Leave for Change: Renate Milo shares about her experience in Sri Lanka

In December 2016, Renate Milos, a team manager for a pharmaceutical company in Montreal, travelled to Sri Lanka with Leave for Change through WUSC and CECI’s Uniterra program. Leave for Change is an initiative through which employers give their staff an opportunity to go on a short-term assignment to a developing country. During her three-week stint in Sri Lanka, Renate shared her expertise with a Uniterra program partner in the tourism industry.

It is easy to believe Renate Milos when she says that she never manages to blend in when she travels abroad, no matter how hard she tries. Renate is a 5’9”, blond Canadian woman of German-Polish descent. Suffice it to say that she does not go unnoticed, except, she laughs, in Scandinavia. This has not dissuaded the 52-year-old Montrealer from travelling the world, constantly seeking to better understand the communities she encounters and to explore. “When I arrived in Sri Lanka, I didn’t even get culture shock nor need time to adapt,” Renate recalls. “I just got right to work.”

A wholly enriching experience

Renate worked closely with the Eastern Province Tourism Development Authority (EPTDA) on strategic development plans. “After 30 years of civil war, infrastructure and skilled labour are clearly lacking," says Renate Milos, who believes that the region has all the natural, historical, and cultural assets it needs to become an exceptional tourist destination. “In this underdeveloped region, we have to start from square one in terms of building and organizing a tourism industry. It’s a massive construction site, but it was incredibly gratifying to be a part of it all!”

Renate joined AbbVie Pharmaceutical after completing her studies in microbiology and immunology, and after several years of medical research. She says her assignment was also a terrific opportunity to learn about the tourism industry and about different ways of working and understanding the issues. “I brought my expertise—a strategic approach and a development plan—but obviously in a mandate like this, exchanges and learning go both ways.”

If there is one stereotype she'd like to dispel, it’s that a mission like this is just a vacation in disguise. “I definitely took advantage of my two weekends to get out of Colombo and visit the region, but I can assure you that my weekdays were jam packed. We had an assignment to complete in a given time frame, so there was no question of being lazy or wasting our partner's time.”

Supporting the architects of change

One might wonder if such a short trip is worth the effort. Renate says she firmly believes that the advice and expertise she shared over the three weeks had a significant impact. “We make a difference in that we leave something behind when we return home. We leave an idea, or a document that future developers can use, or something that the partner can continue to use after we leave. Not to mention that our support may be preceded by someone else's work and picked up a few weeks later by the next person. This is not an isolated mission. It is well defined by the Uniterra program and is part of a broader plan.” Renate says she is more than ready for another assignment, in Sri Lanka or elsewhere, be it through Leave for Change or a more long-term commitment to international cooperation when she retires.

“Driving change, regardless of the organization, is a very slow process," says Renate. “And it’s not for lack of want—all the people I worked with in Sri Lanka were very committed and wanted progress, to change the situation. And they are the real actors in this change. But the road to implementing these changes is often winding and complex, and that's where our support can make a difference. Our role is to support the people who are the architects of change.”

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Uniterra is a leading Canadian international development program that is jointly operated by WUSC and CECI. Each year, 600 volunteers contribute their time and experience to positive and lasting change towards a more equitable world by dedicating a few weeks to two years of their lives to international volunteer work. The program also provides opportunities to get involved in Canada and play an active role in combatting poverty.

The Uniterra program receives funding from the Government of Canada, provided through Global Affairs Canada.