Dr. Juliane Dao
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As a development worker for GIZ in Burkina Faso
I did my bachelor's degree in agroecology at the University of Rostock, my hometown, and really only got into the agricultural sector out of biological interest and political motivation. Besides my bachelor's degree, I did a lot of volunteer work. I was active in university politics, worked for Greenpeace and volunteered after my bachelor's degree as part of a Weltwärts year in India to protect sea turtles.
Afterwards, I wanted to do a master's degree that was internationally and sustainably oriented. I had already heard a lot about Witzenhausen and the ecological course of studies and learned about a new international course of studies, the Master Sustainable International Agricultur (SIA). This was exactly what I was looking for. However, it required an English certificate with a certain score and my English was poor. So I invested, took my Weltwärts annual leave and crammed for the test at an Indian language institute. It was just enough! I was taken for the first round of SIA in 2009 and then spent a total of almost ten years in Witzenhausen.
10 wonderful years in Witzenhausen
The SIA was a wonderful course of study. We were only a handful of Germans, the other fellow students came from all over the world. Since we had to do a lot of project work in groups, we were able to learn a lot from the other countries. We also read the latest publications and discussed sustainability and the right way to feed the world with the professors. I enjoyed it so much that I studied one year longer than necessary, although I actually already had my modules together and even had to pay tuition fees at that time (because of the cooperation with Göttingen). For the data collection of my master thesis I traveled to Pakistan and saw how wage laborers were bound to farms like slaves. It made a big impression on me and I made a photo exhibition on this topic after my return, and of course I graduated.
To Africa for your doctorate?
At the time of my defense, I was pregnant and looking for a satisfying career that could be combined with a child and time abroad. I was ready to start something new. So I asked my professors for advice, since I knew that they had been in West Africa themselves as PhD students with small children. The answer came promptly: I could write my dissertation as part of the Urban-Food-Plus project and travel to Burkina Faso and Ghana to collect data... with my baby on my back and a nanny in tow. I wondered if I should really do that. I thought about it for a long time and decided to give it a try no matter what. In the end, it was not only the hardest decision of my life, but also the best. I finished my PhD thesis on the effects of water quality on soil properties and contamination of crops in gardens in Ouagadougou in January 2018. I also met my husband in Burkina Faso and now have three children.
For a world without hunger
We currently live in Bobo-Dioulasso, the second largest city in Burkina Faso, and I work as a development worker for GIZ. This was and is my dream job: a job in which you can improve a piece of the world in a sustainable way. Our project is part of the BMZ's special initiative "A World Without Hunger" and aims to reduce malnutrition in the rural south-west of Burkina. We work across sectors, which means we are not a pure health or agriculture project, but we use a more holistic approach. Activities such as cooking demonstrations for mothers, hygiene competitions in the village health centers, community gardens or even theater and film screenings are used to improve the nutrition and hygiene situation. My work is very varied: sometimes I go along to the villages and take part in the activities. My focus is on using participatory methods to achieve behavioral change. A project can only have a sustainable effect if the suggestions for improvement are also accepted and implemented by the population. During my studies I got to know many participative methods and also applied them in research, which I now use to analyze and implement problems and solution approaches with the participants.
The work also allows me to supervise students and to conduct studies on food ingredients and water quality in collaboration with the University of Bobo-Dioulasso and the National Health Laboratory. For example, we have investigated whether moringa seeds can be used to treat drinking water. The results are promising and the method could be used to reduce diarrheal diseases and thus address a cause of malnutrition.