ASPOVRECE—The internship
I “interned” with l’Association Populaire des Volontaires pour la Rehabilitation et Conservation de l’Environnement. I think it took me all 6 weeks just to learn the name of the organization. Essentially it’s an organization of volunteers who work toward the rehabilitation and conservation of the environment. They also create/fund projects that contribute to the local economy. Their major activities include the rehabilitation of the mangroves, a bioenergy project, a plant nursery, and a small business that fabricates personal flotation devices (aka life vests).Unfortunately, my internship itself was a flop. The grassroots organization was founded by 80 residents of Mbam in 1999. It does really great work both in Mbam, and in the 7 other surrounding villages. My third night in the village they convened a meeting for the leaders of the organization. They essentially asked me what I wanted to do as their intern. I had anticipated that they would have a project for me to do. So we were sort of at a standstill. They asked what I was interested in, and when my response was, “everything” they decided that the best plan of action would be for me to go around and interview residents of the other villages with which they work to find out what activities they do concerning the environment. They also arranged for me to observe a science class at the elementary school and talk with the teachers. In addition, I got tours of all their projects in Mbam: the bioenergy structures, the mangrove rehabilitation sites, the reforested eucalyptus trees, and an interview with the master tailor for the life vests.
They made a calendar for me, allotting a week for research and reading, two weeks for the interviews, and a final week during which I’d draft up my report. There was no formal structure to my days. My mom, Bineta, was the vice-president of ASPOVRECE and my head supervisor. I was to follow her to all of her meetings, as well, as part of my internship. There was no main structure to which I went each day, or set hours during which I worked. (Just my westernized idea of what constitutes an internship.)
I suppose this would have been a very cool opportunity for independent research on eco-villages if I’d entered the internship with a specific research question. However, I did not have a specific purpose so it was a bit awkward to try to create a set of questions to which I wanted answers. Ultimately, I tried to learn how the ecovillages inspire their residents to live in a sustainable fashion, since inspiring other always seems to be the biggest hurdle for environmentalists back home. However, I quickly learned that environmentalism in a rural village in Senegal is a whole different game from environmentalism in the large cities of the United States, shockingly enough. I’ll talk more about this in another entry.
So essentially, once the interview phase began, I would get up, Thierno Djiby (a member of the org) would pick me up an hour later than our designated meeting time, and then we’d take his horse-drawn cart to two neighboring villages. I’d conduct my interviews and we’d be back to Mbam in time for lunch. It was very relaxed. When I describe a typical day for me, you’ll see how relaxed and informal this internship was.
I guess in the end I did learn a lot about mangroves and their bioenergy project. ASPOVRECE works with one Economic Interest Groups (consortiums of villagers that collaborate to promote their economic interests) in each of the surrounding 7 villages. They coordinated the efforts of the villagers to reforest their portion of the mangroves in an attempt to rehabilitate the entire coast. During the 70s, the coasts of these islands used to have thriving mangrove ecosystems, but now the mangroves have disappeared completely due to overfishing and over-cutting of the trees for firewood. This has had a number of adverse effects on the environment, including the advance of the sea taking over valuable farmland, salinization of the land and groundwater, loss of fish (an important food and economic source), to name a few. The World Fund for the Environment funds efforts to rehabilitate the mangroves, and ASPOVRECE coordinates the efforts in this region. All the villages spoke about the positive efforts they’ve already seen since they started planting seeds a couple years ago. Some fish species have already begun to return and they think the mangroves bring more rain during the rainy season.
As for the biomass project, the objective is to produce electricity and cooking gas. It is an amazing project that I think has incredible potential for rural villages. The gas produced by fermenting cow manure and water, is burned to turn a turbine and create electricity. Some of the gas will also be captured and used as cooking gas by the local villagers. With the sludge that is left over, the water is filtered out and using in the farms, and the remaining product is dried and sold and organic fertilizer. Imagine the benefits this carries for rural villages short on electricity and gas and with a plentiful supply of cow pies. ASPOVRECE has all the structures in place and owns 4 cows. However, there was a problem with the funding, and the project has come to a standstill. I’m hoping to use my time here this semester to try and help find funding to continue this project.
So those are two of the very-worthy projects ASPOVRECE coordinates and about which I learned during my 6 weeks in the bush. As for feeling like I accomplished something, my internship was a flop, but I did learn a lot about the “green” projects in rural Senegal, and living in the bush was the most eye-opening experience of my time in Senegal. I am so glad I was placed in Mbam for my internship.
posted by Hannah Gelder @ 12:26 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home