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I am from Brazil and my experience of Finland started in 2007, when I registered for a summer course on business, environment and corporate social responsibility. By that time I had realized that this was what I wanted to study and work with. Couple of years later, in 2010, I proudly concluded a Master’s degree in Forest Products Marketing and ended up at Aalto Social Impact (ASI) meeting, where I got to know Shalin Finland. All projects ASI lauched looked very interesting but Shalin was love at first sight. I was “bombing” Peter Kuria, Shalin’s founder, with thousands of questions about Shalin’s work at the ASI meeting. Peter, calm and confident, answered all the questions, showing his deep knowledge about Kenya and Shalin’s projects.
Shalin is engaged with all the issues I felt I wanted to engage with as well. Shalin promotes local solutions to challenges presented by the environmental changes and poverty. And this way, Shalin has developed three projects that aim at sustainable use and management of natural resources in Kenya. RESCUE project promotes alternative energy sources, GIISEM project is about ecological tradition knowledge combined with GIS technology and STOVE project is about researching and developing an emission-free cooking stove. At Shalin’s website one can check information about these projects and Shalin’s work in more detail: http://shalinry.org. Right after I came across Shalin, I started working as a volunteer. How did I contribute to Shalin’s projects? How was this experience to me? I am glad to share this here with you.
Peter Kuria, the founder, is a very open-minded leader, and since the first moment he made me feel very comfortable bringing me into all discussions and asking my opinion about everything. Things started slowly and suddenly I realized how I could contribute to Shalin. From little things to big things. I was very excited. The “energetic group”, as Peter used to call us – himself, Lotta Kinnunen, Marjo Hietapuro and me, of course, had meetings once or twice per week. Even though Shalin has an office, we had always pleasant informal work meetings somewhere else, for instance, drinking wine at some park, having “Kenyan dinner” at Peter’s home, some Brazilian coffee at my place, and so on. Somehow, by doing this we got to know better each other, our different cultures, characters, expertises and background. Thus, improving the level of discussions and the outcome, having different points of view and perspectives (business/ marketing, social and environment), contributing to a holistic view and continuous learning process of the team.
In sum, my experience as a volunteer at Shalin has been amazing and I have learned a lot. To be a volunteer, in my opinion, the most important consideration is to choose the right cause and really be committed to it. I definitely recommend this experience to all those who are interested in contributing for a better world and do not know how to get started with it. ASI offers a range of opportunities as well as Shalin does. You can support Shalin, for instance, as a volunteer, new associated member or as a project sponsor. Check it out! Anyone that is willing to commit has something to offer!
Thanks ASI! Thanks Shalin! Thanks energetic team!
By Julia Tauszig
03/Oct/2010