Alumni 2010-present

In August 2014, retired teacher and Cuso volunteer Peter Jailall published Jottings: A Teacher’s Logbook, a collection of articles that tackle the fundamental questions educators need to ask about teaching and learning. Jottings: A Teacher’s Logbook was published by In Our Words and is available at amazon.com or by emailing peter.jailall@hotmail.com.

For past three years, Jean Fraser, a Cuso International alumna who volunteered in Peru, was the captain of a charity running team in Halifax.

“I’m proud to support the work that Cuso International does in developing countries. This yearly fundraiser helps me to recognize the role that Cuso the organization and the people I met by volunteering have played in my life,¨ explains Jean. “I keep coming back to captain the team in Halifax, as part of the Blue Nose Marathon because I believe in volunteering. It’s a great opportunity to talk to people about the different volunteer opportunities that are out there—both internationally and locally.”

Cuso International is always looking for alumni who want to stay involved with the organization. Join now by contacting us at outreach@cusointernational.org  for more information.

My two postings to Cambodia as a Cuso International volunteer were not my first visit to Cambodia. Ten years earlier, I had travelled to the kingdom as a volunteer in a journalism-training program.

A six-week public relations assignment for CUSO with photographer William Hirtle in 2011 was my fifth trip to the country. When CUSO selected me to return the following year as a media advisor, no doubt my previous efforts in Cambodia were a consideration. 

Why did I want to go back? A big factor were the volunteers we profiled in the promotional stories about their work in partnership with VSO Cambodia. Their energy and dedication was both an inspiration and a reminder to me of unfinished business. Cambodians have yet to rebuild the institutions destroyed by war and revolution in the last decades of the 20th century. 

In the past, as a volunteer, my objective had been to support the development of independent media and civil society and that was my motivation when I applied to return in 2012. Something that perhaps I had forgotten, however, was that volunteers always have more to learn than they have to give. 

Skills and Knowledge for Working in Development (SKWID) training does warn us about the complexity of relationships with host organizations and in my case, I did have some memory of the institutional obstacles and subtleties of Cambodian society. Despite all that, I was not prepared upon my arrival at the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (CCC) for the rivalries I observed within the NGO community, particularly in its engagement with the entrenched authoritarian government. For example, as an association of NGOs, CCC is required at all times to present a consensus on matters ranging from electoral reform to fundamental human rights. Many members—particularly those without an international partner—give highest priority to maintaining their working relationship with government departments and local officials. These national NGOs risk a loss of funding from their sponsors should government react to unwelcome criticism by reducing or severing access to their clients. CCC shares this constraint with other umbrella organizations in Cambodia and each of them, in turn, are obsessively protective of their access to top levels of government, of their ability to influence policy (or to be given public credit for influence) and to attract government ministers to their events. So important is this last measure of prestige that organizations may even pay high-ranking officials for little more than token participation.

The incoming media advisor is likely to see these arrangements as grotesquely compromised yet needs to adopt some form of accommodation if he or she is to be at all effective. The objective must be to assist the organization to present its positions as clearly as it dares, and help it develop new channels through which to communicate with its public. In practice, this might involve training in speech writing and in drafting of manifestos and news releases and in cultivating relationships with local media.

My experience with CCC included both some successes and a number of painful frustrations. The organization enjoyed a significant increase in exposure in print and broadcast media. A newly appointed executive director won early recognition as an effective spokesman for civil society. The main setback was CCC’s persistent reluctance or even refusal to join other organizations in speaking out against political repression, judicial corruption and the repeated breach of human rights. In one way, I am sure I was a disappointment to CCC. I was prepared to assist team members in drafting announcements, grant applications, correspondence, annual reports and so on but insisted that my role was to help CCC develop its own communications capacity rather than to perpetuate its dependency on an outside scribe. At various times, it was necessary to back down from this hard-line position but much less frequently, I suspect, than my colleagues had experienced with previous volunteers.

Looking back now, I feel it was an important that not all my volunteer activities were confined to my host organization. I was able to accept an invitation to mentor a student in the communications program at the Royal University of Cambodia. I had opportunities to develop connections with local journalists and broadcasters, to travel throughout the kingdom and write for CUSO about the work of other volunteers. I participated in the rich cultural life of Phnom Penh and maintained a blog about events that I witnessed.

Recently, I have completed a series of posts based on a long interview with a young Cambodian who grew up in the years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979.

My term as a CUSO volunteer with CCC lasted 20 months, a half-year short of the originally contracted period. As it happened, my urgent return to Canada was too late for me to be present at the death of a senior family member. Nonetheless, I felt it was important to available as a support to my partner in a time of loss. In fact, coming home when I did was critical for my own health. A medical examination of symptoms that had troubled me during my last months in Cambodia resulted in a diagnosis of bladder cancer and early surgical intervention. I am happy to say that after three operations, my doctors advise me I probably will die of something else.

As I read the last issue of The Catalyst, I paid close attention to the piece on sustainability. It was interesting, and I think it can be complemented by evidence-based input from the field. To that end, I asked the director of a project I worked on six years ago for some feedback. 

Cuso International helped the PV organization with governance, financial management and strategic policy all within a six-month placement. In addition, we did a one-year placement on program application. These efforts along with PV’s astute management team helped to get PV to where it is at present. Maybe this is something we can build upon in other places. Governance, accountability and transparency are fundamental elements of sustainability. 

Join Marian on her three-year journey enjoying life in rural and urban Ethiopia. Experience her photos and stories through her blog.

Marian also published her journey as Spider Webs Unite: My Volunteer Experience in Ethiopia. If you are interested in purchasing a copy please email Marian: marianbeth (at) gmail (dot) com*

*Please replace (at) with @ and (dot) with a . and remove spaces when emailing. This is to prevent spammers from easily getting email addresses published on the website.

The Road to Prosperity–my education–my life is a collection of interviews highlighting the value of education. It is a wonderful educational resource created and produced by Alice Chandler during her placement in in Mondolkiri province, Cambodia. The book was shared and used with by the Provincial office of Education, the District office of Education, and NGO education partners throughout Cambodia. Teachers learned how to use this book with their students to promote school enrolment and to improve the sustainability of higher school from grades 1–12. 

Read more about Alice’s work on her blog.

Volunteer Murray Stow participated in a series of online advertisements with Advisor, Canadian Grocer and Canadian Business magazines to attract business professionals to volunteer with Cuso International. Murray was also featured in Ottawa’s Metro newspaper during National Volunteer Week. 

Thank you, Murray, for helping us spread the word about volunteer opportunities around the world!