Name of Student : Maha Naber

Thanks to LoYAC, I had the privilege of working with the International Fund for Agricultural Development for a month over this summer as an intern. It truly was a once in a lifetime experience that I have benefited from on professional, educational, personal, social and cultural levels.
During the short period of time I spent as a part of IFAD’s team, I worked mainly in EAD (External Affairs Department), under the supervision of Mr. Fawzi Rihane (Office of the Secretary), and Mr. Tayseer Al-Ghanem (Communications Division). My tasks included: undertaking desk research concerning IFAD’s 8th replenishment and donor countries, and assisting in regional communications and media related activities mainly concerning IFAD’s preparations for the upcoming conference about Food security in the Arab World that will be held in Doha.
Also, I had the chance to attend various seminars, lectures and trainings. As well, I got to watch the movie “The Age of Stupid” which tackles the subject of climate change. It showed me how our unaware lifestyle today is affecting our Earth and environment, how can we make fruitful actions towards stopping the changes that are already taking place and how urgent this matter is.
In addition, since IFAD is an international organization and a UN agency, I had the chance to get a glimpse of how things are done there, and how different nationalities of different traditions and backgrounds can all work together with the same aspirations for the good of the world.
All of this led to teaching me how to be more professional, how to manage my time properly and how to deal with different people and mentalities. Also, on a personal level, having to live on my own and in a foreign country certainly taught me how to manage myself independently and take on responsibilities. Furthermore, living in Rome gave me the ability to get to know Italian culture and civilization though after adapting to the Italian flavor of life, it was already time to head back home.
Finally, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Arab Fund for supporting our accommodation in Italy and King Abdullah Fund for Development for granting me with the ticket flight and last not least to LoYAC and everyone involved in their international internships program, for providing Jordanian youth with such unique opportunities, and I hope I can give back to them a fraction of what I have gained during this internship.