This is what I do

Since 2004 I study Rural Development and Innovations at the van Hall Larenstein Institute, situated in Wageningen since 2006.
In 2007, my placement will take place and it has to be somewhere out of Europe.. I don't have a place to go yet. I'm looking in to going to India. Places of interest are Asia, Africa and South- America. The only problem is that I don't speak Spanish or French that well.
During my placement I like to join a project which involves wildlife, culture or nature conservation in combination with education, or support of the local communities. I have no experience with these conservation aspects, since my study has focused on the agricultural and toerism side of rural development for the last 2 years. I hope I can learn about these interesting aspects during my placement.


I received experiences in Rural Development and Innovation through different placements with different aims.

• My first placement was an introduction. It took place on a dairy farm in the Netherlands. I had to visit the farm 7 times to have a look around, get insight in what goes on on the farm and I learned how to milk cows.


• For my second placement I stayed in France at Mas de la Fargassa. My aim was to get introduced to a more specific way of farming and discover what the differences are in France and the Netherlands. I stayed on a farm in the Pyrenees for one month. This was an organic farm with extra activities, like homemade products which got sold in the shop or at the local market, a mini camping and the sales of fruits to local organic shops. Also they took WWOOFERs (Willing Workers On Organic Farms), who help out on the farm in return for food and shelter. The environment was very international with the owners of the farm being Dutch and English, and the WWoofers who mostly came from the USA and Canada.


• My third placement coverd 15 days in 2006 with Stichting Ontwikkeling de Venen in Utrecht, the Netherlands. I was involved in the process of organising an information day called "Dag van het Veen". The aim of this placement was to get more familiar with the kind of work an organisation can do, which parties are involved and where to get subsidies from.


• The fourth placement took place in the summer of 2006 with the organisation Simbo. This organisation provides holidays for youth in the Netherlands and Europe. I was located in Vorden for 3 weeks, and was, together with a colleague, responsible for the children in the age of 10-13 years old, to ensure they had a nice vacation. The aim was to get familiar with guiding groups and the different methods you can use in doing so.

Now it's time for the fifth placement. A placement of 20 weeks out of Europe, where I have to participate in a project, or do my own project, in agreement with an organisation involved in Rural Development and Innovation. Looking forward to it... but first things first...find the right organisation...