The small Maasai villages in Tanzania, and the Northern Territory might be worlds apart for most people, but a group of students from Charles Darwin University will soon call them both home.
CDU’s Humanitarian and Community Studies degree has recently secured placements in Tanzania with Macho Porini, a German/Tanzanian organisation in Tanzania that links the villages to wildlife conservation near the famous Serengeti and Tarangire National Parks.
Coordinator of the Bachelor of Humanitarian and Community Studies, Dan Baschiera said participating students would be getting invaluable fieldwork experience working with resource poor African communities.
“Students will be building host infrastructure to support schools and other vital services,” he said.
“There they will use community development techniques learned from their studies to work with communities on wildlife conservation and to minimise poverty in the region.
“The placements therefore will have strong links to environmental humanitarianism.”
Mr Baschiera said the first student would go into Tanzania early in 2010 and would be followed by others to fill a range of other projects.
Australia’s first undergraduate humanitarian degree, the Bachelor of Humanitarian and Community Studies equips students with the skills to work effectively in remote communities in Australia, disaster-affected areas nationally and internationally, and in logistically supporting humanitarian aid agencies.