Back to blogging from Kenya

I know I’ve been conspicuously absent on my blog for the past few months and there’s been lots of interesting developments since December. For one, I now have an intern onboard! Her name is Evelyn Gathuru (see photo) and I’m going to let her introduce herself here: “After living in Canada for 5 years, where I completed an undergraduate degree in Human Biology and Sociology from the University of Toronto, I decided to move back home to sunny Kenya. After a brief re-adjustment period (e.g. remembering that Kenyans tend to drive on the left side of the road), I was ready to jump into development work in Kenya. I then decided to pursue a Post-Graduate Diploma in Project Planning and Management for Development Projects at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, which I completed in October 2009. After exposure to development issues in Kenya and the rest of Africa, I felt quite disappointed by the approach we were taking to address these issues. It did not seem like the root causes of poverty, inequality and injustice were being sufficiently addressed. Rather, it seemed like we were constantly putting out fires. I was (and still am) specifically disappointed with the lack of political goodwill to make significant positive changes in the well-being of the Kenyan population. My sincere desire to work towards bringing sustainable development and improving the well-being of Kenyans prompted me to join World Vision Ireland. I especially like their child-focused approach. I had finally found an organisation whose developmental approach was in line with my thoughts and feelings regarding development work i.e. one that was committed to working towards tackling the root causes of poverty, inequality and injustice in order to secure long-term change.” Evelyn will be working with me until at least September and she'll be helping out with the blog, so you'll be hearing plenty more from her!