Xingyi, honours Psychology
Internship Country: Vietnam
Canadian NGO: Mines Action Canada
Local NGO: Association for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (AEPD)
AEPD provides help to Vietnamese landmines survivors. I especially cherish the chance to remote work as an international intern. It gave me the experience of collaborating with people on the other half of the earth.
I choose to work in AEPD because I had the experience of helping disabled children in my country of origin. I believe destiny doesn’t treat everyone in the world the same, so people who are able to provide help to these minorities should lend a helping hand. After I went through the job profile, I felt like it well matched my ability, so I submitted the application and I was accepted.
I attended a pre-training session before actually starting my internship. The information and lesson provided to us were very helpful. We were taught how to cope with the stress and deal with the relationship with the host country’s NGO. I was so nervous when I finally meet my Vietnam NGO for the first time. My worry just went away after that first meeting. They were so kind and welcoming about my joining their organization. We talked about tasks but we mainly got to know each other.
I felt a little lost when I first started working. There are a lot of ideas that came to mind but they were difficult to implement. At first, I wanted to organize an online informal meeting with the survivors to relieve some of their stress. Unfortunately, most of them did not speak English, so the plan had to be shelved. There were a lot of things like that that left me feeling a little frustrated and wondering if I could really help AEPD. I gradually began to adjust my mind, telling myself that some things can not be forced, as long as I have the ability to change things that are worth self-recognition. Then I started making pictures to spread the word about the organization and help them get more people to help them. At the same time start looking for fundraisers to provide financial help to the organization.
I started to get more familiar with my work and positive about any difficulty I faced. Hope I will keep my attitude and get better for the rest part of the internship.