- Notes - Naomi -
Routes and Career Paths, a brief overview - Naomi Lovett
I hope you're all feeling daunted and inspired by these talks because development work is challenging. As young people who might be interested in working in development you have a responsibility to learn from other people's mistakes and make careful decisions.
I'm going to tell you about the path I've followed in my career. I was a philosophy student in Cambridge and did a gap year in Tanzania. It was good to live in a rural area to have total absorption to adapt and learn the language before having too much responsibility for managing a project.
Returning to Cambridge I had seen a lot of things that had opened my eyes. I'd seen projects I didn't believe in, I'd seen how hard it was to make a difference, and wrestled with these questions while at university. I worked with SAFE, which was advisable because it brought me into contact with lots of organisations.
It's important to take any opportunities like that which come along. When I finished my degree I did an internship with CAMFED and then returned to Tanzania coordinating a health education program for schools. We were raising awareness levels of HIV/AIDS. There was very little knowledge about the causes and affects of the virus.
All the time I asked myself whether we were making a difference. A lot of young people don't believe that condoms work. And even when people know how to protect themselves, it doesn't mean that they are using condoms. Education programs have sometimes shown NO CHANGE in infection rates.
While I was there the link between female empowerment and reducing HIV infection became very clear to me. Kofi Annan said that AIDS has a female face and in sub Saharan Africa women are 6 times more likely to be infected than men. I approached CAMFED to set up their programme in Tanzania, as girls' education seems to be the best way of reducing HIV infection rates. In the meantime I worked on a survey of reproductive health attitudes. We trained young people to conduct research (it's easier for young people to be open with other young people) We made a survey of over 400 questions but the impact was questionable.
Now I work for CAMFED. We have programs in Zimbabwe, Zambia Ghana and Tanzania. I'm very fortunate to have a balance where I'm living in UK but working in Tanzania. Its very hard to find jobs where you believe you are making a difference. Girls' education really makes a difference. The chance of a child dying prematurely is reduced by 8% for every year the mother is in school.
I've been very lucky with my decisions. Some of my friends have gone the academic route but they may never get field experience now. It was important to me to have gone to Africa when I was 18 because I might not have gone when I was older.
Often donors would come and evaluate our work but they weren't prepared to suffer the journey into the bush. Its so easy to forget when you are far away from the situation what it is like!
I wouldn't want to change my field or work in another country, now that I've learned Swahili and fallen in love with one country I feel that I can start making an impact - I wouldn't want to start again in another country.
Being a Cambridge student can be both good and bad. You have to be aware of your background. It's not going to be instinctive to you to follow the participatory process. It will always be tempting to try to solve a problem from you desk. You have to be sensitive to the gap in educational background. In cambridge debate and argument are considered healthy, but in the field it is your job to facilitate what the community wants.
Q: View on gap year / tourism?
They are different really. People nowadays travel in new ways. We have to be very careful in the choices we make, but if the travel builds your capacity for benefiting others in the future then it is useful. Some gap year kids can be very irresponsible eg. getting drunk in communties where they live. Other dangers are the way gap year students work in the country's school system - often critical of the system when they are not qualified teachers themselves. This limits the impact of them and others. Disrespectful foreigners undermines the community they are living in. Extreme examples are gar year students painting people's houses without the permission of the owners! Openmindedness and a good attitude are the key attributes needed to do good work.
Q: Isn't all this a problem with all NGOs not just gap years?
Yes potentially although older people are in general less likely to behave irresponsibly. You need to maintain respect for the community and remember your responsibilities to them if you are working with them. Find a good organisation to work with in terms of both organisational method and their mission and values if possible. This may be hard to find both these, you may have to compromise. You are also likely to need to volunteer at first to work your way into organisations. Sometimes you may be slightly luckier and be able to work on a local salary if you are abroad. Responsible financial management is part of a career! Most people surveyed say that voluntary internships are not exploitative.
Q: What if there is a clash of values such as schools using corporal Punishment?
This is an area where overseas volunteers often rush in and are too critical. You need to deal with things very carefully. First build trust with the teachers and you may be able to start debate about the issue, but it is very hard for gap year students to deal with this sensitively.
Q: How much progress has CAMFED done in Tanzania so far?
Our program only started in November 2004, but the results from Zimbabwe have been inspiring, as many of the girls supported have gone back to their communities to raise further awareness of health issues etc.
Q: Are there enough jobs for the people where CAMFED has worked?
Realistically the girls we support to go to school won't be entering paid employment, so creating opportunities for income generation is a major component of our programme.
Q: What do you think your future will be? Only 5-10 years in development and then a 'normal' career?
Development is now a major career goal for a lot of people until they retire. I plan to keep working for CAMFED becuase I feel that it makes a difference whereas in my time abroad I often felt quite powerless. I have an attachment to the program I am working on and want to see it through. Maybe I'll have a career break to have kids!
There is so much you can learn from Google while you are a student to keep yourself informed.