue their work.
Now studying in their fourth year at UVic, Farquharson and Couture are DWC team leaders, preparing to lead a group of UVic, Simon Fraser University and Thompson Rivers University students to Rwanda. The students will work with DWC and host organizations in the community of Gashora, a village in south-east Rwanda.
“We’ve taken on a leadership role to share this experience with students and friends” said Farquharson.
She praises DWC as a well-organized Canadian organization that, with no administration fees, gives a large sum of money directly to the community.
“On top of that, [DWC] allows you to travel as a group, and make friends [while] working for a common cause,” she said.
Buzz words like “development” and “sustainability” can mean so many things, but Farquharson specifies what DWC’s sustainable community development projects actually are.
“[The group’s projects] are sustainable in the sense that all projects are designed in the community, by the community members in partnership with host organizations,” Farquharson said.
Projects can include whatever is most needed — everything from livestock integration programs, agricultural aid, construction and repair of schools, development of women’s resources and water resource improvement projects.
Host organizations are local NGOs and groups acting as partners with DWC. In Rwanda, DWC is working with Building Bridges Over Rwanda to help the community design the exact project they want, then DWC brings in students.
Participation of the host organizations is extremely important as they ensure the projects are finished and continue to be productive, even when DWC volunteer teams leave.
“DWC makes a five-year commitment to the community to ensure their goals and expectations are met,” Farquharson explained.
Travelling is appealing and affordable for students and, with volunteer trips becoming more popular, why volunteer with DWC? Why volunteer at all?
“It allows students to travel in a culture rather than through a culture,” said Farquharson.
Couture has even more reasons.
“I enjoy trying to see a different way of life,” said Couture. “How these people live is quite admirable.”
Participants are responsible for funding their trip and are given resources to fundraise.
They are especially encouraged to raise money for the $500 that is an obligatory donation each student makes that goes directly toward supplies and tools for the project.
DWC trip leaders also offer a number of strategies and hold events to help the students raise money.
Farquharson and Couture recently held an event at Plan B nightclub, where cover and proceeds went directly towards these trips.
Fund-raising often covers plane tickets, but there is a fee of $1,500 which covers in-country costs, including transportation, accommodation, food and a cultural or tourist activity, like the genocide museum in Cambodia or gorilla watching in Rwanda.
Most trips last from about four to five weeks.
“DWC plans the route, and makes sure that in-country activities stay within the hands of locals, like, staying only in locally-owned hotels,” said Farquharson.
During the trip, group members stick together closely, travelling and living together. Accommodations and work are always done as a group.
If you’ve heard about the “volunteer holiday” but never had the opportunity to get involved, here is your chance. DWC offers volunteer projects in Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Cambodia, Peru, Guatamala, India, Kenya, Rwanda and Hati, where DWC will be assisting with the rebuilding efforts leaving in mid-March.
So get involved. See the world. Travel with purpose. If every travelling student dedicated just a couple weeks to a volunteer project, imagine what a difference we could make in the world.
For more information, contact Farquharson at jennfarq@uvic.ca. The group is still looking for a few more people for the July trip this year.
2 comments:
Wonderful! We need more of this kind of organization.
Eat your heart out, Theary Seng.
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