Pre-Departure Thoughts

Pre-departure Thoughts

When considering why I want to participate in this experience I come up with a range of reasons. At the heart of it though I want to learn and I want to experience. This trip seems like an amazing opportunity to do both while helping in a way that is not pitying or ignorant and focuses on learning through the context of Bangladesh, not as a Westerner coming in to fix things which appeals deeply to me.

My personal goals and objectives for participation in the trip for Bangladesh are fairly simple. As someone who has lived a comfortable life in a first world country I have had a fairly limited range of life experiences. I have been a student in an education system almost my entire life which encourages involvement and contributing back to society but the ways in which I can do that as an equal, and also learn through the process are more limited than I would like. That is not to say that they are unrewarding at all, but just limited. In participating in this program I hope to gain a deeper understanding of the lives and cultures of people I meet in Bangladesh but also understand how I as one person can not only help but also learn from them in a reciprocal relationship. I want to travel, learn and give back but I do not want to be partaking in what was termed the “cowboy” approach as described by Komives and Wagner. I do not want to be some ignorant Westerner coming in, imposing my way and then leaving. I want to be an equal, working with equals, to make lasting social change.

I am not sure if I could narrow it down to even a few things I hope to learn. I really have no idea what to expect and just want to learn as much as I can while I am there. I am quite interested in seeing how NGOs such as RDRS implement their programs, what is involved and what makes them successful and long lasting. I also hope to learn more about social issues and their root causes. Ideally I hope to come back with a deeper appreciation for many of the services I have access to and make use of. I hope to come back with a more defined skill set that I can apply to making social change here in Manitoba.

The social change issue that I hope to learn the most about and work on during the trip is access to health care. I aspire to a career in medicine and it is easy to say that healthcare is a fundamental resource in creating social change against poverty and lack of education but I hope to personally see how this happens.  I hope to come back knowing much more about this and the role health care can play in changing people’s lives especially in a place such as Bangladesh. I am also very interested in learning more about the Adavasis in Bangladesh and how they are treated. Through reading blogs of past participants there have been similarities drawn between the Adivasi and the First Nations of Canada, which I am very interested in learning more about, as it is a social change issue that I personally think is very important here in Canada.