INDEX
Travel broadens the mind?
T
his is a phrase people use to glorify their foreign holidays or their year backpacking around the globe. One that I feel is overused. Having taken part in both an exchange for youth workers to Zambia and a voluntary placement in an orphanage in Nigeria, I believe that how we travel affects whether our minds are challenged at all and to what extent. Working within the Global South turned out to be very different from what I had expected. When I decided to volunteer, I researched the area I would be traveling to and the organisation I would be working with. I was very much prepared to ‘help these people’ and ‘fix their problems’. However I wasn’t greeted as I had expected, that is as a knight in shining armour. I found out that Nigeria has its own way of life and didn’t need me to ‘fix’ it. This is when I realised that even though my heart was in the right place my actions were not. I arrived in Nigeria with no transferable skills to offer. I would now describe myself as a tourist with a volunteer job. Then I discovered development education and it changed my perspective on life; it didn’t just broaden my mind it blew it wide open. It made me aware that everyone is equal no matter what stage of development their country is at. It helped me to understand that we can learn from one another. That is why I decided to take part in an exchange organised via the National Youth Council of Ireland for youth workers from Ireland and Zambia to visit each others’ countries and learn from each other. For me, an exchange is an amazing idea if both participating countries get to take part in the travelling aspect of the exchange. In an exchange people from both countries are equal partners. I found this to be particularly true on my exchange trip to Zambia. When I was volunteering, I had plenty of interaction with the general public but I didn’t have the confidence to ask them questions as I feared offending their culture or beliefs. On the exchange, because my Zambian counterparts and I felt that we were equals, I felt free to ask about the problems I saw. I was able to get adequate answers from them and this gave me a better insight into youth work in Zambia. Similarly, they could ask me about problems they saw in Ireland. On the exchange I got to see how many different
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Noel at a HIV and AIDS testing promotion centre in Lusaka. Credit: Noel Carroll
“On the exchange, because my Zambian counterparts and I felt that we were equals, I felt free to ask about the problems I saw.” organisations conducted business. I also got to meet the leaders of many organisations and ask them about their work and about the possibility of developing a link between our organisations, so that we could continue to share information and learn from each other into the future. Volunteering and exchanges are both amazing ways to experience a different culture. However in my experience, exchanges foster a better relationship between the organisations involved and ensure that the relationship between them does not end when the participants return home. This allows for development education to flourish because we can continue to share with each other. For example, by getting information about what is going on at the ground level in a developing country, and not just accepting the information released from the media and government sources. This allows for a true picture of a country to come to light. This goes both ways as I am sure people viewing Ireland from the outside think we are falling apart at the seams. We can share with them what is really going on here. In doing so we can also develop our own understanding of how people living in different countries view what is happening in Ireland. Exchanges and links based on equal partnership can support both partners to question their assumptions and worldview. They can affect how those involved perceive both the world around them and other people. Therefore taking part in an exchange or link can enable you to carry out development education activity in Ireland, since perception is key in development education and it’s up to you to develop your own. By Noel Carroll, noel.carroll9@mail.dcu.ie For more on exchanges: Development Perspectives, www.developmentperspectives.ie Banúlacht, www.banulacht.ie NYCI, www.youthdeved.ie Link Community Development, www.lcdinternational.org/ireland