I had the opportunity to do my internship at Democracy International between mid-February and mid-April 2021. Because of Covid-19 I worked from home without going to the office or seeing anyone in person even once, but the team made me feel welcomed from the very beginning. Easy email communication and team meetings every morning made sure that I did not feel like I was working alone and could always ask someone if I had any questions.

My tasks were very diverse which meant that every day was a little bit different. However, there were three bigger projects that I worked on. In the first half of my internship, I worked on creating an online exhibition for the project ‘European Public Sphere - Europe 2.0’ which had come to an end a couple of weeks earlier. I also had many tasks related to the Citizens’ Assembly on Germany’s Role in the World: I contacted journalists for media visibility, wrote an article about the recommendations that were made, and translated into English parts of the Citizens’ Report containing the recommendations. In the last weeks of the internship, I planned social media material for the ‘We the Peoples’ campaign and for promoting the International Democracy Community. In addition to these tasks, I for example managed the social media channels, helped with a survey conducted for the European Commission,  and attended the Anti-Corruption Intergroup meeting of the European Parliament. Working on so many different things was really interesting, and I think it gave me a good overview of what Democracy International is doing.

I was happy to see how much responsibility I was given and how I was treated like an actual team member. The time I spent with Democracy International really flew by and I am grateful for the experience that gave me an idea of how NGOs work and taught me a lot about what is happening in the sphere of direct democracy and citizen participation right now.