#interaiduganda

In one of my previous posts I wrote shortly why I went to Uganda for another small internship. Here I just want to explain a little more about this.

Already before I went to Uganda I had a research question for my BA thesis, which of course was very open for changes. I knew that it probably would change when getting more information about the topic and meeting people involved in the issue. 

During my stay in Inter Aid I have made some small changes and specified my research question a bit. I want to look at how migration affects the livelihood and food security situation of young (18-35 years old) low SES refugees in Kampala. My research question is a bit inspired of the one of the Metropol research in Uganda and combined with my interest in migration.

I decided to do observational data collection. Through Inter Aid I made many observations from different levels in the organisation. I have been taking part in meetings, administrative work, counselling, trainings, activities, community visits etc. Most important of all then I have been interacting with many young refugees. Many of them coming from Congo, Rwanda, Somalia or South Sudan. On top of all my observations I have been able to do a few semi-structured interviews with some of the youths and the Executive Director of Inter Aid.

My hypothesis was that the livelihood of the refugees is highly affected because of the vulnerable situation they are in. Influenced by their terrifying experiences in their life, loosing family members and friends, running away from war and conflicts, not feeling safe, feeling discriminated and so forth. Furthermore that this would be interlinked with food insecurity.

The last photo of me in the dress made of some of the women doing tailoring in the community centre.

One month ago I left Copenhagen to go to Kampala in Uganda. As I have been working on the issue on low-income women in Kampala throughout my internship, I decided together with my supervisor to write about another issue in Uganda. In spite of my great interest in the migration issues and my plan of taking masters afterwards in migration or refugee studies, I decided to write my BA thesis about migration and health.

With the help of CHAIN, which is one of the contact partners in the research I have been helping in to, I managed to get a 3-week internship at the livelihood desk in Inter Aid Uganda. Inter Aid Uganda is a governmental organisation supported by UNHCR, which council and help refugees coming to Uganda.

This opportunity gave me the chance to get to talk to many refugees, attend workshops and trainings, weekly meetings in the organisation, community visits, counselling and much more. The stories I have heard from the refugees about their life are horrible and terrifying but have helped me to understand many aspects. I been with the roots of the issues we are talking about in Europe now - how to deal with the refugees coming up from Africa. I have talked to the people who were thinking of taking this dangerous trip up to Europe in the hope of finding a safer life. I have just gotten home a few days ago but I still have to rest as everything has been a great adventure but also many touching and moving stories that I have to digest.

The kind of work Inter Aid is doing is what I could see myself working with in the future. I want to work with migration issues, and how to improve the situation of the refugees and migrants around the world.

Uganda is a really good country to do an internship because of more reasons:

1. The language, almost everyone speak English

2. They are used to having interns and they can see the benefits of them so you are appreciated and get work to do