Friday, March 17, 2006
The Niger River Voyage
About a week ago, I decided to officialy "come out of retirement" from my volunteering hiatus. (Which is incorrect, since I've been volunteering as a research assistant for organizational psychology at UW since January, but I digress.) I approached my friend Sarah Lewis to see if she has anything on her plate as the current president of the UW chapter of Engineers Without Borders, and she got back to me with a huge project that very day.
It appears that one of EWB's long-term (18 month) overseas volunteers will be ending his current internship with a bang. Tom Owen, who I apparently know from the 2003 EWB national conference, has been in Ghana for more than a year promoting human development. Once his formal internship is over, the new project will begin.
Using locally available materials and vehicles, he will travel nearly 2500km down the Niger River in west Africa. This will correspond with a public awareness campaign in Canada, where volunteers will get regular updates and stories about how life really is in Africa. (He'll have a satellite phone.)
So I get to coordinate a big chunk of the in-Canada stuff: sponsorship, media and communications. A big job, but a fun one. A bulk of work on my plate developing the materials, but the rest will be easy.
Oh, and for a special sneak preview of the new EWB site design, click here.
It appears that one of EWB's long-term (18 month) overseas volunteers will be ending his current internship with a bang. Tom Owen, who I apparently know from the 2003 EWB national conference, has been in Ghana for more than a year promoting human development. Once his formal internship is over, the new project will begin.
Using locally available materials and vehicles, he will travel nearly 2500km down the Niger River in west Africa. This will correspond with a public awareness campaign in Canada, where volunteers will get regular updates and stories about how life really is in Africa. (He'll have a satellite phone.)
So I get to coordinate a big chunk of the in-Canada stuff: sponsorship, media and communications. A big job, but a fun one. A bulk of work on my plate developing the materials, but the rest will be easy.
Oh, and for a special sneak preview of the new EWB site design, click here.
