For the last three months I’ve been interning with the HBF Cambodia. I studied Business Administration and Economics in Germany. As I had focused my studies on Development Economics, I wanted to see some of the developing parts of the world and Cambodia won the race out of the other southeast-Asian countries.

The office is close to the so called Russian market (Toul Tum Poung), where you basically find anything from fresh fruits or clothes to some car/ moto spar. My flat was only 5 minutes by walk from the Russian market and 10 minutes afar from the office. So I borrowed one the office bicycles for the time being. After a few weeks I did almost without tuk-tuks and rode everywhere on that bike.

I had already organized the flat before arrival via some Facebook groups (Phnom Penh Housing, Apartment Finder in Cambodia, Phnom Expat and Forum…). It was less stress in the first week. I just arrived in my own room and could start exploring the neighborhood.

My main task was to write a research paper about “The Impact of Climate Change on Women and Indigenous People“. Furthermore I did a research about other environmental organizations in Cambodia, a List of the HBS publications and some other tasks like translating an article into German, writing a text for the webpage or gathering information about certain events. During my internship I visited our partner organizations in Siem Reap together with the  HBF Gender Coordinator. On that occasion I had the opportunity to interview some women on my research topic.

I needed a few weeks to get used to everything, things are not as easy and organized as in Germany for instance, but right now I love being here. I have the impression to have learned a lot, not just for my academic life but for my personal life too. And really appreciated the friendly and helpful staff at the HBF.

Aug 2015