An Ending and a Beginning
As I enter into my final weeks at Winrock, I can't help but feel like the summer is racing by. It seems like it was only yesterday that I was sitting in my orientation, excited and nervous about what the future might hold.
Winrock's Cambodia Countering Trafficking-In-Persons Program (CTIP) is coming to an end later this year, which means that there has been a flurry of activity around closing that project down. I have been asked to help prepare a final report for the project. Essentially, another intern and I have gone through the annual reports to determine CTIP's greatest achievements so that the final report can adequately demonstrate how successful the project was. This has required a lot of work but I appreciate the chance to read through these reports closely to really get the full picture of what the CTIP Program, which I have been working on for months now, has been able to accomplish in five short years. It makes me immensely proud to have worked on a project that has bettered the lives of thousands of Cambodian trafficking survivors and potential victims.
It has been eye opening to see just how much labor goes into closing out a major project like this. I never imagined it was as simple as just packing up and leaving but I could not have predicted how intricate and complex the close out process is. For example, in any close out, you must ensure that your employees based in the field are able to continue working up until the end of the project. Which is understandably a difficult task considering the fact that most workers who know that their job is ending will look elsewhere for work. Oftentimes resulting in them quitting their current job during an already time constrained close out process.
Aside from the work on the CTIP close out, I have also started working on another project, the details of which are mostly confidential. As such, I can only describe the project in vague details--so please bear with me. This project has required me to conduct in depth research on a country in Central Asia. In particular, I have focused on the country’s political and security situations and socioeconomic demography. Through this project I have also been asked to help conduct interviews with potential employees. These interviews have taught me a lot about the country in question and the insurgent groups operating therein. I look forward to seeing where this project will go, and I am hopeful that I will be able to provide more concrete details in my next blog post!
While there are only a few weeks left in my internship, I am excited to keep working on and learning more about countering trafficking in persons.