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Can students do more harm than good in Development projects in unfamiliar communities? Debate

Do you think there is a conflict to be responsive to a community and being an engineer and having skills which may be a communication barrier?

Naomi...yes, you’re potentially the only one who can make a decision. We have to be sensitive. Slum designs. Set up a device for sharing ideas

Having a technical knowledge can distance you from the locals

In engineering standards we distinguish between something that’s there for engineering conventions and your ideals?

Can students do more harm than good than developmental Architects etc?

From engineering point of view is it more beneficial to go straight into development or to get experience first?

It’s very useful learn people management, yes important experience in more conventional working environment

Lots of people suffer unnecessarily, not many have the luxury of being able to do something about it. We do, so do it. We will do some good as well as some bad but that doesn’t men shouldn’t do it.

People without experience can still make a good impact. Some with lots of experience can make a much greater mess! Always question what doing sure but don’t let it stop you doing it

Because there are so many individual groups fighting for funds there ends up lots of groups on paper that appear to be in conflict but should be collaborating. That’s why we set u p the humanitarian society centre

EWB general idea we knew some organisations can only give a few grants. EWB identifies people that can do things for us and we get them together. That’s collaboration.

While we were in the discussion groups some people wanted to talk about their gap experiences or others abroad. are there any present that want or have developed the ideas and practices which they have learnt from there?

Floor... yes I have formed discussion groups to raise awareness. Without that experience of going out I wouldn’t have been able to come to those conclusions

I think the best thing i can do is take advantage of the opportunities I have here and participating in things which are actively trying to make a stand, change things. Cambridge has a lot to offer in this respect.

Following on, with development, the focus is on developing countries but at home the emphasis is on how we live is not sustainable in the west. should we be distinguishing between development abroad and at home?

Our standard or living here and in the west isn’t sustainable, if our consumption levels stay the same and we expect Africa to develop to this same level we would need 6 planets to hold the waste.

What can we do at home to improve sustainable lifestyle?

We need to take an active stand, we pull our hair a lot about how not to impose our ideas on each other. other countries want our help, they need help from people like us. Attitude- exchange, mutual benefit, mutual support and respect. Everybody getting something. I fully support the fact that there are older practitioners Who do more harm. Students are less costly, keener, and more flexible. Can get involved and engage with people in a way older people may not allow themselves. What are your motives?

What u bring back from gap years - learning about how you don’t have all the answers. Things in my gap taught me this and proper open-mindedness. Provided me with proper drive. EWB are all involved in giving money out rather than resources.

I don’t think you can have a workshop that combines the two. Find a medium between the macro and the micro approach

Development work is v. controversial. SAFE has raised fairly few funds and its not because we can’t raise it as students. We should take up the opportunities in college to raise those funds.

ASF- in what capacity can students engage with development most effectively then?

As someone who’s worked for a gap org. we were getting a lot of graduates to. you need support mechanisms there but the emotional baggage that comes with younger less experienced volunteers is sometimes trying .

What kind of jobs would they do?

They would work alongside teachers in schools

Working in the field - tend to see allot of v. traumatising things. Taking the opportunity to go an expose yourselves to these things or just dif. cultures can teach us so much especially now in this multi cultural soc. it’s an important skill to be able to talk to people and be open minded. It’s going out an asking and doing that’s the important thing. Sending out qualified relief workers costs a huge amount and is not feasible always. This is where volunteer culture comes into use. First stage moving into a culture and trying to understand it, next is to become a professional.

Ed - many many thanks to everyone!

There are lots of people from different backgrounds and subjects here, and we seem to agree that collaboration is important for successful and sustainable development. Let's not let anything get in the way of making the recently launched Humanitarian Centre take off.