My name is Fofo Lerefolo, I am originally from South Africa. I am a proud Methodist and active member of youth organizations in the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. I am also very active in the ecumenical structures of South Africa. I am a journalist by profession and the deputy president of South African Council of Churches Youth Forum.

My experience so far at the WCC has been a very good progressing experience - being a young black person coming to Europe to learn, and improve my potentials and abilities.  It has helped me in thinking about a change that one can do within the ecumenical structures as a young person back home.

My main objective is to engage young people in issues that affect them ecumenically, politically, socially, spiritually and economically. I believe that we are the leaders of today and our one voice as young people should be heard in issues which affect them in church and society.

I am an intern with the Mission and Evagelism programme of the WCC. The year 2010 marks the centennial celebrations of the 1910 Edinburgh World Mission Conference. As the institutional inheritor of the International Missionary Council (IMC) which grew out of Edinburgh, the WCC plays a leading role in the study process and in the preparations for the 2010 celebrations. Moreover, WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) is going to celebrate the centenary volume of the International Review of Mission which was a direct outcome of Edinburgh 1910 and the Jubilee of the integration between WCC and IMC both in 2011.

So I will support the organization of the Edinburgh 2010 conference as a co-opted staff for communication and support the administrative preparation of the CWME Commission meeting. I will also assist with editorial work for the International Review of Mission (IRM) centenary volume, update CWME’s information on the WCC website and develop a leaflet on the work of CWME.

It’s very crucial for one to learn about different cultures, traditions and values form different spheres of the world and being here at the WCC provides this opportunity. Furthermore I encourage young people from all over the world particularly Africa to take part and experience the ecumenical formation environment through the WCC internship programme

My name is Aneth Lwakatare and I come from the  Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. I am 24 years old and a lawyer by profession. I worked as a legal adviser of the Human Rights Desk of my church back in Tanzania before coming to WCC. I am currently working as the 2010 intern for the Visitor Program/ Communications. I am passionate about human rights and advocacy work however; this opportunity to work with the Communications program is invaluable in learning new skills and knowledge.

I am so thrilled to be working at the WCC and I’m looking forward to making the most of this opportunity.  I am glad for the chance to learn more about the WCC and understand the context of ecumenism around the world. This internship is a wonderful exposure for young people and I encourage young people to apply for this internship. It broadens your mind in so many ways.

My name is Anastasia Dragan, originally from the Republic of Moldova (Eastern Europe). I belong to two ethnic group- Bulgarian and German and speak five languages. I am a member of the Lutheran Church Augsburg Confession in the Republic of Moldova.

I am a pastor’s daughter and I grew up very involved in church life and youth activities. In the past ten years I was responsible for youth ministry, communications and raising funds for my home church. My background is in theological and linguistic education. While being an intern at the  WCC, I am also working on my Master 's in divinity.

Becoming an intern of the World Council of Churches was one of my near future goals. I had experienced working in one of the WCC programmes in Moldova with the Moldova Partnership Program 2005 (the aim was to create a round table among churches in Moldova based on diaconical-social work). After the programme I prayed for an opportunity to get involved again with WCC.

Currently, I am working for the Youth and Ecumenical Formation programme with my main tasks of being responsible for the bi-monthly Youth Newsletter and working closely with ECHOS on a resource for ecumenical formation for young people.  The newsletter provides information about events and activities by youth networks happening all over the world and the ecumenical formation resource will focus on young people.

I encourage young people from all around the world, who are involved in church life, and who want to deepen their theological and ecumenical knowledge, explore intercultural and interchurch relations. I call on young Christians in Eastern Europe, believe and challenge yourselves by applying for the internship at the World Council of Churches. You are the future of the churches back home.

My name is Ani Ghazaryan. I come from Armenia representing the Armenian Apostolic Church at the WCC. I am a young theologian and also a PhD candidate in theology at the University of Lausanne.

At the same time as my academic career, I started my WCC internship a month ago working in the Ecology and Social Justice programme. The work that the WCC is doing in this programme is very challenging and exciting. The issues about climate change, wealth, poverty, ecology, and water are a reality of world politics in the 21st century.

Many international organizations such as the UN are working to solve these problems, as well as to help the people who are most affected and marginalized. I am extremely pleased that the WCC is also among these organizations and that it provides support on behalf of churches throughout the world. As a young woman and theologian working at the WCC, taking part in projects in my programme is a unique experience. This allows me to learn a lot, take part in important current debates about environmental issues and to provide my ideas on the ongoing projects of the WCC.

I can only encourage young people to make this internship at the WCC, as it is a very rewarding experience on intellectual, social, cultural, practice and linguistic levels. I look forward to continuing my work during this year and to get more and more involved in the ecumenical work in the future.

What do I want people to know about me as person. . . I am 19 years old and Native Hawaiian. I come from the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii. I have felt called to ordination since I was seven years old. I have always been really involved in the church and felt really called to church work. As I have grown up that call has shown itself in different capacities.

I am the oldest of 4 in my family and I love spending time with my family. This internship is not something that I would have envisioned for myself. I did not know anything about the WCC until I applied for this Internship. I had never heard of the WCC and did not know what it did, or anything. I applied for the internship on what some would call a whim—I call it the direction of God because that kind of thing does not happen just because of me. I applied and then forgot about it. I was really shocked to hear that I was being considered for the internship position. The more I read about the WCC the more I really wanted to get the internship. But I am still kind of shocked that I am here.  And I guess that shows even if you do not think you can get it, you should apply. Because you never know what Gods plan is for you and how His hand is going to move you. Change your life. I would have never thought of living in Geneva, miles and miles away from home and my family and working at an international organization. But here I am. And it has gone really well.

After a month of working here I have been really impressed with everything, I have been really happily surprised to find that the work they have us doing is really important. It is good work and it is not just time fillers. I have worked at other jobs where they either underuse young people, because they think we are not capable of doing real work like grown ups, or they exploit young people and have them doing way too much.  I found a very happy balance.

I wish more people would have applied for this, because this is an incredible opportunity and even if you do not really know what are you applying for (like me), I would say- apply anyway , because it might work out in your favor. It worked out in my favor. There are great resources in house, there are amazing people for you to connect with, that your colleagues can connect you out of house. So not only for big networking capacity but also for personal growth and change. I feel like I have grown a lot since getting here, just 4 weeks ago, which is crazy. And I can’t imagine this kind of growth happening back at school or at home or in any other environment that I have ever been in.