We are really excited to introduce Rowan Cassels-Brown as our Volunteer Intern for Community Outreach and Project Development. He has been working with us from England for the past 7 weeks and has now made it out to Congo! Rowan is a student at the University of Manchester studying History and Sociology. He will be staying with us in Impfondo, for the next 5 weeks. We are happy to announce that he will also act as a guest blogger during that time, writing about his thoughts, feelings and experiences of New Sight and the Congo.  Enjoy!

I am going to the Republic of the Congo (hereafter referred to as Congo) on Friday. This is not the ‘unstable’ Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which has featured heavily in Western News in the past 30 years for war and corruption, but is its neighbor. The Congo sits on the Western banks of the river Congo, nestled between Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, and the DRC. New Sight Congo is a faith based NGO focusing on the prevention and cure of unnecessary blindness in the Likouala region. Founders Joyce and Henri Samoutou have taken me on as a Volunteer Intern for Project Development and Community Outreach for 5 weeks this summer.

A lot of people, myself included, have been asking what exactly I will be doing in a small, malaria hot-spot village, which is 10 days ferry journey into the jungle, and which receives about 2-3 hrs of electricity two or three times a week. The answer to that is I don’t really know either. Admittedly, I initially sought out this opportunity with a great desire for adventure and personal experience but, having now been involved in helping with some of the logistics of the operation since I finished university, I have begun to develop a real appreciation for what this foundation is trying to do; help other people. So far, I have helped with securing the donation of useful medical equipment from a major drugs company, seeking help in purchasing and transporting a YAG laser machine (for surgery), and have gained a small understanding of the sheer difficulty of organizing a humanitarian project in the middle of Africa.

I have high hopes of experiencing and learning about Congolese culture, lifestyle, food and people, and have no doubt that this trip will offer me new perspectives on my comfortable life as an English student in the urban jungle of Manchester. This blog may well become a constructive way for me to document and interpret my time in Congo. Perhaps it will intrigue and inspire others to seek a better understanding of the wild and vibrant Central Africa, a place steeped in ancient cultural, social, anthropological and, in more recent years, tumultuous political history. Alternatively, the blog could simply turn into a conveyor belt for the self-indulgent pontifications of a naive Westerner. Either way, I have enjoyed blogging about my travel experiences in the past, so I intend to continue with that practice. If you have ever read any of my stuff before you will know that I am hilarious, insightful interesting and, naturally, very modest!

If you read this blog, I hope you enjoy it, and please feel free to comment on it or get in touch with me. Of course, the posts will be a little more exciting once I am actually there. Thank you or, as I think they say in Lingala, melesi!


Guest blog by

Rowan Cassels-Brown
New Sight Summer Intern

Filed under: Musings

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