Report

Through the Coca-cola World Citizenship Program at the University of Florida I had the opportunity to intern with Save the Children and their Food Security Program in Uganda.

I learned about a lot of things and I hope that I also contributed to the team in Uganda. Some of the things I learned are how to run targeted food distribution in areas of famine, how to organize a food for work program and how to select beneficiaries in remote rural areas. I also got the opportunity to manage a monitoring and evaluation exercise in the form of a crop inventory to help Save the Children’s field office staff run their programs more efficiently.

Most of my time was spent in Nakasongola, a rural district in central Uganda where the field office is located. The field office employees were so friendly and always happy to help me out if I needed assistance, and they were always keen to learn what I knew. There were times when I was in the office at 10pm planning for food for work or the crop inventory data collection and we would work together to form our plans.

There were times when we would break off early at about 3pm to go to Kampala, the capital city, for the weekend.  Everyone would be so excited to be going to Kampala, but somehow every time we left Nakasongola you felt like a part of you wanted to stay. One time I went to a Ugandan wedding ceremony with all the traditional dancers and apparel. It was amazing! Then on another weekend, I visited the Nile River. The experience was mind blowing and every weekend had its own special activity. The colleagues and friends that I got to hang out with made the experience a total blast; so much so, that I miss being with them in Uganda.

On the whole, the internship was very valuable to me and helped me learn the practical side of food security programs and how such programs work in the context of a developing country. In addition, it exposed me to the Ugandan culture, traditions, language and foods. It was definitely a summer I’ll remember for a lifetime.

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