As I am thinking about what keeps bringing me back to World Camp, I remember a quote by Steve Jobs that I’ve always liked:
When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world, try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family, have fun,, save a little money. That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use (Jobs, 1995)
What does Steve Jobs have to do with Malawi?
For the past eight years I've been interested in development in Africa, particularly with regards to people's access to quality education. When talking to people working in this field, I've often been told that Africa's development challenges -- like HIV/AIDS, poor educational standards, and bad governance -- just are the way they are. That they're simply too vast and complicated to solve.
World Camp began with a group of young people who fundamentally disagreed with that sentiment. It is this World Camp spirit that keeps bringing me back since I first volunteered in Malawi in 2009. This spirit is also precisely what World Camp and the communities it works with have in common.
After finishing my Masters in London, I came back to Malawi in 2011 to work on increasing the sustainability of World Camp’s programs. By far, the most important thing I learned during my time there is that somehow, despite whatever particular odds, young Malawians keep coming up with their own solutions to the complicated challenges that they face. In Steve Jobs' words: young Malawians everywhere are building their own solutions rather than accepting that the world is just the way it is.
My work for World Camp has therefore always focused on strengthening these students in their own fight against existing issues. In my years as a World Camp Program Coordinator, as well as in between sessions, we worked on this in three major ways. One such way has been our work on student activism, by training afterschool clubs on ways to conduct community outreach about HIV/AIDS. Another way has been to meet with School Management Committees and Parent Teachers Associations to discuss how parents can become more involved with their children's education. A third way has been to learn from teachers about their challenges to deliver Malawi's life skills curriculum and suggest possible more interactive ways to go about this.
I recently completed my graduate studies in International Educational Policy at Columbia University's Teachers College in New York City. I currently work at the United Nations on anti-corruption in the private sector and more generally in business engagement in the global Post-2015 Agenda. My spirit to continue working with Malawian communities remains, which is why I'm very excited to have joined World Camp's Board of Directors in late 2013.
It has been great to get together with old and new friends to discuss World Camp's path forward. We are all excited to continue to learn from Malawi's youth and making sure that they are able to carry out their solutions to Malawi's challenges.
I would like to end by saying that World Camp has developed into a strong organization because of its large network of young people who believe that complicated challenges are more easily solved when working together. As we move forward, please get in touch with us to share your ideas on our programs so that we continue to build stronger communities collectively.
Reinier Terwindt
Joined the WC Board: Fall 2013
Education: MA Anthropology of Development and M.Ed International Educational Development
Age: 27
Originally from: Nijmegen, Netherlands
Current location: New York City
Current position: Anti-Corruption & Good Governance Research, United Nations
WC Experience: Malawi Program Coordinator 2011-2012
First Volunteered: Malawi Summer 2009
Most Excited About: promoting student activism, increasing Malawian ownership
Favorite Malawian dish: nsima with nkuku
Favorite WC moment: working on World Camp's creative writing program with Michael Kumwenda and George Kansilanga & genet hunt in Zambia
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