Angela Peters
Intern Student, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Served MAKNA from 29 May to 1 August, 2008
Last summer I worked as an intern for MAKNA. I had finished my studies in the Netherlands and wanted to do some useful work abroad. I never expected to find myself in such a wonderful organisation.
Of course I did some research about MAKNA’s work before getting on that plane and leaving my friends and family behind. But it was only at arrival when I actually realised in how many things MAKNA is involved. Not only did I witness the extensive fundraising and awareness programmes, but also got introduced to valuable research results, treatments and a broad range of services. Moreover, I expected the headquarters to be much bigger than it actually was, with all these activities happening.... Apparantly, a lot of things can be achieved with just hard work and many dedicated volunteers.
Two other things I thought were very outstanding about MAKNA when I just started my internship. One is that MAKNA is a very progressive and open-minded organisation. There is no clear hierarchy and even the input of an intern is happily appreciated at the highest level. Second, everybody working at MAKNA is very, very involved and passionate about their job.
This second observation comes from an obvious and painful reason. The incidence of cancer is still on the rise. Every day new people get diagnosed with this terrible disease. And every day hundreds of people die of it. More awareness and more effort is just very much necessary. Still not everybody is aware about how to prevent cancer or what to do when faced with it. I also observed that, most people in Malaysia do not have health insurance. So when someone is diagnosed with cancer, not only an emotional but also a huge financial burden is put upon on a whole family. I realised that the people at MAKNA are very involved and passionate about their job only because they know so many families would be lost without MAKNA.
My main activities were at the MAKNA headquarters. Like every other employee I had a broad range of different tasks. Most of the time, I worked on new texts for the website or future material to be sent to our donors. But my input was asked on many things: a new promotion cart, a television commercial, a next fundraising activity, the annual report, plans for a future hospital, a digital newsletter, an international division, merchandising, branding, new companies to cooperate with, and so on.
Besides the activities at the headquarters, MAKNA forces her employees to go into the field. Meet cancer patients to see how they are living. The idea is that if you actually see how people are suffering, you are able to truely understand what you are working for. And so I was touched and motivated to do my job better by meeting a woman who had survived three different types of cancer and was still fighting. And I was touched by the mother who besides breast cancer was also suffering from diabetes and hypertension. And by the woman who did not dare to tell her family about her frightful condition. Maybe I was touched even the most by the cheerful 11-year old girl who was diagnosed with leukaemia. But as it turned out I was touched by all the patients I met, because every one of them had their unique story to tell.
My stay at MAKNA will stay close to me for a long time and I am very thankful I had the opportunity to work for this exciting organisation. I would like to thank my mentors Vemanna and Farahida. I think they are extraordinary managers and know exactly what it is that MAKNA needs. Besides, I would like to thank everybody else at MAKNA. I met some wonderful and inspiring people; I hope you can go on doing the valuable work you do for a long time and when the time comes, motivate other people to go on.
Truly,
Angela Peters
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
