My name is Ben Archacki, and I am a recipient of the Chris Tyler Marckmann International Social Work Summer Internship Award. I would like to thank you for your generosity and support of McGill’s International Experience Awards program. With the support of this award, I was able to complete an internship with the Indigenous Livelihoods Enhancement Partners (ILEPA), a non-profit, community-based organization in Narok County, Kenya focused on human rights, Indigenous livelihood support, environmental causes, and social justice.
During my virtual internship with ILEPA, I worked on several projects. My fellow intern Aylin and I completed two collaborative projects together and I also completed an individual project. Our first collaborative project entailed creating a policy brief regarding the issues with reproductive health and teen pregnancies in Narok County based on ILEPA’s internal survey data and supplemental research we conducted. Our second collaborative project contributed to ILEPA’s ongoing fight for local land rights. We analyzed multiple data sets provided by ILEPA detailing the registration status of hundreds of community land sites across various Kenyan counties, culminating in the creation of graphics and a presentation summarizing our findings.
In addition to these collaborative projects, I spent a great deal of time working on my own individual project which concerned ILEPA’s ongoing livelihoods support program. I focused on one such program, ILEPA’s beekeeping program which has helped twenty-two women improve their living standards by giving them jobs as beekeepers. Through my meetings with women involved with the program, I conducted a thorough analysis of the business, authored a report analyzing the strengths, shortcomings, and opportunities for growth, and I researched related questions concerning women’s economic empowerment in the developing world. Perhaps the biggest highlight of my internship experience was during my final meeting with my ILEPA supervisors when they told me about how some of my recommendations for the beekeeping program were likely going to be implemented soon. It was a very rewarding moment for me to see how the research and analysis I had done was going to contribute in some small way to improving the lives of the women I was working with.
This internship has helped shape my future career and educational path. I am currently entering my final year of my undergraduate work at McGill University, where I study Economics and Political Science. One of my favorite parts about this internship was being able to apply some of the concepts I have learned in both my Economics and Political Science classes to real-life situations. I have always been interested in working for an NGO or some sort of related organization involved in international development. This internship gave me the opportunity to see firsthand the sort of work involved in these organizations. Though I am still not entirely set of the path I will eventually take, this internship experience provided valuable experience, as I try to discern what career path I should take.
Without the funding from this award, I would have had to choose between doing this internship and working full-time this summer to cover my tuition and living expenses. Therefore, I am extremely grateful for this award, as it allowed me to do an internship, I am passionate about.
Thank you to the McGill International Experience Awards founders, and Mr. Mooney and Ms. Marckmann for making this experience possible!
