Help make it happen!

Cuso International is a non-profit, international development agency that works through volunteers. Each year, they place hundreds of volunteers who collaborate on development projects in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. As a strategic alliance partner of VSO, a worldwide network of Voluntary Service Overseas organizations, they make up the world’s largest non-governmental, international development organization that works through volunteers.

The organization places educators and health professionals overseas, but also sends volunteers from many fields of expertise, ranging from agriculture to human rights, from community economic development to AIDS prevention, from eco-tourism to technology. Volunteers work collaboratively with local people to equip them with the skills they need to ensure they can exercise their basic human rights. These include the right to a livelihood, an education, basic healthcare, a safe environment, a say in the future, and equal access to opportunity.  

As a charity they ask all volunteers to undertake a target of fundraising to help sustain our work in this vital area. In this case there’s an agreement between Cuso International and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) with regards to leveraging funds: CIDA will contribute $9 for every $1 Cuso International volunteers raise. This ensures that Cuso International can continue to send volunteers overseas.

I encourage you to make a donation and help me reach my fundraising goal of CAD $2,000. Of course, you’ll receive a donation tax receipt if you’re in North America. If you are in the U.S.A., there are US 501-C3 tax receipts if you give through this link, please mention my name and it will be credited to this effort. If you can’t donate, please do pass on the word to colleagues, friends, and family.

Many thanks :D

Why volunteer?

“If we are to make poverty history, we must have the active participation of States, civil society and the private sector, as well as individual volunteers. If our hopes of building a better and safer world are to become more than wishful thinking, we will need the engagement of volunteers more than ever.”
- KOFI ANNAN, UN SECRETARY GENERAL 1997–2006

Donating your time, energy and skills are important in a civil society, especially when it's in the form of volunteering. While I am no expert on volunteering, it seems to me that its a valuable opportunity. One in which an exchange of cultural views and beliefs, ways of thinking, and information are freely exchange amongst those involved. In short: Education.

Why am I doing it? For exactly the reasons above and more importantly because I want to be part of positive change in this world. Be it helping out companies in the Alternative Energy or within the society.

I've had great experiences and have learn a great deal from my volunteer experiences. Be it as a volunteer snowboard instructor with VASS or with organizations such as the VEF and the GreenTech Exchange.

Obviously, this placement is a much larger commitment, than a couple of hours a week snowboarding down the slopes of Grouse Mountain! It's an opportunity to be on the ground and involved in international development, especially within the area of education. A long time ago I used to think that technology would provide the solutions for our problems. I've since learned that while it's good to have useful technology around, it's ultimately the choice of society as to use it or not. That's where education comes in, and I want to learn more about that process ... it's all about sharing and exchanging information as succinctly presented in the following Cuso International ad.

Cuso International introductory video ad 

Preparations ...

View from another lens ...

So ... I'm off to Maputo, Mozambique! Why? As a CUSO International volunteer to help out the ICT department of the ministry of Education. This is a good opportunity to learn from others and to help out however I can in the further development of Mozambique.
 
Well, actually not so fast ... there's still two months to go that's absolutely filled with preparations - paperwork, vaccinations, packing, arranging stuff & logistics, not to mention travelling!

I'm looking forward to living in yet another country! The world is such a small place nowadays that, for me, it would be sad not to travel and experience what there is to offer.