Description of GENSEN Internships and other individual on-site opportunities

The Social context for the development work of interns, volunteers, researchers and independent study students

There are few formulas for successful long term development in Africa. Most development projects terminate soon after their external funding comes to an end and succeed only in scratching the surface of problems of increasing poverty, alienation, and environmental degradation. In addition to making it possible for you to achieve specific internship goals, we invite you to explore, with Senegalese work partners, ways to reinforce capacities for fruitful collaboration on both sides of the cultural divide and to design sustainable activities that continue after your departure. The interests and commitment international and Senegalese interns bring to this exploration are the fuel that makes it work. Your dreams become our dreams. Our internships and courses emphasize participatory experiential action research and learning in community, cross-cultural solidarity, preservation of cultural diversity, ecological technologies and effective results.

New interns unfamiliar with Senegal or other African countries cannot participate in local life at the level of proficiency required by our organization unless our faculty and staff provide them with the equivalent of a directed study course in Senegalese culture, logistics, sustainable development theory and practices. In fact, we suggest you may wish to design your internship with us as a directed study for credit at your university, or through another university represented by one of our university faculty members.

Senegalese society is hierarchical in ways that make it difficult for students and volunteers from the outside to make timely appointments or negotiate conclusively with higher level persons, unless they themselves are older adults with prestigious credentials. Before meetings with higher-ups become fruitful and work relationships settle happily into place, a senior GENSEN representative typically has to arrange and attend many meetings along with the intern and coach the intern intensively. This is one reason why facilitation of 10 or more internships is as time-consuming as running a full academic program.

The internship/volunteer fee includes room, board and laundry in a local family, a Senegalese work partner with similar interests who also serves as an interpreter (and/or an existing project team), expert mentor(s), work space plus use of our computers and DSL Internet connections. Our L&L center also issues certificates. Your fee does not include the cost of materials for engineering or other projects or for travel (unless we happen to have an existing funded project that provides these materials, or travel funds, such as our current solar oven project, for example). However, we often assist prospective interns with grant request information for funding sources to help them cover their internship project costs, and many interns start planning early enough to find grant money to cover their costs here.

More on the internship experience Most interns come for 2 to 3.5 months in the summer. Another category come for a semester or more. This group tend to be divided between NGO or study abroad program management. Interns, Fulbright scholars or researchers, graduate students carrying out thesis research, and others who are able to take four or more months for personal exploration. any later return, some bringing their own projects to run collaboratively with GENSEN and the ecovillages. As a part of the living & learning experience, we require most interns to live with a homestay family during their first three months and to have a local work partner/translator. We provide and arrange research partnerships and internship supervision (if needed) with faculty and students of the University Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) of Dakar and other colleagues and mentors. The purpose of the internship program is to create with each applicant a setting in which he/she explores and and learns experientially in the area of his or her own personal and professional interests together with a local partner or team who are deeply invested in the same preoccupations.

To apply or receive further information please fill out our online form.

This form goes to our academic and program staff, who work together to identify opportunities and needs that match your interests.

After receiving your form and an email with your CV sent to interns@gensenegal.org, we will dialogue with you by email to identify an area in which our possibilities match your interests. Some interns carry out MS or doctoral thesis research or fulfill university internship requirements. Others explore their interests in ecovillages and international and local development, and/or contribute to our NGO operations and projects. Most use their stay with us as "international experience" to qualify for future employment opportunities. If we we reach agreement on a topic and general approach, you will receive an acceptance email. We will fill in any forms your university may require and provide you with information that you request to fill out grant applications to support your internship.

When you arrive we work together with you to inventory the immediate status of information on currently available partners, mentors, and ecovillage or urban placements. Before finalizing your work placement, we may ask you to talk more with us in person about your learning goals and needs in order to match them with those of a local Senegalese work partner/ local language interpreter and/or work team and mentors who share your vision. Throughout your internship, we encourage you to reflect on and clarify your project focus in light of your learning experience and your available options.