By: Jariya Kullabut National University of Laos, Faculty of Law and Political Science Clinical Legal Education Intern from Khon Kaen University
Almost one month ago, I had the opportunity to complete an internship at Village Focus International (VFI). VFI is a Vientiane-based non-profit focused on eradicating poverty, including empowering local communities with land rights. I had to go to VFI because I used their resources to find important information for my research project. My project is about problem with concession of land. I have also participated as a volunteer at VFI. I worked at VFI every week from Monday to Wednesday. On Mondays and Tuesdays, I found Information for my project. On Wednesdays, I entered information into a database about legal books and general books. When I came to work at VFI, I saw the way many systems work in the organization. It is very remarkable because all the officers and volunteers are very active. Each one has a lot of work and is quite busy. The office does a lot of work, but with few workers. Everyone here works brilliantly and very hard. They always have meetings to consult each other. When problems occur, there are meetings to find a solution together. Work here is quite stressful because we have to contact senior employees. This office is divided proportionally and is orderly. Their officers took very good care of me. He taught me how to work well and he would always ask me what he can do to help. If I had a problem, he was always ready to help me. An internship at VFI is sometimes stressful, because at times some problems arose. They made me confused and sometimes I did not understand, while having to rush to finish within the time limit. However, I was happy to work because the officers were hospitable and genial towards me. It is the best opportunity I have ever received because it’s important that I should get these professional experiences before I graduate. I have seen what working life is like, including teamwork, brainstorming, and adapting myself to work with others in society. This internship has allowed me to learned many more skills and will be make me graduate with new abilities.