Description:

This webinar will discuss some features of sustainable development internships in the broad community development practice trends, and imperatives for community engagement, policy analysis, and advocacy in the design and practice of volunteer/internship engagements. 

The analysis draws from secondary data as well as the speaker’s more than twenty years of observations and research on community development in developing countries, which shows that volunteers/interns are almost absent in local grassroot communities, and when they are so engaged, most of them do not engage in sustainable projects. Volunteers/interns need to focus on the fundamental values and principles of sustainable development and actively engage with local communities and power structures to improve the living conditions of people and local communities, especially in developing countries.

The webinar will address two important questions: Do volunteers/interns in particular and communities in general benefit in the sustainable development volunteer/internship engagement? How can volunteers/interns make any impact in local communities, drawing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ensure no one in the community is left behind? Some tips and tools used for successful community-based internship projects will be shared during the webinar.

Wednesday, July 22
12:00 PM CDT
RSVP for Zoom link: https://northwestern.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3BEkPhDq1rsglqB 

Speaker Bio: 

This webinar features GESI Uganda Site Director Margaret Nassozi. Margaret is a development worker with more than twenty years of experience, working with communities in Uganda to advance social development. She served as a civil servant with the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development on issues of culture, women and gender, youth and development, and as a district community development officer in western Uganda. She joined the Civil Society fraternity in 1998 as a CSO network coordinator and supported CSOs with organizational development processes, information sharing, and lobbying and advocacy campaigns using a rights-based approach to development. She served as a consultant for the European Union and CARE International before serving as program director for the Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD) for eleven years. In her role in FSD, a U.S.-based nonprofit, Margaret facilitated global volunteer/Internships to advance educational service-learning in the framework of promoting sustainable community-based development in Uganda.

Margaret has founded a local NGO, the Foundation for Sustainable Community-Based Development (FSD Jinja Uganda), to support grassroots organizations that are working to better their communities, environments, and the economic opportunities around them while promoting internship and volunteer engagements within the context. Margaret holds a Bachelors of Development Studies, the Commonwealth Diploma in Youth and Development and a Diploma in Performing Arts.

About #GLOVicariously Webinar Series: 

Amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing anti-racism protests, global engagement across difference and development of intercultural skills are critically needed to build a more just and peaceful world. As the Global Learning Office, we know that travel restrictions and social distancing guidelines have halted student mobility and study abroad programming, but want to continue fostering global learning opportunities for students throughout this summer 2020 through our virtual webinar series, #GLOVicariously. #GLOVicariously webinars will feature speakers involved in GLO programs who have expertise on a variety of critical global issues. Students will gain a greater understanding of these topics and more while learning more about the cultural contexts and systems in which they unfold. This webinar series is intended primarily for students, but is open to anyone who wishes to attend.