1st Blog Post - The Pearl Of Africa
On Thursday the 2nd of February, Nanna and I arrived in Uganda, The Pearl of Africa, starting a new and exciting adventure in the capital city of Kampala. Kampala is an enormous and fascinating city, that is constantly bustling and full of life day as well as night. There are barely any limitations as to what you can do in the city and I doubt that two and a half months will be enough to explore it, but we will do our very best. The friendliness of the population is heart-warming and we have been welcomed with open arms by co-workers, neighbours and pass-byers on the streets. The help we received from our internship host supervisor David and the previous intern Tina, in regards to housing, transport and activities, have been invaluable to us and we found it extremely easy to settle in and finding our way around, the hardest thing so far has probably been to show them how grateful we are for all their help.
During my 10-weeks in Kampala, I will be interning with the East Africa Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance (EANCDA), an umbrella coalition, uniting the National Alliances of East Africa. The EANCDA works towards strengthening and building capacities in order to combat and advocate for the prevention of non-communicable diseases in East Africa (Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania and Zanzibar (island in Tanzania). During the internship, I will work with the start up of a project promoting nutrition awareness in campaigns, schools and through the promotion of indigenous foods with high nutritional value and developing recipes from the available local food commodities, and not the least health advocacy.
My learning objectives for the internship consists of the following:
Learning objective 1: Getting familiar with the practical workings of a cross-country non-governmental organisation and the collaborations in place with other organisations, such as Heart and Diabetes Associations, Cancer Societies and other civil society organisations.
Learning objective 2: Gain skills within promoting healthy consumption patterns with available indigenous food commodities and with respect for local food culture.
Learning objective 3: Improving communication and advocacy skills.
I am certain that my learning outcomes from interning at EANCDA will not be limited to these objectives and I am excited to experience what this opportunity will bring me personally and professionally.
