Hello all!

So I am halfway through third year in the GRS program. My specialization is international nutrition. What excites me about this is helping developing communities strengthen and improve their agriculture and food system in making it more sustainable. However I hope to achieve this in a way where us educated North Americans do not go in and totally re-shape their food system and how they go about growing and eating traditional foods. They key is to help in a way that sustains their traditional ways and keeps to their culture. Sometimes our help can essentially exploit their ways of life and have a strong negative effect. We need to learn from their ways and integrate our possibilities with what suits them best.

I guess I want to ask how one goes about this most optimally? Would it be learning the locals’ language and living with them? If so, would they then take our knowledge and help as beneficial? I have travelled quite a bit, but have never volunteered in a community over a long period of time in which my help implements change. This is a task I hope to achieve during an exchange next year in Europe, where I would do a 5-week field study in Africa afterwards. Any suggestions of past experiences I would greatly appreciate!