edito
You have been truly amazing ...
twice!
Dear alumni,
It was that time again. Time for the alumni seminar…
From our point of view, it is always exciting to learn about the work you have been doing since you left IOB. Particularly
exciting this time was the explicit call to showcase the impact you make through non-academic work in other people’s
lives, or in society as a whole. Even though IOB has been evaluated and audited several times during the last years, these
applications in a way are the real assessment of what YOU are able to do (partly!) due to what you learned and shared at
IOB!
And … you made us graduate with flying colours, magna cum laude!
We were proud when reading about Tu Mai’s work on collaborative research teams involving underprivileged ethnic groups
as researchers, we were excited about Rose Villar’s geotagging M&E project in the Philippines, hopeful when reading
about Jacinta Okwaro’s work on communities and extractive business, looking for ways to make local communities benefit
from revenues generated through oil in Kenya and touched while reading about Winifred Qin’s ‘journey’ culminating in
starting up a mental health facility direly needed in Beijing, to name only a very few!
So much so that we’re spreading the news …Lanny Jauhari was invited to come to IOB in Antwerp and present her
work on “Pioneering NGO transformation to Social Enterprise (Torajamelo) in Indonesia”. The work of other alumni was
presented in poster format during the alumni reception, some work has been shared with VLIR-UOS and other interested
organisations, or in this Exchange to Change edition or will feature on our website. We will make an interactive world map,
where you can have a look at the work of our alumni. There is even an ‘alumnus of the month’ in the IOB kitchen for IOB
staff to read up on while getting coffee.
You have also been amazing in a completely different way! When it was Belgium’s time to be hit by terrorist violence, you
responded in great numbers and with spontaneous compassion. You inquired about our safety, hoped (and prayed) for
us, shared our surprise at how in a country where you felt safe once, violence has also flared up. You sent us a short email,
posted Manneken pis peeing on a machine gun or changed your Facebook profile picture into the Belgian colours.
I did not ‘Belgicise’ the IOB Facebook profile picture, as many of you did earlier with the French coloured Eiffel Tower or
the Belgian flag to express your sympathy. No, I felt ashamed … for all those times we should have changed our profile
picture in the colours of YOUR flags, all those times the Atomium should have been lit up in the colours of all those other
countries hit by violence.
Instead, we ‘internationalise’ the experience of the terrorist attacks in Belgium, by presenting you the testimonies of IOB
staff, students and alumni from different parts of the world living in Belgium on how they experienced that particular day.
Even better, no?
Sara Dewachter
IOB Alumni officer
Exchange to change June 2016
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