Students experiences

Students experiences

Below you find some interviews and stories written by different AM students.

Filippo Brasesco (Italy, batch 2) is currently in Uganda for his thesis research. In April 2009 he writes about his experiences there:

hi all,

welcome to the Pearl of Africa. where I'm right now, outside world is secured by the white shade of the mosquito net. nothing can pass through. nothing but music from the neighborhood. drums, chants. sunday here is an happy day. it's God's day.
since i've landed in Kampala -ten days ago- my life is spelled by warm and dusty days. everyone the same. slow. regular. here there's no winter, no spring. sun rises at six and at six regularly disappear down in a lake, or behind a mountain far away west.
with sunset comes the rain, held by the wind. the early gusts breaks sultriness, forecast a wet relief from the heat. wind blows and roads became empty, first drops comes. rain catches only the few that can't posticipate their duties. only who hasn't got enough time to stop under a shelter, and safely watch roads become streams and streams become rivers. it's a matter of minutes, sometimes hours. everyday, at sunset. they call it rainy season.

since two days I'm in Lira town, north part of the country. here I will stay for the next 4 months. somebody told me that being at home means being able to move around without a map. if so, well, I'm already home!
the town rises along the only main road of the region, and is the furthest point of it. beyond only paths and dirt roads. mango, banana and avocado trees. the highest place is the fourth floor of one of the rare cement buildings downtown, and the three-floors twin blocks of a well-known hotel really deserve their high-sounding name of 'towers'.
national currency is the shilling, and you need almost 2500 of them to buy a euro. with fourteenhundred shillings you can taste a 'chapati' -traditional flat bread- and a big glass of insipid mango juice. for two thousand you can extra-size it with a sausage.

everything flows according to precise and undefined rithms. like the african step. slow but steady. sure to get there but nobody knows exactly when. smiles and elegance are endemic here, just like malaria. nobody hassle you, neither wants something. but if you give nobody says no.
i hope this introduction has arouse some curiosity in you, or maybe nostalgia. and i hope you wouldn't mind to receive, now and then, the continuation of this story.

cheers filippo

Justice TAMBO, Batch 3 student from Ghana in the agricultural development track, attended and presented a paper on the Erasmus Mundus conference on Climate Change in Budapest. Click on the link below to read his report.

REPORT FROM PARTICIPATING IN THE ERASMUS MUNDUS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE 2009, BUDAPEST.

Aditi Vidyarthi (India, batch 1) is the first Agris Mundus (Cork and Copenhagen) student graduated in August 2008 with the thesis “Constraints in conversion from conventional to organic farming in Thailand”.

1) What are the strategic points to plan before your thesis research?
My preparation for the master's thesis began right from the start of the second year. I started writing the first proposal draft, visited my supervisor frequently to gain more understanding on the subject, and revised it accordingly. Initially I had to do a lot of brainstorming to define a clear set of objectives. Objectives should be simple and clear. They should reflect the problem addressed. More importantly, the final outcome of the research should coincide with the objectives. Researchmethodology is equally important. It should be planned along with the development of research proposal. The reality is very different in the field than we have thought of. So it is always rewarding to be prepared with the methodologies one should undertake. For example, whether it is an interview, a questionnaire, or a group discussion, one should be prepared to face problems such as the language barrier, gender issues, time etc.
Therefore these methods should be well thought of so that the researcher has enough preparation to overcome these. Keep contact with the organization and brief them of your objectives and possible outcome.
Problems arrive when enough data is in hand but tools to analyze it are not clear. So think of how to analyze the result of the data collected. It can be modified later but an initial preparation is a must. It is not important to go for large scale research but whatever one thinks of should be simple and understandable.

2) What kind of arrangements did you have to make (residence permit or other) for your field work? What is the right timing to do that?
It is important to be in regular contact with the organization/ place of fieldwork as there might be a drop or change in their project and area of work. I was in regular correspondence for more than two months with my proposed host institution developing all details of the work and stay arrangements.
For residence permit it depends upon the country of field work. I undertook it in Thailand and the embassy issued the visa two months prior to the visit. It might vary from country to country. The letter of acceptance by the organization should be obtained as soon as possible so that one has enough time to apply for visa. All these preparation should start 3-4 months before leaving for the fieldwork.

3) How important is communication with the supervisors during the fieldwork? How frequent must it be? What are your suggestions to reach a good and effective communication?
It is very important to be in contact with the supervisors. One might not be able to adjust with the organization. So your supervisor may help you to settle down there or help to explore a new one. Discuss the methodologies and data analyzing tools you undertake via email and get feedback. The frequency of contact depends on theconditions and the amount of satisfactory work done by the researcher.
I would suggest reportingto your supervisor frequently to get good feedback and discussion on the work done. It helps to modify the results while you are there rather than coming back with unwanted data and results.

Accion contra el hambre - Borja Valero Belda (Spain, Batch 1)
I would like to introduce to you an humanitarian organization in which I’ve been working since November 2005. From my experience (my first mission was in Sudan, second in Guinea and last one was in The Philippines) Acción contra el Hambre offers a great opportunity to help people all worldwide and to understand the world’s social, political, and economical context.
Acción contra el Hambre (Action against Hunger/Action contre la Faim) is an international non-governmental humanitarian organization, private, non-political, denominational and nonprofit organization, founded in 1979 with a view to combating hunger.
Through its five international locations: Spain (in Spain, there are delegations in the autonomous Catalonia, Galicia, Navarra, Valencia and Zaragoza), France, UK, USA and Canada. ACH intervenes directly in over 45 countries on five continents with over 500 workers and nearly 5,000 local workers that implement the projects, benefiting 4.7 million people.
We fight against hunger in all its phases, from its most extreme manifestations (severe malnutrition) until the causes. We work in emergency contexts, when access to food and drinking water is a matter of life or death after a natural disaster or human, in the medium term, in contexts of postemergency and rehabilitation and in the long term, with development programs that attempt to influence the structural causes of hunger.
All programs of ACCION CONTRA EL HAMBRE are intended to allow beneficiaries to recover as soon as possible, their autonomy and the necessary means to live without depending on foreign assistance.
ACCION CONTRA EL HAMBRE respects the following principles enshrined in its Charter of Principles: INDEPENDENCE, NEUTRALITY, NO DISCRIMINATION, FREE AND DIRECT ACCESS TO VICTIMS and PROFESSIONALISM TRANSPARENCY

You can get more information on www.accioncontraelhambre.org

Myriam Díaz Perez (Spain/USA, Batch 1)

1) What are the strategic points to plan before your thesis research?
If I look to my personal experience I think that it was important to have a clear subject to study. Once I had that in mind, looking for a country where carrying this research out was easier. Then, I think that it was also very important to choose the kind of organization where I wanted to work. It is very different to work with a University, with a research centre or with an NGO... Depending of your own objectives it is better to work with one or the other.
And so once having this clear it was absolutely key to define the terms of reference of the training period with the tutors and with the organization. It is not easy because it takes time to define how are you going to work with the ones and the others, but once in the research area it helps a lot when facing any kind of problem regarding the your planned objectives.

2) What kind of arrangements did you have to solve (residence permit or other) to make your fieldwork? and What is the right timing for that? (when??)
I had to ask for a visa for entering, and then once in the country I had to ask for a residence permit. Usually when you are in the country your institution can helps you for the resident permit.
To know when is the best moment to do it, the best is to contact directly the embassy of the country.
In my case, the best was to do the visa the closer to the departure date, like this you can stay longer with out a permit of residence.

3) How important is the communication with the Supervisors during the field work? How frequent must it be? And What are your suggestions to have a good and effective communication?
In my case I contact my tutor at the middle of the training period. I sent him a first draft of the master thesis to show how I was going in my research. This was very positive because my tutor could do me some commentaries about things that I haven’t done, or things that where not clear... Then close to the end I contact again in the same way. Communication with the tutor has to begun from the time you are in your University in Europe, the more you settle points here, the easier will be to solve doubts about methodology and so on in the study area... That's why I think the most important thing is to prepare well the terms of reference before going out.

Proyuth LY, graduate of the Agricultural development (Copenhagen/Montpellier) program in Agris Mundus, has his own blog on http://www.lyproyuth.blogspot.com/

Here you can find some info about his thesis research and Cambodia.

Bakhodir Mirzaev from Uzbekistan, student of Batch 2 in the Water management in rural development program, has his own blog about his thesis research on http://drainagewaterreuse.blogspot.com/