Week Two

Ah, finally back to blogging.
I just finished writing the report for Kasper Bergmann's World Bank and Developing Countries lecture. It's difficult trying to work on a Sunday! I'm sure everyone feels that way! Sunday is made for relaxing but the work has to be done! :-)

Week Two consisted of three guest lecturers. Kasper Bergmann for World Bank and Developing Countries, Alda Paderio for WFDYS (World Federation for the Deaf, Youth Section) and Asger Bergmann for SWOT and Organisation. I shall go through each one, one by one.

World Bank and Developing Countries

This lecture made me realise how much I didn't know about the world around me and all the issues. I felt like an ignorant compared to some of the people in the group who have experienced so much but like always, I had to remind myself that I'm still young- I can still experience things. I was amazed at the statistics. Imagine 600 million disabled people in the world and 70% are in developing countries without resources. The whole day made me realise how lucky I am to have a roof, food, water and an education. That's a lot more than I can say for a lot of people. I'd never entertained the thought of working in third world countries before, being a very fussy person. I like my little luxuries such as a comfortable bed and hot showers but my heart went out to all the stories I've heard in my time here. Why can't we all assist those in need? I was reminded of a quote.."Education is a right not a privelege". I realise it's difficult to get the funding to assist the people in developing countries but I really think more could be done for sure! I made contact with Karen Lloyd, the manager of AAD enquiring whether Australia had done anything for developing countries- she replied with:

"AAD hasn't had any offiicial programs to help overseas countries because even though overseas countries think we are rich, AAD really does not have a lot of money. We have helped out in small ways with other projects, eg Colin Allen, who has worked on Deaf community projects in Albania, Cambodia and now Kosovo, often asks us to help out by sending information and AAD resources such as our Constitution and procedures etc to help overseas Deaf organisations become established and organised. We have also met with staff of AusAid, which is the Australian Government organisation that gives aid abroad. It is very difficult to get government money and you have to do a lot of fundraising yourself. AAD finds it hard to raise funds for our own needs, so it is even harder to raise funds to help people overseas. We did have an appeal to help Deaf people affected in the Asian Tsunami earlier this year, but it did not do well. "

I contacted Colin Allen with a request for more information. He replied with a suggestion that we meet during the WFD human rights conference in Finland next week and he would introduce me to the representatives of Albania, Cambodia and Kosovo who will be at the conference too to give me a better idea of his work and he will answer any questions I may have! It's more than I expected and I'm very happy about that!

WFDYS

Alda shared with us the members of the board, their history and how they were linked to WFD. She kept using a quote: "Nothing about us without us". She told us that there were 70 million deaf people in the world and only 3% were taught sign language and 80% of that 70 million were in developing countries. Imagine that?!

I only knew about the WFD Youth Camp for 18-30 but there's actually two more. One Children's Camp that starts for the first time next year at Castberggard where we are right now for 10-12 yr old children and there's a Junior Youth Camp for 13-17- the last one was very very recent in Sweden. The objectives for the camps are to network and exchange cultures!

Alda also introduced a new way of lecturing..when the 'Questions??' slide came up, I was expecting her to ask if WE had any questions but it was actually the reverse. She had a list of questions that she wanted to ask us about and start discussions. It was a new way and I have to say that I liked it...There were questions such as "why are camps important?" and "do you know any good deaf leaders?". Throughout the questioning, I realised I didn't know much about Australia's deaf history. I was saddened to realise that I didn't look up to anyone in Australia. What does that mean? Do I have too high standards or do people just do nothing in Australia?

SWOT and Organisation

Asger Bergmann had a very old fashioned way of teaching us, the other two lecturers used powerpoint presentations but Asger used the blackboard. It kept us awake and alert because we had to write things down and really concentrate on what he had to say. His presentation was on a topic I'd already studied at school for business studies but what he had to say was really interesting. I loved the way he provided examples for all of his explainations especially those of the EUD conferences and the language barriers!

I learnt something new! The UK doesn't have a constitution! They run things based on tradition!
We got our first homework task! We have to picture Deaf people in the year 2020 and design a SWOT(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) before he comes next! Ronan and I agreed that we wished that he didn't use the word 'homework'. Makes it sound so....scary!!!

Thursday, Sept 15th.

We had Ole on Thursday but in the morning, we spilt up in two groups for think tanks. One group discussed the 22 rules of equality and adjusted them to match deaf people and my group discussed third world countries. The more I learn about third world countries, the more I want to go and help! In the afternoon, we discussed what made a good leader and the differences between groups and teams.

We had Friday off- See 'personal note'.

On a personal note....The more I'm here, the more I love it. I'm loving the learning experiences and I'm loving the friendships I'm developing here with the wonderful group I'm here with! On Thursday evening, a group of us went to the art room and painted. It was really nice- just relaxing with paintbrush in hand! On Friday morning, Gordon, Ammy, Minna and Ronan left for Goteborg, Sweden and Filip for Copenhagen. The remaining (Thomas, Christophe, Jerry, Sigrid, Sarah and I) went to Kolding, a small town about an hour away to explore! They had a beautiful castle and the town was very fairytale-like. It was a great day, just wandering around and we did a bit of shopping. On Saturday, I got some time to write postcards and relax. It was a very lazy day. We then cooked our own dinner- it was unbelievably delicious. We settled down with an Icelandic dvd and a few drinks. Today, we got to sleep in and we've been working pretty much all day. We've got lots done which is always a good thing!!!

Ciao til next time! :)