How Everything Started

I wouldn't have had this opportunity with Oxfam GB if Ray Pownall, Manager at an Oxfam bookshop in Bristol (where I worked as a volunteer while studying my Masters) had not given me the email address of Prosper from Ghana who visited the shop and works for Oxfam. Of course, I had never thought of Ghana as a potential destination (I even wonder if I knew that it existed!).

I sent Prosper an email where I asked for advice to obtain a job or an internship as well as preferably an experience in a Subsaharan country. That was not long after my return from Bristol in September 2005.

On the same day, Prosper replied and asked me to send him my CV that he could pass on to Oxfam's partners. He also wanted to know whether I wanted a paid internship or not.

No wonder that my response ("I am not looking for a paid internship in particular but hope that my accommodation and food would be provided") played a key role in Prosper's feedback: "I wish to indicate to you that Oxfam GB Country Programme in Ghana has expressed the interest in engaging you as an intern". However, there was still quite a long way to go as Prosper also indicated that this was subject to the availability of funds and my own expectations.

I had to wait for a definitive answer from them. Nevertheless, on my side, I started looking for funds such as grants. Above all, I carried out temporary jobs when I realised that I couldn't expect any financial aid by any means in Belgium!