Conferences in Kupang

23 February – 1 March 2009

After a very short return to Rote I have spent a week in Kupang at conferences. The first involved all the volunteers and their work partners plus a few invited guests. The formal opening ceremony was particularly important for VSO as it was a chance to showcase its’ work to local politicians and donor organisations. Throughout the conference there were sessions that involved everyone and others were divided into individual programme areas (health, livelihoods and disability) or geographical areas.

The conference was focusing on how we can work together with our partners, future priorities and sharing information to enhance understanding. There were large sessions of chalk and talk and small mixed breakout groups which challenged my Bahasa Indonesian.

The second conference was just for volunteers and a few accompanying personal partners. This was focused on globalisation and local volunteering. This was even more interactive and participatory and was run by the volunteers.

The final day was a community day where we went out to local area and in small groups delivered nutritional advice then helped the community to plant seeds and seedlings to grow a variety of crops that would provide all the food groups.

I would not like you to think that this was all hard work we did also have a lot of social time in the evenings both organised – a cultural evening with the partners and a final fun night but also informally arranged in local watering holes.