A warm welcome to Marcia, Nagham and Nelly!
The World YWCA tradition of welcoming year long interns/Programme Associates continues in 2012. The Geneva office was pleased to greet three energetic young women - Nagham Nassar (YWCA of Lebanon), Nelly Lukale (YWCA of Kenya), and Marcia Banasko (YWCA of of Great Britain). Nelly has joined the Programmes Team and Nagham and Marcia are both working in the Communications Department.
Nelly, a master peer educator at the YWCA of Kenya; Nagham, a volunteer at the YWCA of Lebanon since the age of 11 and a project worker; and Marcia, a project worker with young women and girls at “Platform 51 Knowsley” (a local branch of the YWCA of of Great Britain), are all particularly committed to the YWCA Movement and were very enthusiastic about the prospect of doing an internship at the World office. When hearing that she was selected, however, Nagham had mixed feelings. On the one hand, she was “extremely happy to have the opportunity to live this experience: living outside my country, meeting new people, working in a new environment, getting more exposure and expertise from people from different backgrounds”, but at the same time she was somewhat daunted by the idea: “am I going to do a good job? Am I going to fit in? Am I going to get used to this new life?”. Nelly added that she was “honoured” that the World YWCA had “found me to be a great young leader/champion through the work I have been doing”.
Landing in Geneva was a true culture shock for Nelly. It was her first time to “see, touch and feel snow and to experience winter”. She was also struck by the multicultural diversity of Geneva and the friendliness of people, which makes her feel at home. As for Nagham, she is impressed by how structured things are in Geneva, as compared to Lebanon, but was taken aback when struck by the freezing Geneva wind “la bise”. Coming from the UK and having already travelled in Europe, Marcia is not having too much trouble adapting, but is busy trying to brush up her French so that she may communicate with the locals.
When asked what they expected of this year abroad, each one stated that they considered it to be an important learning process for them. As Marcia studied International Development at the University of Liverpool, she is “looking forward to the international experience and to getting exposure to the UN system”. She would like to develop skills in the field of communications and has a secret dream to work for a women’s organisation such as UN Women. Nelly has a thirst for learning, whether it be leadership skills, confidence building or French. As for Nagham, she also feels this will be an exciting learning experience and an opportunity to experience a field she has not yet worked in – communications - as well as being immersed in a new culture. One thing is for sure, all three young women are looking forward to sharing their newly acquired skills and experiences with their own community and their YWCA. As Marcia stated “Once I go back home, I would like to use this experience to help build young women’s leadership development programmes at the YWCA of Great Britain.
We wish our three new interns/Programme Associates all the very best and, in Nagham’s words, we hope that this year will be “full of great moments, and beautiful and interesting experiences”.
