This blog is a story of my placement with the Aga Khan Foundation Tanzania in Zanzibar. It is about the trials and tribulations that come from living in an environment completely foreign to my own, the triumphs and struggles of many fascinating individuals met along the way, and my role as a 'young professional' working in international development - an ambiguous and contentious term that after decades of mismanagement and malpractice writer Gilles Courtemanche described as "the best but most irrelevant of intentions".
I hope to challenge such cynics who cry "development doesn't work" by illustrating cases where it does. Thus this blog will also highlight stories about communities meeting their immediate needs at the grass roots level by owning the process, supported by agencies who listen to their needs. These examples will come from the many projects AKF-Tanzania is supporting on Zanzibar, which have improved the lives of many on the island. It is because of this that the Foundation is respected and known in the field and abroad for delivering effective, positive assistance.
Thus please enjoy, and feel free to comment on anything I say. Dialogue is crucial for the creation and advancement of ideas, so lets talk!
-Kent-
Please note the views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent those of Aga Khan Foundation Canada, Aga Khan Foundation Tanzania or the Canadian International Development Agency, the latter to which I am grateful for financing this experience.
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I hope to challenge such cynics who cry "development doesn't work" by illustrating cases where it does. Thus this blog will also highlight stories about communities meeting their immediate needs at the grass roots level by owning the process, supported by agencies who listen to their needs. These examples will come from the many projects AKF-Tanzania is supporting on Zanzibar, which have improved the lives of many on the island. It is because of this that the Foundation is respected and known in the field and abroad for delivering effective, positive assistance.
Thus please enjoy, and feel free to comment on anything I say. Dialogue is crucial for the creation and advancement of ideas, so lets talk!
-Kent-
Please note the views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent those of Aga Khan Foundation Canada, Aga Khan Foundation Tanzania or the Canadian International Development Agency, the latter to which I am grateful for financing this experience.
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3 comments:
Kent, more blog please.
Hope everything is going great! Don't let the mosquito get you down.
Miss you bud!
"My peers were sent to toil in small villages and urban centres in Tajikistan, Bangladesh, India, Burkina Faso, Mali and Mozambique to name a few. I was assigned to work in the tropical spice island of Zanzibar with the Aga Khan Foundation Tanzania."
So accurate. I love it.
Hey Kent
It was nice and refreshing to read your recent experience in ZNZ. Am in Zanzibari now resides in Dallas, Tx US and have been dying to read as much from there. Was actually looking for a rep of AGA KHAN Foundation in ZNZ, I am in the process sending humanitarian aid for children, may be you could help. Ahsante sana. Fathiya
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