About this Blog

This is the blog for Lincoln's EWB-UK placement in Ujire in Karnatica in Southern India. I am working for SELCO, a solar lighting social enterprise, on the development of a solar food dehydrator, a device used to increase the life of foods. The aim of the placement is to make it fully functional, more efficient and to conduct market research in order to help market the product to customers living in rural areas enabling them to break the poverty cycle.

Saturday 26 June 2010

Pre-Departure Course & 6 days to go.

The excitement is really building as I prepare for my placement. By this time next week, I will be on a plane flying to Bangalore.

The last week I have spent on the EWB-UK placement volunteers training course. We spent the first two days being made aware of (and scared by) all the things which could go wrong on our placements, including health problems and security threats. This included an activity involving spotting landmines - I'm hoping I won't come across any of them! The latter half of the course looked at participatory tools in development, and project management. The course ended with one of the best metaphores for learning about development, and one which I will remember for a long time to come.
I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped put on the course and I wish all the other placement volunteers a fantastic time on their placement.

I've got my visa, a had a whole host of immunisations, packed an assortment of pills (including anti-malarials) , made my arrival arrangements and tried to find as many resources as possible on solar food drying. There's so much more I have to sort before next week, but still cannot wait to start my placement.