Tempting proposition...

Well, life's about to become a whole lot more interesting because I've recently been offered an opportunity that might be too worthwhile to resist. Getting involved in development or aid work in the field rather than from an office has long been on my wishlist, but I figured I didn't have the required skill set as I'm not a nurse, engineer, IT specialist or trained teacher. The staff at Global Volunteer Network here in Wellington seem otherwise convinced though, as they have just given me a chance to volunteer in an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp in Kenya. Through Kenyan NZAID students I'd heard about the post-election violence in 2008 that killed nearly 1,000 people and caused distruction in several parts of the country. What I wasn't aware of, however, was the fact that over 600,000 people were forced to flee their homes and became internally displaced. Most of them took refuge in large camps and many have since been resettled in different areas, but thousands are still living in IDP camps with little assistance and very few basic resources. GVN works closely with a Kenyan ngo to place volunteers in three camps near Nairobi, where they help with logistics, schooling, medical services and whatever else is needed. Apparently I was selected because of my project management skills and intercultural experience but I doubt that would prepare me for working in these type of conditions. Still, it's worth doing some research because in the future I'd like to work with refugees and I feel I should have the courage to find out what life is like for those unlucky enough to become displaced. There's a lot of debate within the development and aid industry about the pros and cons of short-term volunteer stints so I'll need to sleep on this for quite a while. Will keep you posted...