Rachel Murray - Placements Volunteer for a 6 month placement with the Royal Commonwealth Society of Cameroon

I took part in EWB-UK’s week long Pre-departure Training Course in June 2009 along with 31 other volunteers in preparation for going on various volunteer placements. My placement is with the Royal Commonwealth Society of Cameroon in the Kurume region with two other volunteers to rehabilitate and extend the water treatment and supply network, which is one of the many varied placements EWB-UK organise.

The Pre-departure course covered numerous topics to help volunteers deal with some of the very different situations they may encounter while on placement. This included community participation skills, conflict negotiation, health abroad, basic first aid, personal security, social entrepreneurship and project planning. The sessions were carried out as interactive workshops which meant that it was an interesting hands-on experience in which everyone got to contribute and get involved and never got bored!

The part of the course that I most enjoyed was the chance to meet the other volunteers going out on placements, along with  professionals that had experience working in the development sector. Talking to the other volunteers was very reassuring as for many of them it was their first volunteer placement and they were as nervous as I was about making mistakes or not living up to expectations placed on us.  Meeting other people who had the same motivations and aspirations to work in development was also very refreshing as there was no need to explain yourself; just the chance to discuss what you would like to do to make a difference.

Aside from the sessions themselves, I think that what made the course so successful were the people I met and the opportunity to share their experiences.  I had my ideas on development work challenged and was left with the belief that this was a sector where my skills as an engineer had the possibility to make a real difference.