Personal Experience Opens the Doors Unexplored
During the last six weeks working with Women for Women International (WfWI), I had the opportunity to contribute to my site through completing a few projects.
One particular project that I was heavily involved was the 2019 Women Deliver Conference held in Canada. This conference happens every three years, and over ten thousand people attend. The WfWI external events team and the CEO was invited to speak at the event about the work they do. As part of preparing for this event, I created one-pager biography on the speakers, created flyers which contained the information on the time and date of the event and helped proofread a file that was going to be used for the press release. Through the process of creating these one-pagers, I was able to use new programs such as Canva in which I used new graphic design tools I had not been familiar with. I don’t think I had enjoyed creating flyers as much as I have been at my site. While I had used Canva before, I did not have access to a lot of the tools that are available for subscribed users. I also helped to create and print a banner that was going to be used at the conference where the guests could write down notes on the topic of sexual violence. I did have to make a few trips to FedEx to print over 500 flyers and print a huge banner, but I didn’t mind. Someone had to get all the materials together for the event.
Another project that I took part in was creating concepts notes, which is basically a proposal that contains details about an upcoming event. I was able to sit in a couple of meetings with people and organizations who are interested in partnering with WfWI. Some of these partners included Eileen Fisher, a women’s clothing brand, and the Deutsche Bank, a German multinational investment bank. During the meetings, I took notes on the type of event they are interested in, the location, the time, and how many people they want to invite. After the meeting, I helped with brainstorming ideas that can meet the interest of both WfWI and interested partners. Some of these ideas included having a cocktail art gala during the evening in which a well-known artist or photographer would display their work and auction a few of their pieces. Another idea was to have a fashion show in which traditional clothes from the nine countries that WfWI serves would be displayed and available for purchase. Upon sharing my thoughts with the team, we created a bigger file that contained all the concept notes and ideas for the events. This is still an ongoing project that is aimed to increase the budget for the work WfWI does.
Other projects that I have worked on has been conducting research on potential speakers that are interested in partnering with WfWI. Some of these speakers are high profile government officials, and some are well-known actresses/actors. When conducting research, I learned new information about those speakers online and was able to contribute to the assignment using my background knowledge on the war in Afghanistan. I brought into light the involvement of some these officials in their advocacy for war abroad, which could lead to potential problems for the organization if they were to host them. My classes in political science, my personal experience of war, and being aware of the political news abroad helped me to share a perspective that may not have been explored by the team. I keep a close eye on what is going on in the Middle East because of my concern for the safety of my mom, my sister, and her family. But at my site, I was able to share that knowledge and perhaps limit potential issues that could arise with hosting specific individuals that could contradict the mission of the organization which is to help women in conflict zones.
In summary, I know I have learned a lot and could keep writing, but one of the most critical areas that I got exposure to understanding the inner workings of an international non-profit; precisely how they partner with other organizations. This will help me in the future when I start my own organization.