Amal* is a mentee on our Summer 2020 programme. Here she shares some thoughts and reflections about her experience on the programme so far.
I signed up to Routes to refresh my experience and get knowledge of the work environment and working culture in the UK. To help me achieve my goal, which is returning to the media field or finding any volunteering opportunities in that field.
[Our first meeting] was great, we spoke about ourselves, getting to know each other, and from the first two minutes we got to understand each other quickly. My mentor is a lovely, open person and she made it easy for me.
In the first session we outlined goals to achieve, both in short term and some for long term. She gave me a brief about the media in the UK and how it works here and answered all my questions. Honestly she is making me feel so positive, letting me focus on my strengths and guiding me to achieve my goal.
She started by telling me about the media types in the UK, then about their strategy, so now I understand more about the work environment and freedom of journalism. She gave me the keys that helped me to find where I should start here, especially as I have nine years of experience in my country, which I did not know how to use here. Now I know where I am and what the gap is.
We discussed each newspaper and online media and the leaning of it: radical, liberal, fake news, modern, formal etc. That made me research more and write down questions and discuss with her in the next session. I reactivated my Twitter account, as I know that all journalists here use Twitter more than other platforms. In my country we use Facebook but in the UK, most people feel it's private, not for work.
She made me very active and I'm now starting to do some videos online for social media in Arabic and hopefully by the end of this mentor programme I'll be prepared and finished an article or video in English, which we are planning to send to any local news around me, getting engaged with them as a volunteer to start my journey.
To be honest, when I was referred to Routes and when you were contacting me, I never expected and imagined this huge effect on my personality - the way I'm thinking now and what I'm receiving from this programme. From the first three sessions I feel the difference. She gave information I will never find on Google or the internet. I'm so excited for the rest.
It's like this programme is refreshing me. My mentor has put me on track, so at least now I know where I have to start from in order to restart my career again, after all that happened to me, which forced me to seek asylum in the UK.
(*Amal is not her real name)
