CV and Contact for Pernille Baerendtsen

Who am I?

My name is 'Pernille', but most often I am 'Penila'. Vanilla with a 'P'. Or just 'P'. 'Pernille' is the old Danish, female version of 'Peter', which means 'rock' (as in a hard place).

I'm 38 years old, Danish by nationality. My base is Copenhagen, but I grew up in rural Denmark on the island of Lolland. My great great grandfather, great grandfather, my grandfather were - and my father, brother and my sister are - farmers. My parents and my brother now work on the farm, which also belonged to my great grandfather, and my sister lives on a farm in northern Iceland.

I, on the contrary, sidetracked early on.

After I left the island in 1990, Copenhagen became my base between living in Oxford, Belgrade, Adjumani, Arua and at present Dar es Salaam. 

I have been lucky - and able to make up the ultimate combination of work, what I like to do the most, and what I think I'm best at; Travelling, meeting new people, keeping up with friends and family, figuring out the chaos of a new town, the vastness of the great nowhere, long-distance driving, photography and writing.

My present contract working as Information Officer in Tanzania is coming to an end on February 28 2010.  

Where to next?

Probably Copenhagen and Iceland for a while.

Work Experience

For the past 10 years I have worked in the international NGO sector. At the end of the 90ties I engaged in voluntarism, peace building activism, campaigning and inter-cultural exchange in the Balkans (1997-2002).

I volunteered in Tuzla in Bosnia (1997), where I worked with children from Srebrenica; I took part in the creation of the campaign Next Stop Serbia (1999-2001), where I established the office in Belgrade and co-ordinated the campaign; Later in the South East European Youth Network(1999-2002) where I have trained ex-Yugoslavian youth on project, volunteer and workcamp management.

I have had different positions working for the MS/ActionAid Denmark (1999-2005) with mobilising volunteers, campaigning and organisational development.

From June 2005 to September 2007 I worked along and across the Ugandan border to Southern Sudan for MS Uganda as an Information Adviser & Organisational Capacity Building Facilitator for the civic education project 'Education for Peace', supported by the Development Assistance to Refugee-hosting Areas (DAR), and a local Sudanese NGO, promoting access and right to education for Sudanese refugees. In particular, I worked with organisational capacity building on information, communication, fund-raising and advocacy.

Since September 2007 I have worked as an Information Officer for MS Tanzania/ActionAid Denmark based in Dar es Salaam. My job is here to cover news and information work targeting Danish media. Moreover to assist with tools, development and implementation of strategies on communication, information, advocacy, fundraising and campaigning.

Find my detailed CV here: www.linkedin.com/in/pernille

Photography

The photos you see on my blog and via my Flickr.com Photostream are protected by copyright law and may not be used in any form without permission. You are welcome to link to a photo of mine, in i.e. a blog post, if you credit me by linking back to my blog.

Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing my photographs.

The reason why I blog

I’ve blogged for 4+ years throughout my stay in East Africa. First from 26 months along and across the border to Southern Sudan, now from the Swahili Coast in Tanzania.

In 2006 my blog was chosen as Ugandan Blog of the Year, and in March 2008 I was criticized for not displaying the ‘right picture’ of Tanzania. Hence, I've learnt that people have a million different opinions on Africa, and that the image of Africa in European media often doesn't correspond with the one of the Africans.

Certainly, too often it doesn't correspond with mine.

I try to stick to my original intention; I started blogging because I found the information about being a Danish development worker in Africa too political correct. Lacking passion, presence and precision. I wanted to use the opportunity of living in Africa to add nuance and perspective to this, to add a personal dimension and to illustrate what it actually feels like.

But I also blog to keep track of my experience, for learning, staying in touch and for exchanging ideas. I used blog posts to document the 26 months in Uganda in order to make my final report a little less hard to read.

Another interesting impact of blogging is the friends I have made online, later met off line. Ugandan Bloggers' Happy Hour and the BarCamp Nairobi are good experiences in this regard.

When people tell me that my blog has inspired them to blog, helped them prepare for Africa, made them aware or curious on Africa, I’m happy. Obviously, I’m not perfect as a person, development worker or in my 2nd language.

I blog entirely from my personal perspective, knowing very well that my tribe is Scandinavian and my accent Northern. This blog reflects me, my impressions and viewpoints only. Not the NGO I work for and obviously not any other person.

If you don’t agree with what you read, feel free to ask, comment or exchange viewpoints, but note that I moderate comments.