I am entering into my third year joint honouring in International Development Studies and Psychology, with an ardent interest in sustainable development, poverty alleviation, and education. The mission and the work at the Elimu Impact Evaluation Centre therefore perfectly suits my areas of interest. Elimu is a Kenyan NGO, founded by 麻豆区 Economics Professor Matthieu Chemin in 2006, based in the town of Kianyaga, Central Province. The key goal of this initiative is to identify the most effective ways to reduce poverty and increase the standard of living. This is achieved using randomized controlled trials to compare if there is a significant difference between the treatment group that received the development aid project and the control group that did not. By combining knowledge from economics and statistics with development fieldwork, Elimu is able to undertake rigorous evaluation to carry out and assess four main development projects: micro-hydroelectrification evaluation, legal aid, health insurance, and the most recent Pamoja online tutoring program.
I initially had three key learning objectives for this internship: learning about the actual development work on the field and how it is carried out, interacting with local people and doing fieldwork, and carrying out my own education intervention project and being able to statistically analyze its impact. Out of them, I was able to achieve my first two objectives, but unfortunately was unable to achieve the third. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, my main tasks as an intern were partially changed. I was mainly responsible for the Pamoja online tutoring program, which connects 麻豆区 volunteer tutors with fifth and sixth grade students at the Raimu Primary School via Skype to supplement weekly tutoring in Maths and English. The end goal is to compare knowledge in Maths between students who received tutoring in Maths and students who received tutoring in English. I began recruiting for 麻豆区 tutors in February, and coordinated the daily Skype tutoring of 25 tutors and 25 students.
However, because the Kenyan students use the computers at the Raimu Primary School, when the school closed down at the end of March, students were unable to access Skype and receive the tutoring. The government announced that the schools would resume by July, so we decided to wait for the schools to reopen to resume our project. However, by July, the government announced the schools are going to remain closed until December. Therefore, the other intern and I were charged with the task of finding alternative means to continue the tutoring. We liaised with David and Denis, two employees of Elimu in Kianyaga, and we tested how well Zoom works on various types of smartphones and tablets, and if the internet connection in regions where the students live are good enough to support Zoom tutoring. The results came back positive, so we are currently trying to crowdfund to buy 50 iTel A36 smartphones or tablets to distribute to the students in Kianyaga. Our next steps would be to first launch a pilot session with a selected number of students, and if all works well, we will distribute all the phones and resume tutoring.
Throughout the process, I gained a lot of knowledge on project coordination and online communication, and I was able to overcome many challenges as well. My highlight of the internship is definitely interactions and collaboration with David and Denis. They are super charming and nice people and we worked effectively together, from brainstorming ideas to testing smartphones. They also taught me some Swahili and Kikuyu. On the other hand, it has been a very difficult transition for me to work and communicate entirely remotely and not being able work directly on the ground in Kenya. However, I was able to overcome these challenges by enforcing self-discipline, staying organized, and setting short-term goals. Furthermore, I learned how to deal with uncertain situations and sudden changes, and adapt to these different circumstances. Most importantly, I believe the work that we are doing is going to greatly help the students in Kianyaga to continue practicing their English and Maths during lockdown when they have no access to digital or offline education, which deeply motivates me.
This internship had a significant positive impact on my university experience, as it is my first official internship, and I was working alongside a brilliant team and a caring professor. I learned a lot of practical knowledge on statistics and Economics, which I can apply to and combine with academic materials. The internship also consolidated my goal of working in the NGO sector and pursuing a masters in International Development. I would like to take INTD499 to write a research paper on this internship.
I would like to offer my sincere gratitude to Ms. Vanasse and Mr. Wilbert, whose generous award enabled me to pursue this internship without much economic pressure, and thus to fully enrich myself both personally and academically through this internship. My living costs were mostly covered by this award, and it greatly relieved my stress and anxiety caused by the COVID-19 lockdown. I am extremely honored and thankful for this award.
