„As I was looking for an internship in the field of intercultural cooperation last year, I saw the call for applications at the office of 14km e.V. in Berlin. I was directly interested in the projects of this young NGO and decided to apply. After my application in Berlin was accepted, Anja Gebel, the PR & Program manager, proposed me to apply for another internship in one of the partner organisations in the MENA region, since I had time for it.

After this amazing experience in Lebanon, I started my internship at 14km in Berlin in the middle of April. Of course it was an asset for me to have been in Lebanon before starting my internship with 14km, as one of my first tasks in Berlin was to search for new partner organisations in Lebanon. It is easier to work in cooperation with the MENA region when you already have been there and acquired certain knowledge of the social and political situation.

Since the beginning of my internship in Berlin, I was agreeably surprised to see that I could help in many different areas. I didn’t expect to be involved in so many different and interesting projects and events. Indeed, I helped in the organisation of the first 14km network party, the Arabic film evening about Lebanon, the event on “The State of the media in Egypt”, the organisation of a study trip of young Libyans to Berlin and at last the symposium about migration and development. I was glad to see that I could help in different ways: I searched for experts for the migration symposium; I looked for, chose and contacted new potential partner organisations for the volunteer program; I wrote a report on the networking party; I translated some articles for the website; I updated the program for the study trip of the Libyans; I searched for hostels and conference rooms; I sent our call for interns to French universities; I created invitations for the event “The state of the media in Egypt”; I sent invitations to our contacts for two different events; and of course I helped during the events 14km held when I was there.

During this internship, I learnt a lot in terms of public relations, communication, and editing content. I really appreciated the diversity of my tasks (research, translation, PR, update of the website, etc). In doing an internship with a small NGO, I wanted to learn more about the way it works and develops projects, the way to manage such a structure, how it functions. I could say that I discovered all those things during my internship. Since I really appreciated my time in Lebanon and wished I could have stayed there longer, it was also an opportunity for me to “stay in touch” with this country and with the MENA region and to continue the cooperation.

As for my relation with the staff, I could say that the team of 14km is young, dynamic and professional. As the team is growing fast, we also spoke with Anja about the way 14km could (re)organise itself in the future, which was also relevant for me. The volunteers helping 14km are very motivated, committed and have a lot of good ideas for future projects. In conclusion, I really enjoyed my internship at 14km for a lot of reasons: I could assist to interesting events, develop my skills in a lot of fields, know the German actors of the Europe-MENA relations and cooperation, which made my internship at 14km a successful experience. As I already completed an internship in a bigger public structure, I could say that I appreciated more the work in a small NGO: we feel more useful, we have more responsibilities, we have the opportunity to carry out more tasks.

One thing is certain: I will keep a very positive impression of my time by 14km, regarding all I learnt and did. I really want to thank Anja Gebel, who is doing an amazing work, for her patience, her trust and for all the opportunities she gave me. She took the time for each project to explain me the whole background and that she assigned me a lot of diverse tasks. I wish I could continue to help 14km in one way or another because this NGO really deserves all the best for all the work the team accomplishes!

Die von uns wiedergegebenen Berichte von durch uns vermittelte Praktikant/innen spiegeln nicht notwendigerweise die Sichtweise von 14km e.V. oder unseren Partnern wider.

The published reports by interns/volunteers on their internships facilitated by 14km e.V. do not necessarily reflect the opinion of 14km e.V. or its partners.

Photo credits: Berlin_Björn Giesenbauer_flickr_cc-by-nc-sa-2.0