Erkan Ozcelik, Turkey
After my time in India with SAI (Year Out 1995-1996), I started a Masters in Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries at LSE while managing SAI's operations out of its first office in Farringdon, as Vice-Chair of SAI. After my Masters I was offered a posting in Ankara, Turkey for the Development Foundation of Turkey. I worked at the Foundation in various positions, the last as Director of Project Implementation, with a USD 40 million project portfolio, for close to five years. For the past year, I've worked as a freelance consultant and in February 2004 started up a small development consultancy called MnE Consulting Ltd, based in Ankara, Turkey. We've won a number of contracts with international development institutions, including the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group, the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Company and several other EC, UN and locally funded projects

Mariana Goetz, London
I first went to India in 1991 as a gap year before college. I worked at a home for girls unable to access education in their communities (120 girls!). I then did law at King's in London, but spent most of my time trying to raise funds for kids in India, and register SAI as a charity. At an interview for Clifford Chance (city law firm) it became clear that I would be a miserable city solicitor. I did a Masters at LSE. DESTIN, the Dev’t Studies Institute @ LSE really changed my understanding of the world. After graduating, I volunteered at ActionAid and then got a paid internship at the European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO). Then I joined "No Peace Without Justice" and campaigned for the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC). I was keen to combine law & development so I applied to the Int’l Tribunal for Rwanda (UN-ICTR) in 1998, and finally got an offer nearly a year later. I worked at the Tribunal based in Tanzania for nearly three years, and then moved onto setting up the Special Court for Sierra Leone. After a year living in devastated Freetown I moved back to London. I am now a student again, doing research on war crimes tribunals and development..."

Marco Knowles, Rome
"Following graduation, I worked in India as an DiA volunteer between 1995-96.  I then studied for a MSc in Development Studies at the University of Bath (1996-97). Inspired by my experience in India, my MSc dissertation compared the policy approaches  aimed at the development of the Indigenous People of India (i.e.Tribals/Adivasis) and Mexico. When the MSc was over I came back to Rome and begun working with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), on a research project to identify groups that are vulnerable to food insecurity (1997-99). After about 1.5 years I moved to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) as a policy analyst. Here I have been providing guidance on WFP's programming with indigenous people, developing guidelines for the implementation of its policy on natural resource management and training staff in field offices on the use of participatory approaches and tools".

Elaine Jackson, Croyden, London
After having been a most successful coordinator of DiA for 1999-2000, Elaine is now doing an MA in
Peace Studies in Bradford.

Helen Prytherch, Germany
"Regarding what I am doing here [in Germany], I had an interview for the APOS scheme but it didn't go very well! Their views on Bolivia were pretty different to mine. I think I need to work on being diplomatic! I applied to the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) at the last minute for funding to do an MSc here in  Humanitarian Aid...miraculously it worked. Term doesn`t start for a couple of weeks but there seems to be plenty of German bureaucracy to keep me busy in the meantime! Seems a pretty good course - runs in France, Spain, Italy and Germany....naturally not in England as it`s far too European!! Hope my German is up to writing dissertations....