Timour Darimont

I am in my second year of a master’s degree in population and development sciences and I did my internship with the ECMS (Education for Global Citizenship and Solidarity) unit at ULB-Coopération. I chose ULB-Coopération for a number of reasons. Firstly, some of the themes and challenges presented by the NGO echoed certain topics covered in my classes and my thesis subject. I am thinking in particular of the goal of food security and the development of sustainable production systems. The main issues and objectives targeted by the NGO are in line with the 17 SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals for 2030), which I believe are a priority for all of us. During my internship, I worked on a variety of tasks, such as helping to draft a concept note for a DEAR (Development Education and Awareness Raising) project, organizing a feedback session on a Service Learning program, and preparing for the Cooperation Games, an event organized by the NGO. My thesis topic (on the constraints of adopting biopesticides in market gardening in Mbanza-Ngungu) also attracted the interest of the NGO’s agro-environmental project managers, who felt it was important to identify these constraints, given that the use of chemical pesticides is a problem for both the environment and human health in the region. ULB-Coopération therefore agreed to extend my internship agreement so that I could travel to the Mbanza-Ngungu branch in the DRC to provide logistical support for my fieldwork. The NGO was a great help in my data collection and I cannot thank them enough for the trust they placed in me during these four months of internship.  

The projects