For those that didn’t start in the “about me” section, I’m Jen! I’m heading out to Tanzania real soon to volunteer for three months with VSO. VSO is an international development organization that works to fight poverty in developing countries. Before I jump into the details of the work I’ll be doing, I want to give you some context on past development goals and how VSO approaches fighting poverty through sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Developed countries assisting developing countries hasn’t always worked well, and this video does a really great job of explaining why.

What I really love about VSO is their people first approach to aiding in development. VSO pairs global volunteers with local professionals, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and policy makers so they may all share skills, ideas, and expertise to create and implement solutions to development challenges in their local communities. People working together at the local level to enable and empower each other, with the common goal of improving the livelihoods of their communities, truly sets the stage for systematic and sustainable change; I’m really hoping I can make a positive impact while I’m there. Nerd alert: as an Anthropology major, I totally geek out on all this!

At any given time VSO can have multiple projects going on within 1 country (or even region), typically directly related to education, health, and livelihoods. When I arrive in Tanzania, I’ll be working on the VSO Global Livelihoods team project (CPAT) with two other volunteers, from the Netherlands, who also work for my company. This project is 3 phases and we will be tackling phase 1, which is documenting VSO’s work in Tanzania. My specific role is to document VSO’s work in the area of labour market analysis, which means I will likely be visiting all the current projects in the different regions. My position recently (in the past 2 weeks) changed from 1 project to another, previously I was slated be on the island of Zanzibar the entire time – but now I get to be based in the capital and travel. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m super stoked about this change! Can’t wait to get my feet on the ground and learn all about Tanzanian culture! 6 days and counting…. excuse me while I go tackle 8 billion things on my to-do list!

Don’t worry, the rest of my blog entries won’t be so sterile. I truly believe the context above is very important and worth the share.

Kwaheri kw sasa!!!