Student Testimonial: Giraffe Project Internship in Kenya
Through the Vesalius Internship Programme, two VeCo students got the opportunity to take an internship with the Giraffe Project in Nairobi, Kenya, in the summer of 2010. The Giraffe Project is a UK registered children’s charity, working in extremely deprived areas of Nairobi, Kenya. It aims to provide educational opportunities for children and young people from Nairobi’s vast slums.
The 2 participating students share their experiences below.
Arsola Dalipi (Business Student from Albania)
“The Giraffe Project” is a charity organization that was started in 2005 by two passionate people, Richard and Denise Baines who shared the same dream as me, helping people; and the people they decided to help are the children of the slums of Nairobi. These children are extremely poor and they live in extreme conditions with homes of mud or rough timber and without running water, electricity or sanitation. By giving those deprived children educational opportunities, they give them a life, a future; and this is an extraordinary thing.
Through the Vesalius Internship Programme, I was selected to work alongside Denise Baines as an administrative intern during the Giraffe Project’s yearly July trip to Kenya. My job in this internship was more of an administrative and management work, but being so close to this project and the people who run it gave me much more. I got to know how an NGO actually works. I learned the way the information is recorded in databases and spreadsheets and how to implement and work with these programs. I got to see the inner workings of organizing and managing a project, and this is not easy. No matter how much you try to organize, plan and predict everything, there will always be issues coming up, such as communication problems or people not sending documents on time or not doing what they have been asked to. But one of the most important things that I learned from this experience is that panicking is not the solution, while having a plan B might be. You have to stay calm, think and figure out another way to proceed in order to resolve the situation. And believe me: this is not as easy as it seems, especially with a big group!
Another important thing that I learned is the value of team work. In the case of working in a very different country with a very different culture and background such as Kenya, being a team with the locals is indispensable. This good collaboration between us and the locals was an important factor of the success of the organization.
In one instance, my colleague Elina and I were giving business seminars and I mistakenly thought that talking about business to a bunch of teenagers would be easy, but I did not take into account that those teenagers were from the slums and had a totally different background. Luckily, Elina had done research in this field and took the Kenyan backgrounds into account, and together we managed to perform a good business seminar that was useful for the teenagers as well.
As I mentioned, different backgrounds and cultural differences are important factors everybody should be aware when you work with a diverse country such as Kenya. Most of us are isolated in a certain world and haven’t seen or don’t want to see what happens beyond and this can lead to cultural shock. You go to Nairobi or to another county of the 3rd world and you realize what actually goes on and that things are not as beautiful as we think or want to believe. Because I come from Albania, a very poor country, I thought I was somehow accustomed to poverty, but it was a totally different story there in the Nairobi slums. One might do research or see pictures on the internet, but going there and touching extreme poverty is hard; and the first thing you feel is guilt - guilt for the many useless things you have and for the fact that those kids, those families did not even have the basic elements for what we would consider standard for life. Then, you learn to see things from a different point of view, you lower your standards and you learn that you can actually live without having a Louis Vuitton bag, chocolate, wine or watching TV. You’re no longer preoccupied about shopping in Brussels but rather on how to save money to sponsor or help a needy kid.
Cultural difference is not only seen at the socioeconomic level, but it is also seen in the way people think and behave. Here is an illustration as described by a member of our group who was trying to help the children find synonyms for the word “good”:
“What’s the opposite of ‘negative’?,” she asked.
“Positive”, they all replied.
“Isn’t it good to be positive?”
The children looked at her, horrified. “No”, they replied; “It’s never good to be positive.”
Because to them ‘positive’ means one thing - HIV positive.
Some of our teachers remarked that, as in European schools, some of the children put their hands up a lot in class, and others do so rarely. They wondered why the teachers didn’t call on the children who didn’t raise their hands. “It’s because,” explained the director of one of the elementary schools, “you never know what that child has been through in the previous 24 hours. He might have had no dinner and no breakfast, or have seen his father beat up his mother.”
Something to be admired from Kenyans and apply in our lives is their positive thinking. I was impressed with how they could manage to laugh and to be so nice all the time. When one of the participants said to the Kenyan teacher how much she admired what she was doing, the teacher replied “We have to appreciate what we have, because there are many who have so much less. We mustn’t compare ourselves with those who have gone ahead of us, but look behind us. Then we appreciate where we have come.” And this is what the Europeans or better the rich world are losing, appreciating what they have.
By now, I can say that doing this internship and going to Kenya was the best thing I have done with my life. Learning how to work with Excel and databases, or how to manage or other admin works is one thing, but what I got from that place and the people I worked with was the best thing ever. I never felt more appreciated for what I was doing, and never felt better from doing something. Because there is nothing better than giving a smile to a kid and knowing that you contributed to that. More than anything else this experience benefited me as a person. Now I am going to be more careful in my decisions and I am going to remember that there are people less fortunate than me, people who I could and would help in the future. This experience was more than a business internship, it was a life lesson.
Elin Jonasdottir (Business Student from Iceland)
It was like a dream come true when I received a phone call asking if I was interested in taking this internship. The first time I heard of the Giraffe Project was when I saw the advertisement for the internship and I immediately became interested; it fit the criteria I was looking for and it was also situated in Kenya. I love traveling. I looked the organization up and I just knew that this was right for me. I learned that the Giraffe Project is helping children in Kenya with education and, after I read a few testimonials on their website, I nearly cried. Through my internship I got to experience first hand how this organization brings happiness and hope to numerous people in Kenya, and I felt privileged to be a part of that.
The day I arrived in Kenya, at Nairobi airport, I was ecstatic. Everything seemed so different and simply riding in the car from the airport was an experience. As we drove in our ‘matatu’ into the Mathare slum, I pressed myself against the window, taking everything in. The people stared and little children yelled, “How are you? How are you?” and “Wzungu” which means white people in Swahili. Everything that followed was a new and indescribable experience and feeling.
My preparation for the trip consisted of putting together a business seminar that I was to present to a group of young adults who had previously had signed up for it. It was my second day in Kenya when I faced the more than 30 people who had signed up for my seminar. My purpose was to introduce young people to business, to try to get them to “think outside the box,” and to introduce the concept of innovative thinking and entrepreneurship. I wanted to make them realize that there is an alternative to being a mere employee. It was an exciting but unnerving feeling, I could feel how these people believed in me and I did not want to disappoint them. It made me extremely happy when a girl from my seminar approached me after the second class and thanked me. She had been studying banking and had some business background, but she thanked me for making things clearer for her and also for teaching her something new. This girl was not the only one to thank me, and I wish I had the opportunity to thank them all right back because all these people that believed in me helped me believe more in myself.
I would also like to have the opportunity to praise one of my ‘students’, Charles, for the way he influenced me. He showed up three hours early for the second part of my seminar to talk to me about business and to ask me questions about studying business in Brussels, and also asked me to draw him some graphs and to explain them. The best part for me is that he also told me he had never considered, or even thought of starting a business before but that now he had become very interested saw this as a new and viable prospect. This whole experience benefitted me in ways that I had never imagined. I never imagined that my education in business school could become grounds for really helping people, the way I experienced it in Kenya.
After my seminar, a group of women called ‘the bead craft ladies’ asked to speak to me. A few of them had attended my seminar and found it helpful and felt that I could help them with their business. These women were a great inspiration to me. They have been through so much hardship without loosing faith and are extremely joyful, giving and energetic. They also have a drive that I believe can bring them their dream if they manage to step into reality, plan realistically ahead, and rely more on themselves. These women, and especially one named Margret, gave me something of such value; they gave me a gift that has altered my vision of life. I also worked with three other fine girls that had attended my seminar. They are graduating Unity College in Nairobi and their dream is to start a small restaurant. These girls are a great example of my experience with Kenyans; they are extremely kind, open, friendly and genuine. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with them and with the bead craft ladies, and all the wonderful children and people I met during my stay.
This was the most meaningful internship I could ever have gotten and the memory and experience will stay with me forever. To be given this chance to experience Kenya, not as a tourist or seeing it as just another country I have visited, but to see it for the people and the nation that thrives there, made me fall in love with the country. It showed me that happiness has nothing to do with material objects; it has to do with what you make of what you have. I had the pleasure of being invited to lunch at the home of a Kenyan lady named Eunice and I have never felt as I did there. Before we had our lunch, she said grace and as she thanked God for having money to buy food for her family, and thanked him for the wonderful life she now is living. I found myself tearing up and feeling more grateful than ever for everything I have. We take for granted what we have in life. I met a woman who sells corn and rice by the side of the road, and she makes about 2.50 Euros a week if she is lucky and this is the income with which she supports her family. This is unheard of in our society but this woman works hard and is happy with what she has. What I learned in the slums of Kenya is that even though people do not have much money or material objects, they seem happier than all the people I see everyday in Brussels. The people of Kenya share their joy and made me feel happy every single day I spent there.
Of all the business internships I could imagine that are available to students in my position, this internship was unique in its emphasis on using our education to educate others and to sow seeds of business interest that may someday, hopefully, flourish and bloom into businesses for young Kenyans. I will be forever grateful for having had the opportunity to be a little part of that. Although my experience in Kenya benefited me greatly as a business major student and as an intern, it is invaluable to me as a young woman, planning her future and trying to find herself in the world.
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