From Lithuania to Zimbabwe: The fulfillment of undreamed dreams

Vaida Kontrimaite was born and grew up in Lithuania. Since her childhood, she has been interested in other cultures; especially Africa and the African people have fascinated her. In order to learn more, she decided to study Development Studies, Culture and Society of Africa in Bayreuth, Germany. In contrast to her German colleagues, she couldn't afford going to Africa during student vacation periods.

After completion of her studies, the contact to Helga Landsmann, who has been doing development work for 16 years, enabled her to spend her first three months in Zimbabwe and to see how development work looks like on the ground. She fell in love with the country and its people and was sure, that she wanted to go back. Back in Germany, it was not an easy task to apply for jobs in Africa, but Vaida succeeded in joining a DED (German Development Service) program for junior advisors and went on a year’s contract to Zambia. This experience qualified her to apply for development workers’ jobs afterwards. At the moment Vaida works with Horizont3000 (http://www.horizont3000.org/), an Austrian NGO, and is based in a small town in the south west of Zimbabwe. As an Organisational Advisor, she is helping the Edward Ndlovu Memorial Library to establish outreach programs to rural schools and communities. Vaida shares her impressions:

“I’m very happy to be where I’m now. When I think back to my school days, I did not even dream of finding myself in Zimbabwe 15 years later. I think I could not even have pointed at Zimbabwe on the map. I think the governments and non governmental organisations should do more educational work in European countries to raise awareness and open up possibilities for young people to know and experience developing countries. When the people in Zimbabwe ask me, if Zimbabwe is very different from Lithuania, I say that lots of things remind me of my childhood. I had to spend my school holidays in my grandmother’s fields and to draw water from the well and to use the pit latrine. With the help from the European Union in a few years the situation in Lithuania dramatically improved. People in developing countries deserve the same. There is so much that we can learn from the people in the Southern countries.”

For more information on Vaida's project or possibilities for voluntary work in Zimbabwe, please contact her at: vaidakon@yahoo.de

Information provided by Vaida Kontrimaite, HORIZONT3000