As many of you know, in August of 2009, I will heading to Africa for a year with Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Canada as a long-term Overseas Volunteer Staff. More specifically I will be heading to the southern African country of Zambia to work in partnership with a local entity.
Together with the local entity, I will be working together with rural small-scale farmers within the sphere of agricultural business development. Using Agricultural Value Chains, EWB visions a prosperous rural livelihood sector where small-scale farmers are leveraging agriculture for sustainable wealth creation. The work of EWB overseas staff, like myself, will focus on improving field staff capacity, developing monitoring and evaluation systems for implementation, improving organizational/managerial capacity, enhancing communication of field level realties, and improving linkages between the smallholder farmers and the private sector.I have personally been involved with Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB) for almost 7 years. Over the years I have developed a huge passion and devotion toward the complexities and intricacies of international development. However, I always felt there existed a gap between what I know about the fight against global poverty here in Canada and the realities out in the field. After working for few years out in the engineering industry, I took some time to think and finally decided to take the leap and bridge that gap by going overseas.
Over 800 million people go hungry everyday and over 1.2 billion people lack access to clean drinking water. I fundamentally believe that such grim realities do not have to be. I also believe that, as North Americans, we have a responsibility to be aware and educated about such realities going on half-way across the world. I have devoted so many years of my life to EWB because I believe that their approach to overseas development and in-Canada outreach is the best to help achieve such goals. Unlike a lot of other western-NGO’s where volunteers are sent overseas for 1 or 2 months to “build” something and leave, EWB’s approach aims to focus on long-term impact to help locals build capacity and empowerment in their technical sector by partnering long-term Overseas Staff with local entities.
As an Overseas Staff Member, I have a set a goal to raise $1500 for my placement. I hope I can count on your support to help me reach my goal. Engineers Without Borders is a registered Canadian charity and all donations over $20 are tax deductible.
Donations can be made online at http://volunteers.ewb.ca/arthurkong
If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at ackong@gmail.com
I thank all of you, from the bottom of my heart, for your support.
Sincerely,
Arthur
