Ana’s journey from Portugal to 3FF via Bolivia

My name is Ana and I am a 3FF intern alumna. I first came across 3FF in 2014 whilst looking for new opportunities to apply the skills I had gained whilst volunteering in South America earlier in the same year. I volunteered in Bolivia with local community organisations on the outskirts of La Paz. Whilst in Bolivia I worked with and developed young people and children, helped them with their homework, developed my Spanish language skills, and planned and facilitated workshop activities on dental hygiene.

My internship with 3FF began in October 2014; whilst there I worked in the communications team. I chose communications because social media played a vital role in the fundraising efforts for my volunteering trip to Bolivia. I raised £800 for the trip through social media and realised how important skilful communication and proper usage of social media platforms were to fundraising efforts and charitable work. The 3FF internship provided an opportunity to hone and further develop these skills, and was therefore a perfect choice. Whilst working in the communications team I covered the Female Voices event at Rumi’s Cave; this opportunity enabled me to experience 3FF’s ethos in action and provided an opportunity for me to see many of 3FF’s supporters collaborating – please see my blog post here.  My internship also provided me the opportunity to create graphic visuals for 3FF’s social media accounts and was one of the most developmental tasks I undertook – I enjoyed playing around with designs and images; making sure that they stayed true to 3FF’s message.

At present I continue working with 3FF! I joined the team in August 2016 as the programmes assistant for the schools team. I loved my experience at 3FF so much that by the end of the internship I was determined to come back, but only once I had found the right opportunity. As the programmes assistant I coordinate schools workshop bookings, coordinate volunteer speaker bookings and assist the team with various tasks that support the effective delivery of the programme.

In the time between my 3FF internship and my current role I worked with a civil servant training company in Westminster. It was such a great experience being able to work in the heart of politics; ‘rubbing shoulders’ with the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and Yvette Cooper. Whilst at this company I was able to put my Politics & International Relations BA into practice by practically engaging with the British political system in order to fulfil my professional duties. This transformational experience confirmed my desire to pursue a Masters degree in Public Policy and Management. At present I am about to begin my second year of MSc in Public Policy & Management at Birkbeck College; a studying experience that I am thoroughly enjoying.

In addition to my 3FF role and MSc I have founded a project that focuses on the Portuguese community in London: Little Portugal Project . This project tells the inspiring stories of Portuguese-speaking migrants in London and has been an inspirational project to lead. I have met so many amazing people and having the opportunity to share their stories gives me strength and motivates me to continue pursuing my creative and leadership development. I am currently looking for a filmmaker to join the project, so if you’d like to join this amazing project, feel free to get in touch!  And make sure you like the project on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!