I have just finished a twelve month assignment as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development (AYAD) funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). I am writing this from my old desk having signed on as their Program wheelbarrow Development Advisor and I can hardly believe twelve months in Bangladesh has passed so quickly. I do not seem to have stood still for long enough to notice the whole week flash before my very eyes!

I thoroughly enjoyed my position as Program Officer with ActionAid Bangladesh. I was immediately welcomed into the ActionAid family and soon became very comfortable making Bangladesh my home. I was challenged everyday by tasks which developed my skills, knowledge and understandings. In order to achieve my assigned projects and deadlines, I was fortunate enough to embark on many field trips. These trips greatly expanded my understanding of the human rights based approach to development and the wonderful participatory grass-roots programming conducted by ActionAid across the country. I feel incredibly privileged to have been entrusted with the varied and meaningful tasks throughout my assignment; from multi-million dollar project designs, to designing and conducting training to partner organizations and representing ActionAid in relevant stakeholder meetings.  I truly feel that I was able to make a valuable contribution to the organization and I certainly have made many lifelong friendships which I will take with me wherever I go.

Working as an AYAD in Bangladesh has also been enriching on a personal level. Living in Dhaka really is like no other. Despite the insane poverty which you really cannot believe until you see it, and the mess of concrete and humanity which somehow intertwines and is home for 160 million people, there is a beauty underneath it all; vibrant rickshaws dazzled in colour and pizzazz, bustling market places full of eager vendors smiling and yelling at you while they try and practice their English, some of the most jam packed full of flavor food in the world, and lush green countryside just to name a few.

With all the beautiful aspects of Dhaka, I would be lying if I said it doesn’t have its drawbacks. The daily confrontations of human misfortune are enough to rattle your basic understandings on right and wrong, equality and inequality, justice and injustice. On my morning rickshaw ride to the gym, the roads, sidewalks and median strips are strung with human life. I continue to be baffled by what pressures must force a parent to leave their child to fight it alone, and the number of kids sleeping alone in the middle of the street is harrowing. And then there are the beggars. I still do not understand why the level of disfigurement is so high here; cerebral palsy is rife, children sit in market places with no arms or legs, acid burn victims the result of domestic violence, and wiry old people who must be someone’s grandparent sit begging for food with their eyes tired and sunken. I am frequently struck with this sensation of how unfortunate it is that these people just happened to be born in Bangladesh. I certainly got a life lottery ticket and I am struggling to not feel guilty for this lucky break. We are about to enter the rainy season again. I love this time of year in Bangladesh! While deluges of rain turn streets into cascading muddy rivers, sewers overflow making human excrement fair game for a careless footstep and the humidity is so dense your teeth almost chew it as the air makes its way into your lungs, the sight of rolling dark clouds at the end of a stiflingly hot day brings with it the knowledge of the oncoming welcomed cool reprieve. I can sit and listen and watch the curtains of rain for hours; the sound so consuming, the smell so soothing and the trees smiling with thirsts quenched.

I am very much looking forward to my next year in Bangladesh. The past twelve months has only confirmed my desire to work in humanitarian aid and programming and so the opportunity to remain at the coalface is something which warms my heart. As many new personal and professional adventures await, and I am excited for each and every one of them.