[ Rwanda, 2012 ]
1. Please tell us about Burundi
Hello everyone, My name is Jun-kwon Park from Busan, Republic of Korea. I will be dispatched to the Burundi office as a representative of HUMAN IN LOVE Burundi branch.
Now as I am getting ready to leave, I have these mixed feelings of nervousness and excitement.
Not many of you are familiar with Burundi. It is my first time to visit the country as well, but I have experienced culture, environment, and history of Rwanda which is mostly similar to that of Burundi. I also studied a lot about Burundi as I was getting ready to leave, so I want to briefly explain to you what I’ve learned so far about Burundi.
Burundi is known as the ‘Heart of Africa’ along with Rwanda and is one of the five East African nations including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda. Burundi is a small country and the size of the land is quite similar to that of Gyungsang Province in Korea. The average attitude in the Alpine region is over 1500m and the annual average temperature is similar to late spring or early winter of Korea so it’s a good place to live. Moreover, there is a long lake which connects Tanzania, Congo, and Zambia providing beautiful view and cool breeze.
However, ongoing civil war between the two core tribes in the country, the Hutu and Tutsi devastated the country since 1960s after they obtained independence from Belgium. The disputes between two tribes halted development of the nation and created many refugees. Nowadays, more efforts are put to recover from the past but Burundi is still one of the top five poorest nations in Africa.
2. How do you feel about working in Burundi?
I feel excited but at the same time I am nervous too. I spent one-third of my 20s in African countries such as Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Rwanda. When I hear the word, ‘Africa’ my heart starts to race. I am more than happy to have this opportunity to work in Burundi. Some people say they will never move to Burundi no matter how much they will get paid. However, to me it is an awesome opportunity since I can help the people of Burundi to live better lives. On the other hand, I feel sad leaving my family and friends here in Korea. Maybe it is because it has been only couple months since I came back to Korea.
Also, I feel very nervous about going to a new country even though I was exposed to similar culture, environment, and language. I feel anxious about fulfilling all the responsibilities given to me as well.
3. What are your most important values in helping developing countries?
‘Always listen and move forward together’ is my motto.
I think of my decision and thoughts very important. However, I think fine tuning of everybody’s opinion is much more important process and it can bring about much better outcome too. It’s not as easy as it sounds. We know that we must communicate with many people but in reality, we don’t really know what’s on minds of people around us. People are often very stubborn and I am also one of them. This is why I try to communicate as much as I can with people I work with.
There is always gap between field and office or villagers and NGO. And sometimes the gap widens more than we expected. However, I think we can reduce the gap with our efforts.
Stubborn dictators won’t last long in so called ‘NGO environment’ and this why I put my utmost efforts in communicating with the local people, local officials, and officials in the HQ.
While I prepared to leave the country in Korea, I met many staffs of HUMAN IN LOVE and I saw how hard they worked day and night. All of them worked very hard in the office and for the campaigns. I knew I am now taking on greater responsibility.
I know it won’t be easy but I will put my utmost efforts to not let down the family of HUMAN IN LOVE.
4. What are your most important values in helping developing countries?
I think of resident-led, ownership, and sustainability plans are most important factors when it comes to helping developing countries. However, above all, we need communication and motivation.
Sometimes the NGOs go after visible outcomes and provide services which not something the local people want. This is because the NGOs cannot let donators down by asking for more time.
This is why the supports are sometimes considered meaningless to the local people.
That is why I think of communication with local people very important. NGOs need to study their cultures and spend time with the locals to understand what they really want. Through these efforts, the local people can have ownership in the projects which will ultimately lead to sustainability of the projects.
5. A message to supporters…
To all the supporters, you are all a part of something special.
We would simply like to ask for your continued interest and in return, we will remain passionate and pursue for better as we move forward.
Please stay healthy and let’s move forward together!!
