GUAVA stories
Projects
To the right you can find an overview of my past and current projects under GUAVA stories.
Current and past projects
Experience capitalisation project with CTA
A longer engagement in the past years has been with a project on experience capitalisation, implemented by CTA and funded by IFAD. In 2017 and 2018 I have facilitated processes consisting of multiple workshops and online support in Ghana, Mozambique and Fiji.
Following these workshops, I wrote a Guidebook for facilitating experience capitalisation. This guidebook can be downloaded for free by clicking on the image, or through the CTA website and on Eldis.
Gathering lessons with PARM
In a six-month trajectory I coordinated and facilitated an experience capitalisation exercise with partners of the IFAD Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM) and related organisations, to jointly learn from what works in capacity development for agricultural risk management, including a workshop in Uganda. The final publication can be found here.
Documenting food security projects in Ethiopia
Ethiopian projects focusing on food security, supported by the Dutch embassy, were asked to write about their experiences. The embassy, togethers with CTA, organised a workshop for this purpose. I managed this documentation effort, co-facilitated the workshop and coordinated the finalisation of short articles published on the ‘Food Security Ethiopia’ website, where projects show their activities and results.
Infographic for Aidenvironment
I designed an infographic on one of the activities of Aidenvironment: measuring sustainability impact.
Background for the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra
I drew the background decor for a performance of the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra.
Drawing experiences in Sierra Leone - with IFAD
In 2016 and 2017 I travelled to Sierra Leone to support several IFAD-funded projects in documenting their work. In this project I did several, quite amazing things:
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I facilitated a workshop with 'GALS-champions', in drawings. Because not all participants were literate, they documented their personal experiences in drawings. This enabled them to let their stories be recorded, where they would normally have been lost. For more on this process, see this post.
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I facilitated a writeshop for project staff, to document their experiences in the projects that were ending.
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I supported the training of over 100 'community gender journalists' in analysing and reporting on experiences related to gender within their own communities, for rural radio programmes.
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I gave a drawing workshop for several project staff and community gender journalists.
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I co-produced a booklet that explains more about the use of the very powerful GALS methodology (Gender Action Learning System) in Sierra Leone, which you can see here.
Graphic recording for Moneyschool
In March 2017, I made a live graphic recording of the annual symposium of Moneyschool, a local Dutch non-profit initiative that teaches children how to responsibly deal with money. The final product, made on a large piece of paper, shows the highlights of the matters discussed during the symposium.
Documenting Bedouin pastoralists for Oxfam
In 2016 I co-facilitated two workshops in Jordan, where people from Jordan, Egypt and the Occupied Palestinian Territory working with Bedouin communities joined to write about their work. The results were that these 24 participants were trained in the experience capitalization methodology, and their written articles were published in this booklet. More information on the process can be found here.
Tamil fishermen in Sri Lanka - an illustrated PhD research
Tamil fishermen in northern Sri Lanka struggle for recognition and their livelihoods in the face of larger vessels sharing their fishing grounds. I worked with PhD researcher Joeri Scholtens at the University of Amsterdam to visualise the results from his research into an illustrated story. See the result here (or view the full-page version here).
Documenting best practices for gender equality - IFAD
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) supports projects around the world that aim to eradicate rural poverty. In this work, it pays particular attention to address gender inequalities and empower rural women. Two projects in East Africa, in Rwanda and Zanzibar, have received recognition for their accomplishments in this regard.
I facilitated a process in which we documented the efforts and outcomes of these two projects in terms of gender equality and women's empowerment. In a short visit to the main actors in the projects I was able to discover and report on these best practices. The final documents can be requested from IFAD.
Sports for WASH Training Kit: illustrations
A training kit was designed with the support of RAIN to promote healthy sanitation and hygiene practices among children and adolescents around the world. The illustrations I made for the training kit help clarify the different games and exercises that will teach children simple steps to stay healthy and safe.
Rainwater harvesting champion stories
The RAIN Foundation in the Netherlands supports rainwater harvesting in countries around the world. In this project, the focus lies on the individuals and groups that played an important role in making such rainwater harvesting interventions a success for themselves and their communities.
I coached teams in Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya to harvest the content to make up these champion stories, using a documentation methodology. We co-wrote 12 champion stories that showcase what makes such rural champions tick: why do they do what they do and how can we support similar people in development work?
The champion stories have been published as a booklet.
Insider stories: Women, peace and security in the Netherlands
The Netherlands is a centre for peace processes, and is increasingly looking at the role of women in such processes. Not only as victims, but as active, necessary actors in preventing and resolving conflict. The Netherlands adopted UN resolution 1325, pledging to acknowledge and encourage the role of women in peace processes – which it has been implementing in conflict areas abroad. But what is the Netherlands doing within its own borders? Is it supporting female peace activists, human rights defenders and other women who fled their home countries in conflict?
In collaboration with the Women Peacemakers Program in the Hague, I made a series of written and illustrated portraits of women who have personally dealth with such issues on Dutch soil.
Diversiteitsland: proud of my neighbourhood
Diversiteitslands is an organisation that promotes inclusion and strenghtening of marginalised groups of people in the Indische Buurt in Amsterdam. I turned their story into a short comic, including the problems they encounter, their activities and the strength of their approach. Download the document here (in Dutch)
