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INTERNATIONAL SERVICE

MAKING CONNECTIONS 
 

LINKING DEVELOPMENT WORKERS AND CIVIL SOCIETY

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“Making Connections” is an initiative from International Service linking individual development workers, through IS, to civil society groups and organisations worldwide.

Connecting with Marty in Bolivia
Connecting with Janine in Mali
Connecting with Tess in Burkina Faso
Connecting with George in Bolivia

Through development workers currently in the field, IS has linked up with 33 such organisations in the last year. These include a number of European, African and North American overseas development agencies, universities, professional organisations and businesses. “Connections” also include friends, family and even a Café-Bar.

Linked groups and individuals will receive twice-yearly information about an IS development worker known to them. In addition IS will send general material about its programme and about development issues in general.
 

connecting with. . . Marty Fokkink

Marty Fokkink, Agronomist with
ADRA in San Lucas in Bolivia
from January 2002 - 2006

Marty writes: "Time flies in San Lucas!

As I wrote in my last report, this year I went ahead with environmental education on the selected schools.

This year we choose another method. We have chosen 3 subjects:

• waste management

• sanitation (toilets)

• forestry.

I did workshops on the first 2 subjects and their projects are in execution. We may assume that schools will be cleaner. Mostly in rural schools I can see results. These schools are smaller and their teachers are more motivated to take part of the project. On the 2 selected urban schools there are just some cleaning days. In August I did the forestry projects, where they installed tree nurseries or forestry fields.

Last years projects have almost all finished, mostly with good results. The three best projects are:

• construction of toilets in Quirpini (where they just had latrines, so children’s needs were all over the place)

• school tree nursery in Muyuquiri, with tree of about 20 cm height at the moment

• Vegetable garden on terraces in La Palca Grande, with a water tank.

Besides my own environmental education project, we did, in coordination with the municipality, the education office and another NGO, a waste campaign on the secondary schools of the municipality. At the end of July we visited them again and give sport clothes and cleaning materials to the best schools.

Just as last year is my work varied. Besides environmental education I mainly spend my days with GIS.

I wrote a manual for elaborating land use maps with the aid of ArcGIS. I also should give a course, but this has been postponed already twice. I elaborated one land use plan in the first half-year, another is on its way.
 

Children eager to help constructing the tree nursery in Muyuquiri

Teachers of the schools of Camargo municipality after the workshop

These land use plans had to be redone. Two years ago they were written by external technicians and due to large delays in the government, they returned very late with their observations. The external technicians got other jobs, so they did not have time or inclination to solve the observations. So our Natural Resources team has to do 15 land use maps and I am in charge of 3 of them.

The planning of activities on water basin level (also with GIS) is delayed, again due to lack of time or inclination of the local technicians. So it has been rescheduled for next semester. I investigated a new, more efficient way, how to use the GIS in this part which will save a considerable amount of days.

So, time still flies.

In our private lives, everything goes well. Kamiel is in his first year already the schools’ best student, Rebecca is the sunshine in the kindergarten.

We’ll see what future brings us, because our contract ends in December."

Marty Fokkink,  September 2006

Download Marty Fokkink's Making Connections pdf in English
 

Download Marty Fokkink's Making Connections pdf in Dutch

connecting with. . . Janine Schall-Emden

Janine Schall-Emden, Capacity Builder with ARDIL
in Tomboctou, Mali, since February 2003

Janine writes: "Soon my first year of living in Tombouctou will come to a close. The last seven months have seen many changes in the weather – from sandstorms that blocked out the sun to forceful rainfalls that damaged more than 30 houses, including our own!
Always popular with visitors as the ‘Mythical City’, Tombouctou welcomed French president Jacques Chirac and Mali’s own President Amadou Toumani Touré in late October for a visit of little more than two hours. In honour of the visit, the only paved road leading from the airport to the town’s Independence Square (the venue of the presidents' speeches) was lined with approximately 1200 camels and hundreds of horses.

The two decentralized savings and credit schemes, or 'caisses' began functioning in the months of July and August respectively. Both have already started allotting the first credit to their members and have begun to collect some savings. Although there is a long learning process ahead for the institutions' governing bodies, much promise has been demonstrated by everybody involved."

Janine Schall-Emden, 08 March 2004

See a video clip of the greeting visitors get with arriving at Toya village.
See a video clip of Janine with the women from Tassakane

connecting with. . . Tess Pendle

Tess Pendle, Savings and Credits Advisor with Microstart
in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso from July 2003 - 2006

Tess Pendle poses with three of the seven members of Group Sinavo, a savings and credit group based in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.
These women have received loans to help extend their millet beer making activities which in turn generates income for the women and their families. Making beer from millet is an eight day process involving grinding the millet, boiling it, straining off the liquid and fermenting it.

Tess says: "I enjoy working with Micro Start and am particularly happy to be part of a project which is making a real difference to the lives of poor women. My work implementing information management systems, offering general technical support and designing publicity materials. My colleagues, all local women, have been most welcoming and everyone helps each other out if needed.

Last year we were able to issue Micro Start's first Christmas card and are now in the process of completing a brochure and leaflet about the organisation. On the systems side, I have just developed an 'Excel' programme for the better management of loan information, and this is already proving a boon to those responsible for producing regular statistics."

Tess Pendle, March 2004

See a video clip from one of the markets in Ouagadougou.
See a video clip of Tess speaking with Katherine Youma from MicroStart on the importance of women's credit

connecting with. . . George Truckenbrod

George Truckenbrod, Agronomist with Help Age International
in Sucre in Bolivia from October 2001 - 2007

Here is the webpage of the class George is in touch with:
http://www.dist428.org/rosette/classrm/
brown/home.html
On that site, click on "Our Bolivia Project" and then "Bolivia Power Point Presentation" to find George mentioned.

A fifth grade student from the Clinton Rosette Middle School in Illinois, USA, reads about George in Bolivia from an International Service "Making Connections" newsletter.

Greetings from Bolivia: "As many know, Bolivia is undergoing a period of social unrest and change. How does all this social unrest affect a development worker placed in the country?
I live in the city of Sucre, which was not the center of the massive and violent protests; but nevertheless, we did have marches, blockades, and hunger strikes. I am working in Potolo, local community where we are currently building 17 sustainable greenhouses with older people and their families. I needed to transport the remaining construction materials from Sucre to this community. On Friday, October 17th I returned from Potolo to collect materials and heard of road blocks.

After a week of intense social unrest, the Bolivian president left the country and normality was restored. I assumed that the greenhouse groups would be anxious to complete the building work because of the upcoming rainy season and the desire to grow vegetables.
 

However, I was mistaken. The entire community celebrated the religious events for the rest of the week and showed very little concern for the half-built greenhouses. Only one of the 17 greenhouse groups asked me for the materials that were still missing. I concluded that there are more pressing events in the lives of Bolivians, even the community members in Potolo, than this greenhouse project. Perhaps I should put down the garden trowel and pick up a glass of rural Bolivian fermented corn beer called “chicha”. " [George's message has been shortened.]

George Truckenbrod Sucre, November 2003