What I learned during my year with Gather
Today we say a sad farewell to Luiz Henrique Rodrigues who has been Gather’s Data Analyst since February 2019. Luiz joined us as an AIESEC intern from Brazil and has been pivotal in developing our geospatial analysis and online visualisation tool as we get ready to launch our first hub in Madagascar. We asked Luiz to share some of his experience for today’s blog post.
Today is my last day at Gather. This last year has been the most important chapter in my career, and I am sad to say goodbye! I have learnt a lot. In fact, the last twelve months have felt like a lifetime of learning! I have lived in a new city and a new country, I have worked with a growing team, I have learned how to overcome unexpected challenges, and I have developed new skills to help Gather to tackle one of the world’s biggest problems.
Before joining Gather, I had not been directly involved in environmental work. Growing up in Brazil, I was aware that proper sanitation systems were often overlooked in lower income areas — and not always reliable in wealthier areas either!
Precarious sewers and poor solid waste management multiples the impact of disease outbreaks such as in 2018 when Brazil was plagued with chikungunya, dengue and zika virus. As an aspiring data scientist, I wasn’t sure how I could help.
Gather has given me an insight into the extent of the global sanitation crisis. It has also been a front-row seat into the challenges that face a small non-profit! As we have shared before, 2019 was a difficult year for us as a team. Funding delays meant that we couldn’t launch the projects we had hoped, and we couldn’t start to build the data sets we knew were needed to help city authorities understand what and where they needed to improve sanitation. Despite this, we achieved a lot! I did not anticipate being part of a team that would get to present our work at The Water Institute at UNC or be recognised as second out of 3,100 initiatives implementing the sustainable development goals by the World Bank.
I learnt that you can still achieve things even when the odds are against you — and that challenges can strengthen a team to become a force to be reckoned with!
I cannot wait to see how our geospatial analysis and risk methodology gets developed over the next year and applied to help improve sanitation for people in Antananarivo, Madagascar.
When I joined Gather, I was nervous about what it would be like to live and work in a new country and new culture. I have loved being part of a team that puts team culture and values at the heart of everything we do — where everyone has an important part to play. It has been such an important lesson. I am so grateful to everyone who has been a part of Gather — the team, our advisors, trustees and project partners. I arrived in the UK alone and I leave with many friends!
