{"id":3285,"date":"2013-08-13T14:24:44","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T14:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.africlub.net\/awdf\/?p=3285"},"modified":"2013-08-13T14:24:44","modified_gmt":"2013-08-13T14:24:44","slug":"my-personal-experience-of-interning-at-awdf-raquels-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awdf.org\/fr\/my-personal-experience-of-interning-at-awdf-raquels-story\/","title":{"rendered":"My personal experience of interning at AWDF: Raquel’s story"},"content":{"rendered":"

[tp lang=”en” not_in=”fr”]My experience as the Capacity Building Unit Intern at AWDF has been amazing. This opportunity was made possible through the Mount Holyoke College International Internship Program, which established the partnership with the organization and provided the funding. As a senior undergraduate student in International Relations, I was looking for an internship that would expose me to a likely career path. I have been involved with projects related to women\u2019s empowerment for the last 4 years and I became interested in economic development in college. The global agenda for women is one of my passions, so the chance to work at a renowned international nonprofit organization dealing with the intersection of gender and development was a great fit. This is my first time in Ghana and in Africa, and I am already making plans to come back. The people are welcoming, the culture is rich and the country is beautiful.<\/p>\n

The work environment at AWDF is very collaborative. I was fortunate to participate in the mid-year review and understand the organization as a whole, as well as its relationships with its multiple stakeholders. AWDF is committed to transparency, accountability and the monitoring and evaluation of its activities. It was enlightening to watch presentations from all the teams, from the Capacity Building Unit and Communications to the Finance department, and see how connected and complimentary they are. Another highlight of the internship has been the site visits to grantee organizations. By partaking in some of them, I was able to hear about the accomplishments and challenges of philanthropy, from the people making the change on the ground. It was inspiring to see how passionate and invested the people working in these organizations are.<\/p>\n

My main task as the Capacity Building Unit Intern is to document the impact of the Capacity Building Program since its inception. Nafi Chinery, the Capacity Building Specialist, gave me the scope of my work and let me develop my own process to collect information. I conceptualized a grantee questionnaire sent to 100 organizations, in order to assess the changes undertaken after their participation in the Capacity Building Program activities. I also interviewed staff members and the CEO, which allowed me to paint a broader picture of the capabilities, lessons learned and the way forward for the Program. Another contribution was the translation of strategic organizational documents into Portuguese, such as the Grant-Making Application Guidelines.<\/p>\n

I come from a family of many women and attend a women\u2019s college. Therefore, the presence of outstanding women leaders in this office felt very familiar from the start. The staff is friendly and open, which allows for my questions on topics ranging from the nonprofits and international organizations to Ghanaian culture and work-life balance. I am glad to have found new colleagues and mentors who I can count on while taking the next steps in my professional development. This internship has broadened my understanding of the nonprofit sector and has showed me that this is a career I would enjoy pursuing. I will leave with fresh ideas and new possibilities in mind. I definitely recommend interning with the African Women\u2019s Development Fund. It has been an enriching experience, in the personal, professional and academic levels. I am very thankful for this opportunity and I will dearly miss my AWDF sisters!<\/p>\n

-Raquel Helen Silva<\/p>\n

International Relations \u201814<\/p>\n

Mount Holyoke College[\/tp]<\/p>\n

[tp lang=”fr” not_in=”en”]Mon exp\u00e9rience en tant que stagiaire \u00e0 l’unit\u00e9 de renforcement des capacit\u00e9s \u00e0 AWDF a \u00e9t\u00e9 incroyable. Cette opportunit\u00e9 a \u00e9t\u00e9 rendue possible gr\u00e2ce au Programme de stages internationaux du Mount Holyoke College, qui a \u00e9tabli le partenariat avec l’organisation et a fourni le financement. Etant \u00e9tudiante de premier cycle sup\u00e9rieur en relations internationales, je cherchais un stage qui m’expose \u00e0 un cheminement de carri\u00e8re probable. Je participe \u00e0 des projets li\u00e9s \u00e0 l’autonomisation des femmes depuis les 4 derni\u00e8res ann\u00e9es et je me suis int\u00e9ress\u00e9e au d\u00e9veloppement \u00e9conomique \u00e0 l’universit\u00e9. Le programme mondial pour les femmes est une de mes passions, de sorte que la possibilit\u00e9 de travailler pour un organisme sans but lucratif de renomm\u00e9e internationale \u00e0 l’intersection de l’\u00e9galit\u00e9 et du d\u00e9veloppement a \u00e9t\u00e9 une grande chance. C’est ma premi\u00e8re fois au Ghana et en Afrique, et j’ai d\u00e9j\u00e0 des plans pour revenir. Les gens sont accueillants, la culture est riche et le pays est beau.<\/p>\n

L’environnement de travail \u00e0 AWDF est tr\u00e8s collaboratif. J’ai eu la chance de participer \u00e0 l’examen de mi-ann\u00e9e et comprendre l’organisation dans son ensemble, ainsi que ses relations avec ses multiples parties prenantes. AWDF est engag\u00e9 \u00e0 la transparence, la responsabilit\u00e9, le suivi et l’\u00e9valuation de ses activit\u00e9s. Il \u00e9tait instructif de regarder des pr\u00e9sentations de toutes les \u00e9quipes, de l’Unit\u00e9 de renforcement des capacit\u00e9s et des communications au minist\u00e8re des Finances, et de voir qu’elles sont en ligne et gratuites. Un autre point fort du stage a \u00e9t\u00e9 les visites aux organismes b\u00e9n\u00e9ficiaires. En participant \u00e0 certaines d’entre elles, je pouvais entendre sur les r\u00e9alisations et les d\u00e9fis de la philanthropie, des gens qui font le changement sur le terrain. Il \u00e9tait inspirant de voir comment les personnes travaillant dans ces organisations sont passionn\u00e9es et investies .<\/p>\n

Ma principale t\u00e2che en tant que stagiaire \u00e0 l’unit\u00e9 de renforcement des capacit\u00e9s est de documenter l’impact du Programme de renforcement des capacit\u00e9s depuis sa cr\u00e9ation. Nafi Chinery, le sp\u00e9cialiste de renforcement des capacit\u00e9s, m’a donn\u00e9 la port\u00e9e de mon travail et m’a permis de d\u00e9velopper mon propre processus pour recueillir des informations. J’ai conceptualis\u00e9 un questionnaire envoy\u00e9 \u00e0 100 organisations b\u00e9n\u00e9ficiaires, afin d’\u00e9valuer les changements entrepris apr\u00e8s leur participation aux activit\u00e9s du Programme de renforcement des capacit\u00e9s. J’ai \u00e9galement interview\u00e9 des membres du personnel et le chef de la direction, ce qui m’a permis de brosser un tableau plus large des capacit\u00e9s, des le\u00e7ons apprises et de la voie \u00e0 suivre pour le Programme. Une autre contribution \u00e9tait la traduction des documents strat\u00e9giques de l’organisation en portugais, tels que les lignes directrices de demande d’octroi de subventions.<\/p>\n

Je viens d’une famille avec beaucoup de femmes et \u00e9tudiait dans un coll\u00e8ge de femmes. Par cons\u00e9quent, la pr\u00e9sence des femmes leaders en suspens dans ce bureau se sentait tr\u00e8s bien d\u00e8s le d\u00e9but. Le personnel est amical et ouvert, ce qui permet \u00e0 mes questions sur des sujets allant des organismes \u00e0 but non-lucratif aux organisations internationales en passant par la culture ghan\u00e9enne et l’\u00e9quilibre travail-vie. Je suis heureuse d’avoir de nouveaux coll\u00e8gues et mentors sur qui je peux compter lors des prochaines \u00e9tapes dans mon d\u00e9veloppement professionnel. Ce stage a \u00e9largi ma compr\u00e9hension du secteur \u00e0 but non lucratif et m’a montr\u00e9 que cela est une carri\u00e8re que je voudrais poursuivre. Je vais laisser de nouvelles id\u00e9es et de nouvelles possibilit\u00e9s me venir \u00e0 l’esprit. Je recommande vraiment un stage avec le Fonds de d\u00e9veloppement des femmes africaines. Cela a \u00e9t\u00e9 une exp\u00e9rience enrichissante, aux niveaux personnels, professionnels et universitaires. Je suis tr\u00e8s reconnaissante pour cette opportunit\u00e9 et mes ch\u00e8res s\u0153urs d’AWDF vont me manquer!<\/p>\n

-Raquel Helen Silva<\/p>\n

’14 Relations Internationales<\/p>\n

Mount Holyoke College[\/tp]<\/p>\n

\"Raquel<\/a>
Raquel (far right) with AWDF staff (Beatrice, 2nd from left and Gifty 2nd from right) with grantee partners LIHOP in Accra, Ghana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Raquel<\/a>
Raquel posing by the AWDF sign in front of the office<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[tp lang=”en” not_in=”fr”]My experience as the Capacity Building Unit Intern at AWDF has been amazing. This opportunity was made possible through the Mount Holyoke College International Internship Program, which established the partnership with the organization and provided the funding. As a senior undergraduate student in International Relations, I was looking for an internship that would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[61,690,691,692],"class_list":["post-3285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-awdf","tag-internship","tag-mount-holyoke","tag-raquel-silva"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awdf.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awdf.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awdf.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awdf.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awdf.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/awdf.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awdf.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awdf.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awdf.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}