“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time at HAD, I feel valued, supported and sufficiently challenged; given important work which will contribute to HAD and my own personal development. The tasks I have been given are well-suited to the internship, and have allowed me to express creativity and own programmes interests whilst learning about HAD and Islamic Relief.”

During my BA in Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick I developed an interest in gender and international development, particularly after taking courses in conflict, development and post-colonialism during my year abroad at Uppsala University in Sweden. After working on a programmes study on the gendered impacts of conflict on Palestinian youth in Nablus, I decided to pursue gender studies further. This led me to do an MSc in Women, Peace and Security at the London School of Economics, which I completed in the summer of 2018.

After graduating I quickly decided that I wanted to join the charity sector, to contribute to work on social justice and equality, in the UK and globally. To help me gain experience in the sector I became a Trustee for a youth charity in my local area, enrolled on a 10-month course on the charity sector, and also volunteered as an Education and Events Volunteer at Remembering Srebrenica in Birmingham. Seeing the internship vacancies at HAD, I eagerly applied, as I was excited by the quality of the placements, the potential for personal development, and the work Islamic Relief (IR) and HAD do in the development and humanitarian sector.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at HAD so far as a Research and Development (R&D) Intern. I feel valued, supported and sufficiently challenged. I feel that I am doing important work which contributes to HAD’s work and my own personal development. The tasks I have been given are well-suited to the first weeks of an internship, as they have allowed me to express creativity and my own programmes interests whilst learning about HAD and Islamic Relief.

I am particularly excited to have helped organise a workshop with HAD on ‘PVE, Development and Gender’ at the Conflict Research Society Annual Conference. I am also looking forward to working on programmes projects on gender and intersectionality, as well as reviewing the HAD’s Research Fellows programme.

I strongly believe that the internship will help me to start a career in this sector, as it exposes me to projects, work and debates within the humanitarian and development sectors, and the day-to-day operations of a humanitarian programmes academy. I am also developing skills in writing copy-tailored to the audience of an international charity – a new skill after spending five years my writing for academic audiences. Also, I expect the internship to improve my confidence and public speaking, as my role as an R&D intern has allowed me to interact with staff and interns across HAD and IR.