Work Experience, by Mary

Monday 9th August 2010
Hi! My name is Mary, I am 16 years old and I am going to start sixth form at my school this September. I decided to do some work experience at Cecily's Fund this summer because I wanted to see how a charity is run and what kind of jobs there are, with a view to my future career.

Monday
Everyone here at the office in scenic New Yatt is so friendly and they have helped me to settle in really well. Any questions I have are answered straight away and I have had some interesting chats with Sabita, Sophie and Helen about what their role at Cecily’s Fund involves. This morning I sat in on the team's weekly meeting and heard about everyone's busy schedules. The amount of things that need to get done is mind-boggling! My main tasks today have been communicating with supporters and donors to the charity. I have posted letters with introductions to Cecily’s Fund, sent many, many friend requests to supporters on Facebook to try and widen the amount of people that the charity can contact. It has been a long day but I am looking forward to the rest of the week!
Tuesday and Wednesday
I am getting used to office life now and have been doing lots of little odd jobs like preparing envelopes to send to possible donors and packs of information to help people promote the charity as well as contacting trusts by phone and email. On Wednesday morning I was able to go and visit the designer who is generously adding the design of the Annual Report to his already busy schedule. It was amazing to see him work so quickly and deftly and helping the information in the report really come to life with clever layouts and colour combinations.
Thursday
Today I spent the morning researching HIV and AIDS in Zambia and finding statistics to compare with the UK. I used sites like UNAIDS and AVERT which are well worth a visit if like me you want to look in detail at the problems surrounding HIV and AIDS and also the way that people are trying to deal with them. Education really is key! Each year of schooling that a child in Zambia reduces their risk of getting HIV by 7% which I think is an amazing statistic and really motives me to do more to support Cecilys Fund. Now I'm off to prepare a collecting tin for the local Post Office!
Friday
My last day was a quiet one as it was just me and Sabita in the office. Amoungst other things, I helped her by printing and laminating posters for her 'Poems in the Park' event (including wet weather ones which unfortunately she had to use!). It was nice to meet Alison who dropped in at the end of the day full of new ideas for fundraising. My week in the Cecily's Fund office has been an interesting one and I feel that I understand the workings of a charity like this one much more than I did. It has opened my eyes to the complexity of running a charity and given me respect for the people who work here. They are all so passionate about helping the kids in Zambia and so all work really hard. Thank you all for a great week!