1. Internship at Salvation Army
Oslo, Norway (July 1 - August 14, 2018)
Tasks:
Assisting people, offering information regarding health, shelter, legal aid. Translating and holding talks about human rights.
What did you learn?
I learned how to be a good public speaker and how to better approach people who are working in the community.
2. Internship at Intro City Mission
Norway (April 1 - June 30, 2019)
The Church City Mission is one of Norway’s largest and oldest humanitarian organization. The Church City Mission is an inclusive, non-profit organization, which works in Towns and cities across Norway, among people who face challenges in life for various reasons. Our vision is that people in the city shall experience respect, justice and care.
Because I am still here doing my internship until first July, I have written just my thoughts and experiences. I am happy to send a proper report of my work here after finishing. Till then I may share what I was doing exactly here and what were my tasks.
In the first month of internship, I was just working as any other employee here at City mission. I was in laundry, shelter, cafe, canteen and street work. All of this being some of the activities and programs that City mission is running. Because I am collecting my data for my master’s I tried to devote time and engagement as much as possible to my work. I mainly worked with Roma women since I am writing about them here in Norway and my biggest interest was to spend time with them closely. So basically was social work, from serving soup, chasing cases of human trafficking.
The second month I've been doing participant observation and I learned a lot from this. I can say it was very interesting and challenging. I am working with women of all ages, different Roma groups and regions but we managed to have good communication, an aspect that helped me and prepared me for my last month.
In the third month, I was doing my interviews and meetings with different organizations. I interviewed until now around 7 women and 3 employees from the city mission. Also, I met activists, Police, criminologists and a Roma organization, Romano KHER. It was very intense but also fruitful.
For sure the previous experiences were very sure but the work here was so rich. I had made huge progress in my communication skills. The time management started to work better and besides that the knowledge that I have acquired about Roma here is unique. Because I could chat and interview ladies from different parts of Romania as well as to learn more about myself and my culture. I learned how to listen and how to build trust among people and I believe that I will have a dense report but also a life-changing experience.