Month: October 2015

Friends of the Earth – last week

And it has come to an end. A really interesting experience…

I finished the main report I was putting together for the waste campaign. This will be published on the Birmingham Friends of the Earth website in the near future and also will be used in other publications and communications of the organisation.

Along the road, I benefited from feedback and insight of other long-lasting members of the organisation; to understand the campaigning basics and specifically with relation to the waste campaign. The campaign has got more to go before achieving its goals, and of course the end success matters hugely, but I think the journey is greatly rewarding as well and something to enjoy.

Sense About Science – Final Thoughts

It’s been over a month now since I finished my Charity Insights internship with Sense About Science and amidst the hectic nature of freshers week and returning to university I have been reflecting on the experience.

Before my internship I was interested in the work done by SAS and I knew a lot – or at least I thought I did – about the interplay between science, society, politicians and the media. Since my internship I have come to realise that the issues and solutions are much more complex, but also much more interesting. This idea was always stewing in the back of my mind during my time at SAS and was really brought to the forefront when I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the 2015 Sense About Science lecture: The Ugly Truth.

Centre for Community Development, Week 3

I arrived fresh on Monday morning ready to take on the most exciting and interactive part of my project at Tamil Women Development Forum. This was the interviewing of some of the members of the TWDF, as well other key women’s rights activists with regards to the situation of Tamil-speaking women in the North and East and plantations of Sri Lanka. I arrived a little early on the first day of interviews, a little nervous and unsure what to expect. Thankfully, as was always the case when interacting with people attached to the Centre for Community Development (the overall charity of which TWDF is one initiative, among others, that they are responsible for) the interviewees were very warm and welcoming.

Centre for Community Development, Week 2

Much of my first week had been spent conducting a literature review on the material with which I planned to include in my report, though this continued intermittently a few days into the second week. As mentioned in the last blog post, I found it very interesting to see how long the Tamil Women Development Forum had been around. It was humbling to be analysing the work of many great and inspiring women’s activists and I often found myself engrossed while reading decade’s old literature that had been produced by them well past my leaving time – even when it was not directly relevant to my project!