“I genuinely believe in this project,” says Kristen Foster, a 23-year-old Canadian from Toronto, Ontario. She speaks to The EastAfrican through Skype at an Internet café in Mtwara, Tanzania. “Yes, some people have a lot more disposable income (than others), but you can always save a little bit. This programme is instilling a savings culture which is huge, and really high-level impact.”

Kristen works for the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and specialises in microfinance. She spearheads an initiative that connects informal savings groups with banks.

“In Tanzania the majority of people get their income through agriculture and agriculture is very seasonal, which means that their income isn’t stable,” she says.

“Teaching someone how to save means they spend less money on frivolous day-to-day (items).”

Kristen has been in Mtwara since August 2014 and came to East Africa through the Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC) International Youth Fellowship Program. The initiative started in 1989 with the goal of cultivating new generations of international development leaders.

Since it started, the programme has sent more than 400 young professionals on eight-month placements in Africa and Asia to work with partners of Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), one of the largest international development organisations in the world.

At the end of March, it will celebrate the completion of its 25th round of internship placements, and a quarter-century of impact in developing countries. The programme has operated in East Africa since 2003, with Fellows placed in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

“They bring in new ideas on the way of doing things,” says Evans Ingala, a human resources officer with AKF East Africa in Nairobi. “I can say they connect a new world to AKF.” Mr Ingala has supervised more than a dozen Canadian Fellows since 2006, and believes the programme is of mutual benefit to both the Fellow his or her host organisation.

There are 11 Fellows currently working in East Africa; three in Nairobi, two in Kampala, two in Arua, one in Dar es Salaam, one in Mtwara, one in Mwanza and one in Zanzibar.

Each recruit operates in one of the program’s three career-oriented streams: International Development Management, International Microfinance and Microenterprise, and Young Professionals in Media.

“Fellows gain a unique understanding of the development process and gain overseas work experience,” Mr. Ingala continues. “It’s good for them because it prepares them to work anywhere in the world.”

For 25 years, the Fellowship has not only expanded the skills and experience of its participants, but contributed to the advancement of local development projects in health, education, civil society and more. To sum up its impact over a quarter of a century would be a mammoth task, so Kampala-based Fellow Julia Burpee speaks based on personal experience:

“I feel my work has been impactful because I’ve chosen to tell tough stories and tackle challenging issues, like sex education,” she explains over the phone.

“Covering such topics has allowed people – as readers and colleagues have assured me – to look past the surface issues or development plans… towards stories and experiences that are at the human level, affecting local communities.” Julia is a media intern with Nation Media Group in Kampala and does feature journalism forthe Daily Monitor, KFM and NTV Uganda.

She believes working in East Africa as a foreign reporter has professional advantages that allow her to bring unique perspective to local audiences in Uganda.

“I’ve come into Uganda with genuine objectivity,” says the 24-year-old, a native of Canada’s capital, Ottawa. “I have no ties to this country or personal stake in how things develop or go here, and I think that’s made my reporting objective and often riskier, in a good a way. I’ve analysed issues that would not have been reported on otherwise, like how hydropower dams have impacted tourism along the Nile River in Uganda and the impact they have had on the environment.”

Personal and professional challenges

Before departure from Canada, the Fellows undergo extensive training in cultural sensitivity, and the theory and practice of international development. Their one-month crash-course in working abroad includes interactive seminars with field experts from all over the world.

But nothing, not even their lessons, can prepare them for all of the personal and professional challenges they encounter during their journey abroad. In addition to adjusting to life in a new country, the young globetrotters must learn to adapt to the local working environment. This often encompasses a language barrier, fewer resources than they are accustomed to at home, and infrastructural obstacles such as poor internet access or blackouts.

“Managing time has been difficult and also obtaining input from programme team members in other regional offices,” says Shariqua Rahman, a 28-year-old policy and resource mobilisation Fellow with AKF East Africa in Nairobi. “Skyping is not the best mode of communication, and sometimes I spent a whole day in three or four different Skype meetings to obtain technical input into proposals.”

Kristen, who speaks from an internet café as a result of a blackout, can attest not only to these logistical barriers, but the personal challenges of living overseas as well. Mtwara is a remote city in southern Tanzania, and on more than one occasion, she admits to feeling a little isolated:

“The one thing I miss from university (and home) is young people and organised activities,” she explains. “But you open your mind and learn to look past what it is you think you’re missing and you find ways to satisfy them in other areas.”

Despite small hitches along the way however, she still feels as though the International Youth Fellowship Program has been a positive experience that she would strongly recommend to other young professionals seeking to launch their careers overseas.

In a 2009 survey, 80 per cent of the program’s alumni felt that participating in the Fellowship had helped shape their career or study decisions, and Kristen is no exception. She smiles as she offers her final comments, before the video call is lost to poor internet connection.

“The Fellowship has taught me a lot about communicating in large organisations, and a lot about taking initiative,” she explains. “I’ve also sort of reflected on my own personal financial habits. Knowing how to save – to have money and not spend it – is huge. It’s the same here in Mtwara and with people back home (in Canada). Everybody needs to learn that lesson, so it’s kind of humbling to learn that there are the exact same issues everywhere.”

Elizabeth McSheffrey is a participant in the 2014-2015 AKFC Youth International Fellowship Programme.