From Nottingham to India, a volunteer’s perspective

Looking at our current exhibition at New Art Exchange ‘Raghu Rai, Invocation to India’, my mind has started to feed me back with what India means to me, and in a blink of an eye, faces and stories of many friends from different parts of the world glimpsed all around, hence the idea of dedicating  some space of this EVS blog to their experiences.

Being in Nottingham, thinking of India… Liz is definitely the most appropriate person to talk about volunteering abroad!

I had the chance to get to know Liz during my stay in Bordeaux, France, in 2006. We got in touch because both members of Hospitality Club, and worked as foreign language teaching assistants in the city’s secondary schools. Once we met, we realized that we had many common interests: international development and environmental issues, fair-trade, volunteering abroad…

Five years after, I found myself in Nottingham, where Liz comes from, working at New Art Exchange, artistic centre which focuses mainly on the arts of the Indian Subcontinent, where Liz is now working!

From her website we can read:

“I am a British fashion design graduate keen to understand the world better, and gradually finding ways to use my creative skills in an international development context. I have spent 3 years working in Senegal, mainly on an organic fair trade cotton project – focussing on keeping some of the certified cotton in the country and processing it locally to create fair trade textiles products, rather than exporting the whole harvest as a raw material. From July 2010 I am spending a year in India through VSO – as communications associate at a youth NGO. You can find snapshots of my work on my blog at http://lizcooper.blogspot.com. “

Here some questions I have asked Liz about her experience as an international volunteer:

-You are from Nottingham, I first met you in France, and since then you have been working in Senegal and India, what had brought you to go to live abroad? How did you start?

I didn’t have the opportunity to travel as a child, but enjoyed learning languages at school and was always interested in other cultures. When I was 18, between school and university, I decided to go to France for a few weeks by myself to improve my French. My research into my options led me to participating in a project run by International Voluntary Service, with about 20 volunteers from different countries. I enjoyed the experience so much and my eyes had been opened to how much cultural diversity there was to experience in the world – that I decided to volunteer in different countries through IVS in each of my university summer holidays. It was an affordable way to travel while doing something useful at the same time, and it took me to Montenegro, Sicily, Russia, Estonia and Turkey. I traveled to the Turkey project by bus, via many European countries, and continued on to Syria and Lebanon to visit friends. As a recent graduate I decided to go an teach in France in order to perfect my language skills and gain some further experience, and it is while I was in France that I found my first international development role in Senegal – a country I worked in from 2007-10.

-Which is the connection between organic cotton (and organic goods in general) and fair-trade? Which are the reasons of your involvement in this sector?

There wasn’t traditionally any connection between fair trade and organic agriculture, but the kinds of people who are interested in social issues are often also interested in preserving the environment. This had led to fair trade certification bodies adding criteria related to the environment in their norms, and favouring organic production where possible.

I have based my career so far around fair trade, ethical and organic textiles and crafts, as I have a degree in fashion design and always dreamed of a creative career as a child. I knew however that I didn’t want to work in the traditional fashion industry – involving throwaway seasonal fashion and sweatshop production conditions, so I set out to discover more ethical contexts for my creative ambitions. This has led to me offering design and communications skills to NGOs with fair trade crafts projects in Senegal and India.

-In Delhi, you are working with fair-trade goods made in India to be sold in India: which space for ethical products there? Who are the buyers? Which are the benefits for the local communities, in terms of engagement, empowerment, personal development…?

India is developing so rapidly and in the cities there is definitely a certain level of awareness of sustainable development issues and the option to buy ethical goods over others. The NGO I work for (Swechha) focuses on raising awareness on social and environmental issues among youth, and giving them opportunities to take action, and even worked on an ethical shopping guide for the Indian consumer in 2010. The recycled fair trade products from our Green the Gap project are extremely popular among Indian middle class consumers, but it is true that among more marginalized sectors of society there is little knowledge of what fair trade means. We employ tailors from disadvantaged backgrounds and work with a variety of other craftspeople – they are able to work in better conditions (more space, cleaner, bathroom facilities provided), receive a fair salary – negotiated with them, and work under much less strict conditions that the conventional textiles industry here. We make sure the workers are aware of the idea of fair trade and are able to participate in the growth of the project by giving feedback and suggestions as they wish.

-India is nowadays seen from the West as a fast-growing economic power, which is your perception as a Westerner living in Delhi?

I live in Delhi, which is a cosmopolitan, busy city with plenty of expats and plenty of economic development. Growth is clearly visible – in the form of shiny tower blocks, a new metro system, and large malls stocking international brands. However the other side of India is never far away – at Swechha we also work with a slum community near our office where conditions are basic and opportunities few and far between. Many Indians I meet are concerned about the growing gap between rich and poor, but evidently not enough action is being taken to promote equality.

-How important do you think it is for a community to host international volunteers?

I feel it is more the NGO that is hosting me as a VSO volunteer, rather than the community. Swechha benefits from having experienced professionals volunteer for one or two years for them through organizations like VSO or UNV in various ways – useful work is carried out, a new perspective is brought, and support/advice is given to existing colleagues. Of course a cultural exchange takes place too between the volunteer and local colleagues, and between the volunteer and NGO beneficiaries – each is able to share different views, methods, habits – and perhaps reconsider their own.

-What would you like other people to learn from you?

I have been placed at Swechha through VSO – which is about sharing skills as a way to support international development rather than sending money. This means my skills and experience were carefully matched to a need identified at Swechha. In my case I am offering communications support – developing a communications strategy, setting up new ways to communicate with supporters like e-newsletters, producing publications and websites, as well as design support (graphic design, product design). I’m also able to advise on fair trade by drafting fair trade policies, and improving practices with the aim of applying for fair trade certification in the future. As well as sharing some of these vocational skills with colleagues, I would like people to realize how positive cultural exchange can be, and for them develop positive views of cross-border collaboration.

-Your favourite place(s) in Nottingham? 

I haven’t lived in Nottingham since I left for university in 2001 – but return for holidays from time to time. The city must have changed so much since I knew it well – but places that come to mind are the Broadway cinema and bar, Clumber Park, Sherwood Forest, the Castle gardens, the lace market streets – and imagining how they were when lace factories were still functioning, and feeding ducks, swans and geese at Colwick Park near where I am from.

I believe it is our responsibility to take a deeper look into the local realities, and bear in mind that the most deprived you are, in terms of personal, economical, political, cultural… freedom, the least access to information you get. We must remember that mainstream press is unlikely to be interested in giving voice to the voiceless, as often misinformation is significantly more profitable.