During my DPhil studentship at the University of Oxford, I had the privilege of working for a small, grassroots NGO in Sicily called Borderline Sicilia. The organisation had the mission of monitoring reception homes for asylum seekers, to make sure the living conditions offered to asylum seekers conformed with legal standards. As part of my placement, I travelled across western Sicily, scouting out centres, visiting them, speaking with residents, and compiling reports and blogposts about our findings.
Getting the Internship
There were no positions advertised, exactly – just a kind of ‘open call’ to anyone interested to send in their CV and an email to express interest. So I sent them an email, and they were interested in me, and we set up a time to conduct an interview, and they offered me the position!
Choosing the Placement
I was very interested in this organisation because of its grassroots nature, which I thought would be helpful for my particular professional trajectory, as well as facilitating parts of my research. I had already worked for an international organization, an international foundation, and government refugee agencies, as well as national charities. I wanted to see what it was like to be part of a very local, community-based organization, and this gave me exactly the insight and experience I was hoping for. I had also vetted it; I knew they did really impactful work despite their size and locality, and that on the basis of this grassroots work the lawyers had also built national and even international legal cases and advocacy networks and campaigns.
Benefits of the Placement
I like to think that this placement was mutually beneficial! For the host organization, I think it was helpful to just have another pair of hands on deck, and an energised pair at that!
The experience exceeded my expectations, but it was also challenging. Part of the challenge was that I had to write reports in Italian, and though I am fluent in Italian, it felt awkward at first to write in a kind of ‘report’ style in Italian. I think I got better with time. It was also a good exercise in learning to manage people and get along with others in a different cultural setting.
Advice for those looking for a Placement
Don’t underestimate the impact of local, grassroots organizations. I think sometimes these are overlooked, maybe because people think they don’t have as much ‘impact’, but actually I think the opposite is true. Sometimes, that’s probably where you’ll learn the most, because those are the places that are most likely understaffed or underfunded, but which have contact with real, concrete life – this means not only will you probably get to do a lot of really crucial activities, gain insight into how policy and law affect the lives of real people, but you get to experience things in your body that maybe you only knew about in theory, and this can have life-changing, transformative impact on the way you see the world and yourself in it, I believe it firmly.
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