by Duke Adotey Pappoe

My internship at the Adventist Relief Agency (ADRA), Albania, from April 2021 to January 2022 exposed me to many things in life which I had no idea of and thanks to Erasmus for contributing to my easy stay. ADRA is an International Non-Governmental Organization that is involved in the management and provision of disaster relief materials and engages in the provision of social intervention programs in places where these humanitarian services are needed.

The main duties that I was given to perform during my internship time in the agency were in the area of administration, project proposal and report writing. I worked on writing three project proposals such as the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation Abuse (PSEA) project which was sponsored by ADRA International. The other two projects were: Every child Everywhere In school II and the Covid Awareness project. I was also working in all the departments of the agency from time to time to acquaint myself with their work.

One topic that was new to me was the existence of poverty in Europe even though the continent is perceived as economically developed. In my interactions and observations of the people in the country, many stories and issues on economic hardship which are similar to that of Africa were noted, but just like many people like me from the global south, I had the misconception that every part of Europe is economically okay. I meet friends who worked for 12 hours a day for 7 days a week and earned 300 Euros for the month which got me surprised. This brought me back to the topic we always discuss in class and the question of “what constitutes development?” In seeking answers with respect to Albania made me realize that the quality of life, cultural considerations and many other things explain how developed a society is.

My internship lasted for 10 months and I enjoyed every aspect of it and wished it lasted more. I felt there were more things I needed to learn which time and the codvid pandaemic did not allow me to learn. The covid pandemic prevented me to go out more often to interact with project beneficiaries to have the feeling of how the agency`s work impacts their lives and the challenges faced. Also, going out more often could have made me easily learn the Shqip language which was the official language of Albania. Furthermore, the agency has many work activities that I wished to have participated in but I could not due to the limited time I had to spend on my internship. Even though I still have the opportunity to do voluntary work with them online, I would have loved to be there physically to do some of their fieldwork.

Finally, the International Social Science (ISS) study program at Friedensau Adventist University was a good foundation for me to understand the work given to me during my internship. There were many theories that were discussed in class that were easily available to apply during my internship with the agency. I wondered and asked myself if the activities I encountered during my work as an intern would have been easily understood by me without my foundation knowledge in ISS. I came to the conclusion that for an intern to largely understand and analyze works given to him or her during internship, he or she should finish classroom lectures first. Also, having your internship with an organization that mainly deals with social issues widens your knowledge in social sciences better than an organization that only partly does social projects as part of its work.

I will conclude by expressing my appreciation to the Erasmus program for the funds provided for my stay. The funds provided were able to cater for my living expenses and made it easier for me to be accepted my receiving organization as an intern.