Development worker leaving MS Sudan

Training advisor Camilla Ankerstjerne will leave Southern Sudan in June.

By Eric J. Moses, manager, Yei Community Resource Centre

21. May 2010

Camilla Ankerstjerne’s contract with MS Sudan will end by 30 June 2010 so after two years and two months in Sudan, she will return to Denmark.

While being with MS Sudan, Camilla Ankerstjerne has worked closely with the MS Sudan partners and advised them in their work. Among other things, Camilla Ankerstjerne has given out close to 150 training certificates in forum theatre among other things, arranged for two teams of Danish volunteers coming to Sudan, taken part in the Democracy Bus project and developed education materials like board games and debate cards.

Camilla Ankerstjerne came to Southern Sudan for the first time in 1999 and has returned several times. Therefore, it will not be easy for her to leave the country.

“I feel like crying as I am leaving Southern Sudan, a place in which I am proud to live and work,” she says.

However, she is also looking forward to returning to Denmark.

“I miss my family and friends and I am happy going home to be with them.”

“I will come back”
Before she leaves she hopes that she can spend the last weeks in Southern Sudan advising the partners about the future.

Camilla Ankerstjerne acknowledges the good work done by the MS Sudan partners and advises the partners to rethink themselves, believe that what they are doing is right and that they should not do things because of money but because they want to achieve the objectives of the organisation. She further recommends the partners to stop using flipcharts but apply participatory methodologies.

“I am bored with workshops. It is time to come up with different things especially for those of the community members who are illiterate. There is no need to just talk to them but you should involve them so that they can participate,” Camilla Ankerstjerne explains.

Even though Camilla Ankerstjerne does not know what will happen next, she is convinced that she will return to Sudan at some point.

“I will come back to see the fruits of the good work done by the partners,” she says and urges the partners to sensitise the community on the 2011 referendum.