Dear Nutrition Intern….

As an All Out Africa Intern, part of your duties when your time with us comes to an end, is to write a letter to the intern that follows you. This is typically a brief explanation of where you left off, things to keep an eye on in the future, and any bits of personal advice you may have. For our team, this has been a beneficial process that really pushes each internship to the next level. Sometimes, amongst the stacks of end-of-the-month papers turned in, you get a happy surprise.

The following letter is from our latest Nutrition Intern, to the intern that follows. Our hearts throb a little to see you go. Thanks for your positive attitude and the opportunity to work with you the last 4 weeks! Hope others will be inspired to follow in your footsteps!

August 29. 2017

Dear Nutrition Intern,

Congratulations with your internship!

Your weeks here are going to be jam packed with adventures, thorough research in the office, field outings and hopefully lots of great ideas will arise like it did with me.

The nutrition internship is going to give you plenty of room for your creativity and personal involvement. Don’t be surprised if you feel the urge to help some of the children you meet or get inspired to start something here or back home. It’s a natural urge when encountered with situations, which are very different from your own. I encourage you to do so, as it might lead to a whole new, exciting journey for you to embark on, where the future gives you what you harvest today!.

During the first few weeks you might feel compelled by the idea that you need to find ‘your special project’ and at the same time you might feel disappointed that you have not found it yet. I discovered that asking questions sparks creativity, and insight gives knowledge. So I asked Yuko (my manager) and Eunice (NCP –coordinator) quite a lot of questions to get more information about their current situation, projects, other challenges, solutions, what past volunteers did etc. I finally found my special project after 1.5 weeks, which was to fill in the gaps in the pilot study on E’PAP, and write a paper on challenges and solutions within the pilot study, and get the framework done from a research perspective. Luckily, I also found out what I wanted to spend my professional time with when I get home, relating to the experiences I had in Swaziland. Yes, you might even discover how you could combine your passion of helping others with a business idea or a professional path, which you had not considered before. So being open and observant, inquisitive and creative, this internship has the potential to take you places, you haven’t taken before. Luckily, there is plenty of room for engagement here at ‘All out Africa’ where the quiet hours of the day may give you the spark, which ignites you.

I am especially thankful that nobody will be breathing behind your neck with projects for you to. You have time to be proactive, and focus on what you want to achieve from they your internship.

I have made a framework for the pilot study, which is emailed to Eunice and Yuko, so if you want to fill in the gaps, they can forward it to you in a pdf.

All the best,

Sheena