Erika Mac Donald is a young, committed, and smart American who joined Partners For Conservation from Harvey Mudd College (USA). For a period of one month, Erika will be supporting the Public Health Programme, specifically the Water Sanitation and Hygiene activities.
A few days after joining and experiencing the field, Erika Mac Donald delivered her impressions to the PFC website, and here is what she had to say:

I am very excited to be working for Partners for Conservation this upcoming month. I first came in contact with Partners for Conservation when exploring Rwanda through a program called Where There Be Dragons two years ago. I was very impressed and fascinated by their work and have been interested in it ever since.

Specifically, I am here to learn more about water, sanitation, and hygiene with respect to the historically marginalized community that Partners for Conservation works with. After speaking with six of the women in Partners for Conservation’s program, it became clear that this community struggles with obtaining safe drinking water. The issue of accessing safe water is dependent on problems with sanitation and hygiene as well, so I hope to work on all three in my relatively short time here.

I believe that this internship with Partners for Conservation will not only be an unforgettable experience but will also allow me to reconnect with the spectacular Rwandan culture that I started to get to know two years ago. I expect that by the end of this month, I will have learned more about this historically marginalized community as well as water, sanitation, and hygiene through fieldwork.