Internship Experience @ Latika Roy Memorial Foundation, Dehradun: Research on Legal Guardianship for people with Intellectual Disability

Your Name, College, Year of Study, Email ID

Kritika Agarwal, Amity Law School, Noida, 2nd year

Name of Organisation, Location city, Team Strength

Latika Roy Memorial Foundation, Dehradun

Application Process with contact details

I knew about the NGO from a long time and always wished to work with them as the work it does is inspiration for many.

For applying for the internship one has to apply at least 2 months prior to the desired internship period. Their are different slots available.

One can apply on the NGO’s website or can forward a cover letter on the Email Id of the Director Awarness of the NGO. The Email address is ” sumita@latikaroy.org”.

Duration of Internship

I was selected for the first slot and my internship period was of one month, 24 May 2017 – 23 June 2017.

Office Timings

We were required to report at 9:00 everyday,except for Saturdays and Sundays.

First impression, first day formalities, infrastructure

Firstly, after reaching at Resource Centre of the NGO, I was introduced to the Director Awarness. She told me about the NGO and how it works. Then I was told about my role. Later we visited all the centres of the NGO. I was very impressed by the friendly behaviour of co-workers, everybody was so humble and so good in his/her work.

Then my mentor, Mr Rizwan Ali (legal Advisor) told me about my work during the internship and told me about the research work which I was supposed to do during my one month long internship.

Main tasks

All the interns were given different topics to research on. The topic given to me was ” Process Document on legal Guardianship for people with Intellectual Disability”. I was supposed to research on how and who all can apply for Legal guardianship in district Dehradun. I also submitted my project to the DM of Dehradun with the suggestions and gaps in the system.

We all interns were supposed to attend sessions held at the Resource Center. These sessions were conducted by different experts in their respective fields like Mrs Jo Chopra, Executive Director gave us a session on different career options after law and MSW, similarly many other sessions were held.

We all interns were also involved in philanthropic service at the CMO’s office every Wednesday .

Best things

• The environment was so easy going that their was no pressure or any inconvenience in working.
• We learned how to do a proper research so that others could be beneficial by it.
• After interacting with the people, we came to know how one deal and solve their problems.
• Sessions gave a new aspect to our thinking’s and now we all approach our career and disability with new approach.

Bad things

I did not find anything bad there.

Stipend

No stipend.

Biggest Lessons

Lessons that I learnt staying at LRF are:

– Think Positive.

– Research needs time but its worth it.

– Don’t be afraid of hard work or tough path.

– Try to be more interactive and take part in discussions.

Any Other Thing

The best way to learn is by doing. Never give up as their is always a new surprise waiting for us at every point in life.

Some thing like this happened during my internship also, I never expected to hear from the DM office but surprisingly I got a call and they told me that they had a discussion on my project with the central government and now they had came up with a conclusion to make the whole process of legal guardianship online.