Raimonda Kundrotaitė. The Scandinavian internship!

I was used to study Law and Management in the Mykolas romeris University and have never imagine how much it could help me to meet the world. Usually, I find transnational cooperation as one of the most preferable thing for my future! That is absolutely brilliant to remember my internship! It looks that I could never stop to talk about my colorful moments in Stockholm.

At the beginning I have to make some short introduction about my internship. Actually, it looks like I did it for about one million times, because a lot of people were so curious about what I was doing in Stockholm, how I found it what was the most exciting. I had my internship in the managing authority of European Social Fund in Sweden. The internship and its activities were colored with the brightest colors!  It was perfectly good: everything was organized according to the agreed internship plan and it included a lot of challenging activities. Otherwise the time was not overcrowded and I had some possibilities to explore the Swedish culture as well.

The objectives and activities of the internship were the following:

- Representation of Swedish ESF Council and the Swedish Operational Programme for the ESF;

- Introduction of activities in employment, social and education policies with a special focus on the links to the EU Baltic Sea Strategy;

- Representation of relevant to EU Baltic Sea Strategy ministries (Employment Ministry, Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Education) in Sweden;

- Representation of central governmental agencies represented in the Baltic Sea Network-ESF (Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth; International Program Office; Swedish Board for Youth Affairs; Public Employment Office; The Swedish Social Insurance Agency; SALAR, The Swedish Association for Local and Regional Authorities).

Despite the activities described above, I am glad by having an opportunity to visit Belgium, Poland. I visited a lot of different conferences and events in Stockholm. Also, I appreciated an opportunity to participate in the event that was organized in the second biggest city in Sweden, Gothenburg. I still remember the sun in that harbor city... It was shy and at the same time very inspiring to seek for the specialties of all the surroundings.

In Belgium, I took part in the international European conference for the representatives from different EU countries; the discussion was about gender mainstreaming. I had an opportunity not even to understand new theoretical ideas but to absorb the working skills and methods of the interested persons as well.

In Poland, I had an opportunity to be a co-facilitator. I was not the first time for me, I did it before as well, but the time in Poland was quite different. First of all, it met a lot of project promoters. I was extremely nice to imagine their ideas and try to help to develop them. I  did not consider for how far away these people are able to go with these ideas, but I strongly believe that as soon as they are encouraged by these ideas, it has to live inside of them and to play in a different way each day... Needless to say, I met about a million of fascinating people there! ...

.. And I still feel that the internship gave me a lot.

 
You cannot recognize it from the beginning or even during it.

The fruits have to be ripening just after they well seen.

I guess that the strength of mine during the internship was that I had inside of me the principle of “you are responsible what happens in your life and great occasions came just when you are ready”. At the moment I able to say for about one million time that I was lucky to choose the internship and to be picked by it as well.

Vytas Neviera. Internship at International Organization for Migration (IOM) RO Vienna, Austria.

Vytas Neviera. International Organization for Migration (IOM), Vienna, Austria.

Firstly, I'd like to thank "Partners 4 Value Program" for the chance to live my dream and to learn things I could only dream about before. Secondly, I want to express my gratitude to the host organization for taking me in and giving the opportunity to learn and grow, both professionally and as an individual.

Haruki Murakami once wrote:

"Team sports aren't my thing. I find it easier to pick something up if I can do it at my own speed. And you don't need a partner to go running, you don't need a particular place, like in tennis, just a pair of trainers."

I cannot say that I have the same feelings for team sports as he does, as I love team sports, but I must agree about how important it is to have the right shoes for doing your thing at your own speed. And thanks to "Partners 4 Value Program" I got a chance to be a part of fun, interesting, smart, and highly-skilled team of professionals at International Organization for Migration Regional Office Vienna which offered me perfect running shoes for doing things on my own speed - I was doing an internship as an assistant to LHD (Labour Migration and Human Development) unit and was learning as much as I can and gaining many valuable experiences over the period of six months. 

About Organization

International Organization for Migrations is a non-profit intergovernmental organization was established in 1951. It is organization which is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society and assists migrants and promote adequate responses to migration issues, bearing in mind the well-being of migrants and the interests of States and their societies. Nowadays it has 149 Member states and 100 nations have an observer status, and it works in more than 470 field locations all over thw world.

I myself did my professional internship at IOM Regional Office Vienna, which is one of the eight IOM Regional Offices worldwide, was founded only in 2011. This office is tasked with formulating regional strategies and plans of action, as well as providing programmatic and administrative support to the 20 countries within the region of South-Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The Regional Office employs technical experts in four fields of migration management: Migration and Development, Facilitating Migration, Regulating Migration and Forced Migration. The Regional Office staff also deals with various cross cutting issues and puts this technical knowledge at the disposal of the country offices in support of their local activities and thereby also to the governments of the countries in the region.

Daily work

Of course, the most important part of the internship was working and learning. Gladly, I can state that the work I was doing was interesting and challenging most of the time. And it was never boring as tasks replaced one another, and sometimes even piled up as one task was of higher priority than the other, which meant that the work was dynamic. It required all my attention and efforts, creativity and knowledge. Also, it required me to be aware of the possible challenges, which were outlined and helped to be overcome by my great supervisors and colleagues, who shared their knowledge with me more than willingly and always encouraged to ask. As one of them once put it - ask and you shall be answered. :) 

The work I was doing comprised many different tasks - from gathering information and then writing analysis on projects related to youth unemployment, employability, migration, its management and importance to local labor market, raising awareness about human trafficking which were carried out by IOM in the region, and to creating first drafts of cross border cooperation projects on economic development with focus on and importance of tourism sector and human resource management and accumulation and analysis of the information, its preparation for the use in the application for the project. Or writing analysis and paper on remittances and its influence on economies and households of the recipients of the remittances, or processing and analysing statistical data of various trainings carried out by IOM offices in 2011 in the region. And even preparing a newsletter on showcase LHD projects which were carried out by the organization in the year 2012! Great variety of tasks helped me to learn me so much that I hadn't even dreamt about before.

Challenge

The greatest challenge that I faced during the period of my internship was a proper time management. Due to the intensity and dynamics of the work, I had to know how to distribute my time properly. At the beginning it was rather difficult, however, in time I'd learned it and was doing pretty great with it. Nevertheless, there's always room for improvement! Another challenge was the lack of particular knowledge of the field that I've dealing with. But it was solved pretty quickly, once I immersed myself into the work and was trying to absorb the new things to me from the fast everyday flow of information.

Country & City

Austria and Vienna are definitely great places to be and to live! 

At the beginning I was a little afraid that without knowing German, I will suffer from being lost in translation. However, it did not happen. Actually, it was other way around. I started picking up German rather quickly and only because of my intensive work and studies at the same time at home university, I haven't learned German to the extent that I could properly converse. And actually, if you go to Vienna or Austria and don't know German, you shouldn't be afraid - everyone there speak English and are very polite, helpful and understanding. Of course, I should say big thanks to all of my flatmates and their friends who helped me a lot to get around and understand many things, that wouldn't have been so clear otherwise!

Anyways, Austrians and Viennese people are polite and very helpful, they will always help once you'll overcome your own fear of asking for help. 

About the beauty of the country and the city I shouldn't even talk as they're famous the world all over for that. However, I think must mention it too as they definitely deserve that! I haven't gotten much chance to travel around the country, but  those few places I have seen are impeccable - beautiful nature and romantic villages in the mountains, and architectural marvels in the capital city are breathtaking and fascinate all visitors. Vienna itself is a Great city. And I mean it and that's why I wrote "great" with the capital "G". It is not too expensive to live if you have a normal life. Of course, if you like eating out very, it might be costly, but if you cook at home, then it's not such a big deal. Rent is very affordable and if you have the luxury of time to look for a room/apartment, you can get a very good offer for a great price. The transport system there is perfect - it is always on time (seriously, always). The monthly ticket is rather cheap when you think that you get to use four types of transport (metro, trams, buses and local trains) with the same ticket for almost the same price as monthly bus ticket without discount costs in Vilnius. Furthermore, if you like cycling, it's perfect as bicycle road network is very developed and you can get to almost any place in the city. Moreover, the city of Vienna is green. Many parks within the city offer you a refuge from the busy city life. And last, but not least, the city is full of arts - dozens or hundreds of museums and galleries cater to the taste of everyone. If you don't like modern or medieval art, but you're into languages or trams, then you can go to the museums designed to satisfy your particular interests. 

I am definitely happy that I got a chance to live and work there for a while. And I think I should disclose the fact that I fell in love with the city of Vienna already during my time there. I guess it was a perfect match of an interesting work and beautiful place that made me fall in love with the city.

And I can only be thankful to the "Partners 4 Value Program" for giving me the chance to learn, to live and to love. And do all of it at the same time.

I knew what I wanted from the internship. It completely met all my expectations and even surpassed them in some aspects. And the collaboration of the "Partners 4 Value Program" and the IOM let me get what I wanted, what I worked for before and helped me to make further steps towards the dream that I've been striving for. 

Ieva Pratašiūtė. Global Initiative on Psychiatry (GIP), Sofia- Bulgaria

,,You're simply the best, better than all the rest 
  Better than anyone, anyone I've ever met “

         These lyrics come to my mind when I think about the Partners 4 Value Program. I am very grateful to this program for an opportunity to explore the field of clinical psychology in Bulgaria.

Organization

 Last summer I did an internship at Global Initiative on Psychiatry (GIP) in the capital of Bulgaria. GIP - Lithuania, being a part of the GIP, inspired me to perform my internship abroad.

Global Initiative on Psychiatry (GIP) is an international non-profit organisation for the promotion of humane, ethical and effective mental health care worldwide. The Federation Global Initiative on Psychiatry has members in Bulgaria, George, The Nederland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Lithuania as well.

          GIP-Sofia, being a part of the GIP federation, on one hand, tries to improve the life quality of people, afflicted by severe mental illnesses. On the other hand, it tries to decrease the usual risks, related to mental illnesses, such as institutionalisation, isolation, segregation, stigmatisation, marginalisation, profound disability and worsened social functioning.  

GIP has been awarded two prestigious prizes for its efforts: The Human Rights Award from the American Psychiatric Association and the 2000 Geneva Prize for Human Rights in Psychiatry. For more information, visit: http://www.gip-global.org/

A short glimpse of my daily work

During the first part of my internship I worked in the Complex for community- based mental health services (day care centre and sheltered home for persons with severe mental illnesses). In the beginning of my internship the psychologists and social workers helped me to get more familiar with the place, working conditions, tried to expand my knowledge of mental disorders. Soon I started to communicate with the clients of day care centre and people from sheltered home, who could speak English. I participated in various activities they had, such as: art therapy, photography, learning English, cooking clubs or knitting, dance lessons and so on.  They even had a lesson, where people with mental disorders are introduced with the medicine they have to consume. It was really interesting to observe the behaviour and thinking of people with mental disorders and get direct comments from experts of mental health team. If you are active and enthusiastic you can ask your colleagues to let you organise some activities, for instance: to make traditional Lithuanian food during cooking club classes or something unique in other workshops.  

During the second part of my internship I worked in the Informational Centre for Mental Health of GIP- Sofia, based in the next city of Bulgaria (Blagoevgrad). I worked with volunteers in developing HIV/ AIDS and Tuberculosis prevention campaigns. I learned how to design and organise antistigma campaigns.

I also worked in the central administrative office of the organisation as an assistant of the Project manager. I had been involved in developing and reporting projects in the area of mental health and development education, public awareness campaigns.

Challenge

It would be great if I could speak Russian or Bulgarian, because not all patients of day care centre or sheltered home could speak English. That made some difficulties for professional aspect as communication with them was limited. My colleagues spent as much time as possible with translation issues, but certainly I missed some valuable information anyway. Psychiatry is the sphere where you have to put active listening with empathy. So language barrier is an obvious obstacle.  

Bulgaria: living and prices

Bulgaria is a beautiful country, filled to the brim with culture and history. The country is distinguished for its beautiful nature which has charmed everyone, who has ever visited the country. Its territory is not that extensive at all, but being concentrated on such tiny space, natural landmarks are even more fascinating.

 I had a great opportunity to travel all across the country due to my kind co-workers, who invited me to visit their home towns. I really appreciate everything they did for me. I fell in love with the country: its traditions, cuisine and smiling faces.

From financial perspective Bulgaria is a great place because of low living expenses. The prices are more or less the same as in Lithuania. 

Talking about accommodation, my co-workers helped me a lot to get a living place (dormitory). They even took me directly from Sofia airport and made me an introduction evening, where I got all the basic survival information. I didn’t expect such an effortless adaptation process.

Partners 4 value or Erasmus program?

While Partners 4 Value and Erasmus Programs are similar in many ways, there are also some differences of which you should be aware. Firstly, Partners 4 Value Program suggests a reliable and diverse platform, while searching for a perspective internship place in Erasmus program could be frustrating. 

Summary

“Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can, there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.” ( Sarah Caldwell).

The internship met all my expectations, because I knew what I was looking for as well as I figured out a lot about organization’s profile and its activities. It was an excellent way to get an inside glimpse of a GIP organization. Each member of GIP helped me grow both professionally and personally by sharing new perspectives, knowledge and friendship.

,,Per aspera ad astra”,

Contact infomation:

pratasiute.ieva@gmail.com