After 10 years of operations and leading the pack in terms of safety, project achievement, fundraising, quality, value for money and fun, Quest Overseas created a virtual Research and Education Department.
It means that Quest Overseas can offer students the opportunity to carry out dissertation research on our projects as well as the chance for a staff member to come to your school, university or club to do a presentation on your chosen topic.
Dissertations or individual studies on projects
Quest Overseas Summer Projects have hosted students from Sheffield, Oxford, Bristol, Exeter and Greenwich Universities who carried out work for their undergraduate dissertations or MSc theses on site.
Due to the importance we place on our projects and our personal input into them, all studies must be discussed and developed with help from us and our community partners. This is to make sure that we minimise impact on local communities, local habitats and our projects themselves. However we are always pleased to hear from any interested students and are happy to help develop projects where possible. In fact we see it as a way to develop our own projects and find out important information about where we are working that will itself help the communities that we are supporting.
"Hi there Beth...home life has been difficult to settle back into! I just want to be back in Malawi! The dissertation went very well thanks to Tiffy (Quest Expedition Leader) who was amazing in helping me and Leah. She just seemed to know exactly what to do and was genuinely interested. We really couldn't of got things started without her.
Thankyou again!"
Imogen Bennett, Malawi Team 1, 2006
Here is a list of example topic areas and possible studies that could be developed whilst working on a Quest Overseas project.
Brazilian Coastal Rainforest Project
Assessment of Natural Resources, inventory of localised forest animal/tree species.
Local Communities: Socio-economic interviews (considering demography, garbage production, energy consumption, health, forest use, water use). Mapping of local commercial activities.
Alternative Energies: Survey on Piacava (Endemic Palm Tree) coconut as Biodiesel resource. Survey of use of Solar Stoves as a form to reduce firewood use.
Kenya Water Relief Project
Perceptions amongst local community of dams/tree nurseries and subsequent impacts.
Local resource use. Social research, through Participatory Rural Appraisal.
Malawi Orphan Project
Perceptions amongst local community of the impact of local development work.
Local resource use. Social research, through Participatory Rural Appraisal.
Chile Conservation Project
Biodiversity surveys, large mammal surveys, forest structure survey and measurement, habitat mapping.
If you are interested then please contact Helen for Latin America projects or Beth for Africa projects, at the Quest Overseas office on 01444 474744 with your preliminary ideas. We will be happy to help you find a suitable area of study and then with input and approval from your university supervisor you can develop what promises to be a very exciting proposal.
“Ye can lead a man up to the university, but you can't make him think.”
Finley Peter Dunne
Monitoring of the science research work carried out on QUEST projects.
Although we are not a specialised research organisation, our widely experienced staff and project partners have developed research on several projects as a tool to provide information that helps to conserve and manage protected areas and help local communities.
For example in Swaziland, it was decided through consultation with our partner the Lubombo Conservancy (an NGO made up of several local protected areas), that research surveys might be the most appropriate way to address the major problems encountered in the locality. As such Quest Overseas surveys have so far studied alien plant species (distribution, abundance, health), tree species, plant species, habitat types, rare cycad populations, elephant impact, as well as giraffe, game and bird surveys.
As a tool for monitoring our work and the effect that it has, we are keen to encourage volunteers who want to help us with research on our projects, ranging from biodiversity surveys in the wilderness of Chile to diving for valuable data on whale sharks in Mozambique with Quest Underseas.
"It takes a village to raise a child"
African Proverb