In the words of Hyoeun Kim,

“To write this article, I am now recalling my first field trip to the Hwaseong Wetlands, which happened soon after I had joined the Secretariat. During the trip, I watched Black-faced Spoonbills for the first time in my life, which helped me to understand the motivation for the work of the EAAFP Secretariat.

Birds watching experience at the Hwaseong Wetlands ©EAAFP Secretariat

To write this article, I am now recalling my first field trip to the Hwaseong Wetlands, which happened soon after I had joined the Secretariat. During the trip, I watched Black-faced Spoonbills for the first time in my life, which helped me to understand the motivation for the work of the EAAFP Secretariat.

In the beginning, I started my internship journey with a curiosity about the framework of environmental and international organizations. Frankly speaking, I jumped into an environmental field and wanted to learn what the biggest issue is in the world exactly, rather than the reason to protect migratory waterbirds. As a student in a business school, I strongly felt the need to understand environmental dialogues and read the global trend. Additionally, I was curious about the achievements and progress that international organizations have made, and I wanted to build communication skills with environmental stakeholders with my understanding of the frameworks.

My first Programme team photo at the Hwaseong Wetlands International Symposium ©Hyoeun Kim/EAAFP

For the first three months, I didn’t find it easy to follow the overall work process at the Secretariat. It took time for me to understand that an international organization is a bridge among relevant stakeholders to connect the communities from our partners, national governments, international organizations, and civil organizations. Sometimes, I felt energized thanks to the participants in our meetings. Additionally, this experience helped me to build skills in project management, communication, and networking.

As a Programme Assistant, I was given many opportunities to experience various tasks. One of the impressive tasks was to coordinate the 2022 EAAFP Small Grant Fund (SGF) for Work Group (WG) and Task Forces (TF). As a main coordinator of the project, I had to set up the timetable of all progress, make funding agreements, and communicate with chairs and coordinators of EAAFP WG/TF and grantees. During the process, I learned how to timely manage the ongoing communication with my team members and relative stakeholders and how important our grant is, especially to support scientific and raising awareness works on the ground in the flyway. Moreover, I was able to advance my project management skill which has become one of my strengths

Group photo of my last day at EAAFP Secretariat © Yoomi Sim/EAAFP

I would like to end my sentence with my favorite words below that I learned from the staff of the EAAFP Secretariat.

“One person’s passion can move other’s minds, which can be a motivation we can continue to protect the migratory waterbirds.””