Wanying

As a graduate student from London, I started my two-months internship with Sovereign House Gh in December 2019. The reason why I choose here as the first place of work after school, even just for a short experience, is because of my original passion to work in a charity set up. I do have some experiences of being a volunteer with some charities in Africa before, but not as structured as Sovereign House Gh. I had a good experience here, and hope that what I did gave some support to Sovereign House Gh, even if it might be insignificant, and wish the charity, the best for the future.

The range of works I did include preparing the cash book, checking all transactions between 2018 – 2019, preparing the financial statement, as well as the financial report with Mouna. Mouna had given me so much valuable advice on accounting, in a professional setting. Working in the financial department is a re-learning process for me, which helped to inform me to transfer the knowledge from University to the real world. I learned to be patient and concentrate on what I am doing, as very important, wherever you are. I also joined the charity donation event by selling cupcakes in school, to raise funds, which gave me a totally different experience that I have never had before and I feel such pleasure to be able to join that event.

In order to generate funds, I did some research online to find some organisations and/or foundations that could provide funds to match Sovereign House Ghana’s goals. By checking the criteria of each organisation, I prepared three report drafts towards the application for grants. I know more about the back-office work of Sovereign House Gh after this work experience and understand more about the hard work of keeping the charity going and some routines, which is meaningful to me.

In addition to all the works mentioned above, what makes me most impressive is the experience of having dinner with our director, Irene. She is so kind, not only taking care of all the staff working in Sovereign House Gh, but also gave me advice and suggestions, and the best advice pertaining to my life which I like is: “Do what you want to do, never stop and be who you want to be”. I will always remember this!

Thank you Irene, and all other staff of Sovereign House Gh. I wish you all the best.