Earlier this month, we welcomed an intern into our small team. Divya joins us all the way from  the University of Austin, at Texas! Divya is currently undertaking an  educational exchange programme with Swansea University’s Political and Cultural Studies Department. As part of this exchange, Divya will be interning with us for six weeks. During her placement she will be helping to plan our upcoming AGM & Celebration Event, convening the Sanctuary Awards Panel and helping the Welsh Refugee Coalition to formulate ideas about what Wales as a Nation of Sanctuary might look like.

Divya is a third year student and wanted to intern with Swansea City of Sanctuary in order to gain insight and experience of working for an NGO.
We’ve asked Divya to blog her experiences and here is her first blog piece.

“As I wrap up my second week here at the City of Sanctuary I pause to take a moment to really think about how much has been accomplished in just the short time since I’ve started.

Since my first day, I have experienced the background work that really goes into hosting a successful event. I’ve assisted on developing appropriate agendas, creating event invitations, attending planning meetings, and sending out invitations to various organizations. I am learning to prioritize tasks, email professionally, organize activities, and participate in meetings. I appreciated helping to set up the AGM and Celebration Event as well the Nation of Sanctuary Conference.

This past week has been particularly exciting as I had the opportunity to sit in on the Welsh Refugee Coalition Meeting in Cardiff. It was so interesting to see so many organizations and people from various backgrounds come together to discuss and update each other on issues relating to asylum seekers and refugees. I assisted with facilitating the discussion regarding Nation of Sanctuary and learned how decision making occurs within the NGO sector.

Rebecca, Eleri, Stepheni, and the rest of staff have been so welcoming and helpful and I am glad to be part of such a wonderful team. I have really enjoyed my time spent so far the at the City of Sanctuary and look forward to working here for the next few weeks.”