Cuso International West

Catherine Madden is in Rwanda near Kibuye as an education capacity builder- Podcast #309

I met Catherine while in Rwanda doing our in country training. She recently arrived from Montreal. She is an amazing person ready to contribute to education in Kibuye area on Lake Kivu. Good luck Catherine! Pictured Catherine with Isabella from UK wh...

Mauro Joao is leaving to work with a youth employment centre in Peru in 2013

Mauro is very excited to learn more about Peru and the work he will be doing. All the best Interviewed by Alumnus Nareena Switlo ( Tanzania) Volunteer for a better world! Join CUSO International, share skills and volunteer in 40 countries in Afri...

Debo returned in 2012 and served in Burkina Faso in Government Health

Debo worked with District Community Health. Thanks Debo for your commitment and service. Interviewed by Alumnus Nareena Switlo ( Tanzania) Volunteer for a better world! Join CUSO International, share skills and volunteer in 40 countries in Africa,...

Gregory Bruce served in Nigeria from 1982-1984 as a Teacher

Gregory describes his adventure and teaching at GTC Wamba teachers college. "It was a worthwhile life experience" Interviewed By Alumnus Nareena Switlo on International volunteer day in Vancouver. Volunteer for a better world! Join CUSO Internati...

Helen Schneiderman was interviewed in Vancouver. She served in Jamaica 2011-2012 in Access to Justice.

Helen has a great deal of experience in Human Resources and served a year in the Dispute resolution foundation as a Human Resources advisor and then with the Ministry of Justice as a restorative justice facilitator. Interviewed by Nareena Switlo ( RV ...

Sedigheh Minachi served in Nigeria 2012

Sedigheh Minachi shared her thoughts on her volunteering experience in Nigeria. Her assignment was to research the need for Nigerian diaspora to come back to Nigeria to share their skills. She interviewed people in different states and traveled the cou...

Jim Tellenbach served in Fiji 2003-2004 in Secure Livelihoods

Jim Tellenbach shares information about his assignment in Fiji. He worked with Credit Unions and Women's groups. Jim now lives in Victoria. Thanks Jim for telling your story! Volunteer for a better world! Join CUSO International, share skills and...

Cuso International Alumni meet in Nanaimo to share stories- Botswana and Trindad / Tobago and Vanuatu from the 1960's to 1980's

Cuso International Alumni meet in Nanaimo to share stories- Botswana and Trindad / Tobago and Vanuatu from the 1960's to 1980's

Wayne Robertson speaks at launch of Diaspora Voices stories

Wayne Robertson serves on the Cuso International Board. SFU Diaspora dialogues culminated in the launch of a book of diaspora stories. http://www.sfu.ca/diasporas/

Rowena Koh served as a librarian in Namibia for 7 months in 2011

With a Master's degree in Library Sciences, Rowena Koh took her skills abroad to Namibia where she worked as a librarian for 7 months at the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum. Listen as Rowena discusses her experiences in t...

Max Adrien will be travelling to Rwanda in September 2012 to work as an education officer

After retiring with the Vancouver School Board, Max Adrien wanted to continue to put his skills to use by working abroad. Listen as Max discusses why he has chosen to work in North Eastern Rwanda as an education officer with CUSO International and how...

Jamie Kneen worked on a community training and resource mapping project in Costa Rica from 1995-1997

From 1995-1997, Jamie Kneen worked in collaboration with CIDA, the Saskatchewan Forest Conservation Network and the Indigenous Conservation Network in Costa Rica on a community training and mapping project. Listen as Jamie discusses how he shared his ...

Toyah Howarth served Namibia 2010-2012

Toyah Howarth is a returning volunteer who spent from July 2010-March 2012 in Namibia working in collaboration with the Namibian Football Association and UNICEF on a project entitled "Galz and Goals." Listen as she discusses the importance of developi...

Rowina Koh worked as a librarian in Namibia in 2011

Rowina Koh went to Namibia for her 7-month assignment as a librarian at the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum*. With MA in Library Sciences earned in UBC, Rowina contributed to establish the basic structure of a library. Her dr...

Jamie Du Luce served as a psychotherapist in Tajikistan

As a professional psychotherapist, Jamie De Luce went to Tajikistan for a year where she worked to train local people by creating a health care support system to reduce child and maternal mortality among young married women. Volunteer for a be...

Katherine Nicole is going to serve in Rwanda as a Gender Specialist

After serving in Ghana for 13 months, Katherine Nicole is going to volunteer in Rwanda as a Gender Specialist. Utilizing her research skills, she will work with Plan Rwanda where she will monitor and evaluate activities related to gender issues. Kather...

Pegi Furanna-McIntosh is going to serve in Ghana as a Teacher Support

Pegi Furanna-McIntosh is going to serve in Ghana as a Teacher Support with Cuso International. She has worked as a teacher for many years in Canada and is currently serving as the Head of Department at Notre Dame Regional Secondary School. She is excit...

Peter and Debra Martin Educators in Tanzania 2011-2012

I met Peter and Debra in Tanzania at a volunteer conference. They had been in Tanzania living in the Kabaya area for 2 months. Kabaya is near Dodoma and Arusha. Listen to how a couple make their way to their assignment and how they feel about it 2 mont...

Barbara Curwen is working in Tanzania 2011-2012in the health sector

Barbara Curwen couldn't wait to get back into the field after serving ten years ago in the Ngong hills in Kenya with Cuso. This time her spouse Peter Stancyzyk had retired and could join her to also volunteer in the health sector. They are in Arusha n...

Margaret Graves is from Halifax working in Agriculture in Tanzania 2011-2012

Margaret had done a CIDA internship in Senegal before she came to CUSO International wanting to share her skills. She is working in Kigera district as an Agriculture Business and Livestock advisor with World Vision. An amazing lady with some great st...

Bairu Sium is wrorking in education in Tanzania- December 2011

I was so pleased to hear about Bairu's work in Tanzania in the last four months. He believes in and works in a collaborative way. Bairu is an educator of educator. Listen to his story. Interviewed by Umeeda Switlo during her visist in Tanzania in Dece...

Bairu Sium is working in education in Tanzania for 1 year- December 2011

I was so pleased to hear about Bairu's work in Tanzania in the last four months. He believes in and works in a collaborative way. Bairu is from Toronto and has recently retired. He served in Malawai with CIDA. He is now a teacher of teachers that serve...

Theodros Belew Shewarget, Southern Partner from Ethiopia

We were fortunate to host our southern partner Theodros Belew from Ethiopia for a week in Vancouver. Thedoros is the Director of teacher and education leader directorate in Ethiopia. Access to education is increasing in Ethiopia; however the quality o...

Shimpei Chihara served in Vietnam 2010-2011 as Organizational Development Advisor for HIV/AIDS

Shimpei Chihara volunteered in Hanoi, Vietnam as an Organization Development Advisor for a local NGO that worked towards HIV/AIDS prevention. Shimpei finished his 2 year project objectives in only one year. He quickly recognized that the transgender p...

Lorne Lewis served in Botswana from 1972 to 1975, training young mechanics

Lorne Lewis voluntered in Bostwana from 1972 to 1975. As an accomplished business man and mechanic in Victoria, he was sick and tired of the usual day to day life. After he sold his business, he decided he needed something new. Lewis moved to Bostwana ...

Carly Bardikoff is in Rwanda as an education capacity builder- Podcast # 308

I met Carly at our In Country Training in Rwanda. We learned so much about the country, language, history, people and about the disability and education programs. Carly is from Toronto. Good luck on your assignment! Volunteer for a better world! Jo...

Kigali Rwanda-PERSONS WITH PSYCHOSOCIAL DISABILITIES - Umeeda reporting Podcast #307

I am in Kigali Rwanda working as a fundraising advisor to 8 disability groups. I met Sam Badege and others that are members of NOUSPR is Kigali. They have a small social enterprise organization that makes and sells handicrafts to support their work. Pl...

Vasile Klaassen served in Sierra Leone Sept, 2010 to Aug, 2011- Podcast # 306

Vasile volunteered in Kenema, the eastern portion of Sierra Leone as a rural engineer. She worked with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to help improve the rice production for some of the poorest farmers in Sierra Leone and an...

Paul Grover served in Thailand 1978-1979 Podcast # 305

Paul volunteered his civil engineering skills for rural water supply projects in Northeast Thailand. Paul found that his biggest challenge was to work in Thai language. He met his wife at his placement, who was volunteering with the Peace Corps. He...

Kasia Wilk served in Kenya 2010-2011 -Podcast #304

Kasia volunteered as a documentation advisor in a small town, 2 hours north of Nairobi. Her main roles included documenting files, organizing data, creating evaluation and monitoring tools, closing and starting up projects and other administrative task...

Marian Dodds serving in Ethiopia 2010-2013 -Podcast #303

Marian is retired after a career in education that included teaching at secondary and post secondary levels, conselling and coordinating programs in social justice at the British Columbia Teachers' Federation. She has just completed a year of volunteer...

Ugen Lhazin CUSO-VSO West Intern -Podcast #302

Ugen is from Bhutan and just graduated from Quest University in British Columbia. She studied International Development with a focus on child rights and child protection. She is currently an intern at CUSO-VSO West in hopes to make connections and lear...

Dara Parker - New Public Engagement Officer CUSO-VSO West -Podcast #300

Umeeda Switlo interviews her new replacement as she prepares to leave on assignment in Rwanda for 3 months. Dara Parker talks about her volunteer experience in Lesotho, her experiences on the Ship for World Youth, and her work with the United Nations ...

Wayne Helfrich served in Thailand 1969-1971 -Podcast #299

Wayne went to Thailand as a CUSO volunteer when he was 21 years old. He taught English in a Teachers College, in a small village south of Bangkok. After his service with CUSO, he stayed for 4 more months to build a school. He went back 40 years later a...

Bert Groenenberg served in Botswana 1982-1984 -Podcast #298

Bert volunteered in Botswana working at “The southern rural development association”. He really enjoyed living with the local community and learning from them. He was open-minded and learned from people who have different ways of thinking. ...

Lillian and Bruce Mack served in Ghana 1969-1972 -Podcast #297

Lillian had a degree in library science and Bruce had just graduated from political sciences when they decided to volunteer overseas. They ended up teaching English in Ghana in a small town. They fell in love with the country and stayed there 6 years. ...

Don and Darleen Hendry served in Ghana 1969-1971 -Podcast #296

Don and Darleen taught 2 years in the Women Training Teaching College in Tamali. During the second year, Darleen also organized the new library and assumed the role of the librarian. They learnt a lot about the Ghanaian culture and that gave them more...

Judy and Pat Hughes applied for a position in Bolivia -Podcast #295

Judy and Pat's son went to Bolivia with Canada World Youth for 3 month. This experience influenced them to apply for a CUSO-VSO placement overseas. Judy's expertise is in Human Resources and Pat has an industry background and now works with the governm...

Margaret Turley served in Nigeria from 1981-1982 -Podcast #294

Margaret went to Nigeria as a Physiotherapist and occupational therapist. She worked in a leprosy hospital in the North East of the country. She was trained in the Leprosy hospital of Louisiana before going on assignment. Even if it was a challenging p...

Mary Hunter and Bruce Petch served in Malaysia 1984-1986 and Indonesia 1987-1989 -Podcast #293

Mary and Bruce were already very involved in their community in Saskatoon and very interested in International Development when they decided to volunteer with CUSO. Bruce was working in forestry and resources management. Mary first worked in disability...

Calvin and Evelyn Barker served in Tanzania in 1989 -Podcast #292

Calvin was an electrical inspector for the province of BC before volunteering with CUSO-VSO. In Zanzibar, he taught construction and electricity in a college. Evelyn ended up working in an international school, teaching English and music. They learnt S...

Trevor Chandler served in Tanzania 1970-1972 -Podcast #291

Trevor served with CUSO in Tanzania near Arusha at the Matone farming training facility. He served with his father, John Chandler. Trevor had a PhD in Biology and his father was a professional bee keeper. Brought in Lillooet they shared their bee keepi...

Wayne Bennett served in Uganda from 1970-1972 -Podcast #290

Wayne had just graduated in Civil engineering form the University of Toronto when he applied to serve with CUSO-VSO. He worked with the Ministry of Public works in water and draining section. He had a Ugandan Cheif engineer which was still very unusual...

Veena Gokhale served in Tanzania from 2005-2007-Podcast #289

Veena was already working in international development in Ottawa before serving oversea with CUSO-VSO. In Tanzania she worked with a non-profit called “Education rights” which is working to reform the education system in Tanazania. She help...

Sharon and Ken Schmucker served in Uganda from 1970-1972 -Podcast #288

Sharon and Ken decided to volunteer with CUSO to do something for the world. Ken worked in the agriculture mechanization division. He supervised the maintenance of the project's equipment to help the mechanization of the agriculture in Uganda. At the s...

Roy Fischer served in Nigeria from 1962-1964 and Field Staff Officer in Uganda -Podcast #287

Roy taught in High school in a little town in the North of Lagos. After volunteering he worked with international students at the University of Toronto. Roy wanted to go back to work overseas. He was the field staff officer in Uganda for several years....

Melvin Perry served in Guyana from 1968-1970 -Podcast #286

Melvin met his wife Philipa in Guyana. They were both teaching mathematics in the same school. Melvin remembers the warmness of Caribbean people. After this experience they went to New York. Philippa finished her PhD and Melvin worked at Wall Street. T...

John Piper served in Mozambique from 1984-1987-Podcast #285

John, graduated in economics, was recruited to work for the City of Maputo and was implementing a local sanitation project. At this time, Mozambique was in the middle of a civil war. John saw the history of the country being written, from the war to th...

John and Brenda Armstrong served in Uganda from 1970-1972 -Podcast #284

Brenda taught English and French and John worked in the Ministry of Works, especially on water supply issues. They were living in a small town in a rural area. They really enjoyed the people, the land and the wildlife. Brenda was amazed at how people w...