Abraham Eparaima Ropitini – Post #01
Hello! A quick post about my search for a project and some reflections about my own personal development so far. My search for an IDRP placement was an exciting opportunity to seek out a placement with an organisation running development programs in the Pacific, as Small Island developing states are the specific development context that I'm most interested in. I approached a NZ development organisation and applied for a placement that would have taken me to Duke of York Island, in East New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea. This involved working with a school that was launching a sustainable agriculture project where students would acquire important skills while producing and maintaining a community garden, and I was really happy to receive a positive response to my suggestion that the project could include an element of participatory map-making and potentially some 3D modelling of the school and the island. Ultimately I had to withdraw the application due to a sudden change in my financial situation here in Melbourne, and for a while I was disappointed in not being able to complete the IDRP through work on a development project. But the subsequent search for a local organisation led me to consider working with a trade union, and I am now really happy with what has happened since. I’m a member of the Australian Workers Union and contacted my union organiser about the IDRP. Now I'm doing a literature review on the Seasonal Worker Programme, which brings workers from the Pacific to Australia to work in the agriculture and hospitality sectors every year. I can feel my confidence as a 'consultant' is growing with each meeting that I have with my research coordinator, though I'm trying to continue taking a measured and careful approach to the project. I'm on track to produce a tool that they seem to be genuinely interested in using, and that is super exciting. I aim to post something next week about the literature review process itself. Thanks for reading!