Sara Krosch
IDSC/M.A. '05

1. Please describe your present professional position? Please include the URL of your organization.

Most recently I was a Gender and HIV/AIDS Consultant for the INGO War Child-Holland (WC) and a Training Consultant for Windle Trust-UK in Juba and Yei in South Sudan. With WC, I conducted rapid situation and response assessments of gender relations and HIV/AIDS and their linkages in youth populations (mostly returnee refugees and IDPs) in two counties of South Sudan. The final report was submitted to several donors (CIDA and EU) for future funds to expand WC's programs. WC works with children and youth in conflict/post-conflict countries in psychosocial health programs and capacity building of youth CBOs. I used a lot of participatory small group techniques in villages to gather primary data for WC. For Windle Trust, I designed teacher training modules for primary school teachers in Sudan's first all-girl schools who are now shifting from Arabic to English as the language of instruction.

www.warchild.nl/eng_warchild.php?category=135
www.windle.org.uk
 
2. What do you find satisfying about your position?

The most satisfying part about conducting the assessments and facilitating trainings was the close contact I had with the local population which is rare in Sudan outside of delivering humanitarian aid. There was genuine hope and motivation to develop the country peacefully amongst youth and the populations that have returned to South Sudan. So all programs we developed also included strong peacebuilding components. The general population also seems open to aggressively addressing AIDS even with limited infrastructure and funds. The male youth are big proponents of girls' and women's' education as a way to advance the country so it was exciting to work with these young people.

3. How did the IDSC program at Clark University help to prepare you?
 
The IDSC program at Clark helped me develop more qualitative research skills and polish my facilitation skills. I especially gained from the Participatory Development, Gender and Development and Social Impact Assessment courses. After Clark, I feel confident to conduct assessments, monitor and evaluate programs and write reports under tight deadlines.

4. Why should prospective students enroll in the IDSC program at Clark University?

Students should enroll in Clark's IDSC program to get a comprehensive education in the theories and tools of development. The elective courses are the most challenging and thought provoking. I felt like the course materials we read and discussed facilitated excellent discussions and the group activities allowed you to learn from diverse perspectives and develop future contacts with your fellow students. I was able to design two internships for credit, one a summer internship doing gender analysis for USAID in Eritrea and the other developing media skills (digital video filming and editing) at a local TV station. These internships have really helped me get opportunities in health communications and gender awareness. The experiences of faculty brought a priceless dimension to classes and in the writing of my final research.

5. Did you have an internship as part of your Clark education? If so, how did it help to connect you to your current career?

See above.

6. What was the topic of your research while at Clark University?

The title of my paper was "A New Race of Women:" The Challenges of Reintegrating Eritrea's Demobilized Female Combatants." My professors were Dr. Barbara Thomas-Slayter and Dr. Cynthia Enloe (Barbara has also worked on gender projects in Eritrea and Cynthia's specialty is militarization). My research focused on my interviews, focus group discussions and observations in Eritrea with the majority of USAID fund recipients there at the time--female ex combatants who are "the poorest of the poor." I also researched the history of their involvement in the liberation war and the failures of their reintegration due to a cultural backlash and shift in post-war militarization theories by leadership.

7. Is there anything else you would like to add?
 
After I graduated, I was a Capacity Building and Training Advisor for the National Department of Health, Education and Gender Affairs in the Federated States of Micronesia. There I developed a training manual and facilitated Training of Trainers workshops through out the country on "Community Involvement in Youth Suicide Prevention." I had been a Peace Corps Volunteer in the FSM before attending Clark. Youth suicide rates the FSM are among the highest in the world per capita, but before Clark I did not know what could be done to change this. The manual and trainings were the first time participatory techniques were used in this country and on this issue in the region. The training manual and tools were distributed to over two hundred youth practitioners and youth leaders in the country. I would not have been able to develop that manual or do those trainings if I had not gone to Clark! The response was very positive and several community based action plans have been implemented on different islands as a result of the problem analysis activities villages learned to conduct.