A blog from Charley who volunteered in 2024

Charley’s Blog – volunteering as a Project Assistant July - August 2024

My name is Charley Heywood. I am a current third year undergraduate student at the University of East Anglia studying Global Development with Economics. This summer I completed an 8-week internship with Made with Hope and their partner organisation Ndoto in Action based in Arusha, Tanzania. This was an incredible opportunity for me to witness actual applications I have learnt during my studies, as well as seeing all the fantastic work the organisations do.

I would summarise my role as project intern as learning the applications behind monitoring projects, and impact and evaluation reports of those. Furthermore, community outreach is highly important to the aforementioned aspect of the role. Visiting community members and the children enrolled in the 9 partner schools Ndoto in Action and Made with Hope work with allows for a continued successful partnership with the schools. Idea conception from Made with Hope and Ndoto in Action is then brought to the community members via an inception meeting, where they have a chance to provide their own ideas to the project concept – which I believe is a vital step in their project design process which allows for ongoing success, and I thouroughly enjoyed attending many in my time in Tanzania. Projects are designed in a way that community members need and desire them.  

Relationships between MWH & NIA and the School Communities – Reason Behind Success

I think coming into an organisation which has projects across a broad range of areas that not only help the school and its enrolled pupils, but also the wider community, can be quite daunting. As a university student, I have only learnt the theoretical applications of project implementation and theoretical problems behind why there is certain issues in different countries and regions, but reality might retain a different truth. Speaking with locals, in Tanzania, much like many other developing countries, the Government is often brought up as the main issue behind the countries lagging ‘development’ and a culprit behind why Made with Hope projects are needed. However, parallel to this is cultural norms in every society that necessarily haven’t openly been addressed. Having a well-founded relationship with communities, like Ndoto in Action and MWH have, for me is one of the largest reasons for project success. Topics considered taboo, such as menstrual hygiene, can start to be approached within communities as long-standing relationships have already been established. There is a removal of donor and recipient per say, and it becomes a relationship of mutual respect. An acceptance of yes we have this belief but are open to listening to differing opinions can be a huge step in transforming lives – a process I deem based upon the charity and NGO holding inception meetings before the start of any project – the community know their opinions are valued and respected. 

Learning this has been a valuable experience for me. As pointed out by the Made with Hope founder, Eleanor, to me, communities often know the steps they need to take but just lack the funds. As a Global Development student, we cover issues within countries with breadth, but I think this overarching problem isn’t discussed enough and is a key takeaway point for me. Community volunteering and involvement in every project shows the drive for change they have here in Tanzania – they just lack money to complete the projects. This has shown me the importance of fundraising.

My Favourite Project – The School Garden

Students that attend our partner schools come from impoversihed backgrounds, where fruit and vegetables are not a regular part of their diets, at most once per week students report. 2 gardens growing fruit and vegetables have so far been implemented to allow for varied school lunches for the children, instead of maize and beans every day. The gardens are situated in school grounds and the children get involved in planting and harvesting the crops. It is great to see the progressive difference the garden and kitchen projects have made.

A Personal Note

For me personally, getting to visit Tanzania to see the projects in person removes the distance between my view of the projects. As a part of my studies, I completed a module regarding media interaction the ‘developed’ world towards the developing world – a comparison of what makes headlines and what remains largely ignored. Coming to Tanzania in person has allowed me to breakdown the internal barrier towards the issues faced in this country from an honest perspective. 

Thank you to Made with Hope and Ndoto in Action for this incredible opportunity. It has truly widened my scope on the work that NGO’s do for communities and broadened my knowledge beyond what my University Studies have provided me.

Charley Heywood