Phone dilemas and fun with camera

170 Sir ! Yes, 170 is CWA's hotline number and for a month I was lucky to assisting customers through phone. Complaints from angry customers were normal and I did my best help them by communicating with the Inspectors responsible for the different areas and then I had to revert back to the customers to ensure that their problem have been solved. 

The most exciting and fun part that I will never forget during my CWA internship was the opportunity I got when I was asked to take photos of every event and activity that the company organizes. I was at the frontline for different occasions as these clicks are to be used for the annual report as well as for the website. The first photography responsibility  that I was assigned, still remains an extraordinary task. The reason behind that is because it was the Minister's first visit at the CWA and he was supposed to meet all the head divisions and sub divisions. Lucky enough, I got a seat at the back and I boldly went in front to take the Minister's photos while he was giving his speech. At the end of the meeting, the Minister shook hands with me after the tea break, and unexpected as it could have been for me, I left home with a nice memory of that unique day. The minister highlighted on one point, that is we should excel in our work and water problems and complaints from customers should be decreasing.

This is my last post. It was a pleasure sharing my experiences with you guys. 

Regard, 

Jesina Appanah

World Water Day -Water & Sustainable Development - Organizing & planning

World Water Day, the most awaited event at the CWA has been on my schedule since the day I started working.  Organizing that event was far the most enjoyable, memorable and consists of the major tasks I've undertaken. I was really pleased when my supervisor told me that I had to work full time on the event as well as balancing other daily tasks.

Normally for the event, my department had to liaise with the other departments and all those who volunteered to help had a task in particular. In brief, the activities consisted of transport and logistics, uniform and hostesses, VIP and press/media, invitation, power point and multimedia presentation, gifts and prizes, maquette and exhibition, decor, project competition and catering. I was lucky enough to form part of the event management team and being the extrovert kind of girl, in just a few weeks everyone started to email and call me. Most of them had no idea I was only an Intern and they would jokingly tease me, ''Ahhh so you are the new communication officer''. I made some research on the UN's Water website and then found they posted the official logo on their twitter page. After all these works, we were told to put the event on hold. I was disappointed as I gave the maximum to make it happen. I thought of the meetings we had, the tasks we devised, the election for team leader and all the planning and program calender that we had set up. 

That eagerness and enthusiasm was still there as I was hoping they would not cancel it. To my disappointment they cancelled the event, but one week prior to the event  I was told the Minister gave the instructions to go forward with the preparations but it will be the Ministry which will take over the event management except for catering, roller banners and making of the program schedule. Being somehow excluded from the major activities, I felt really frustrated but later on I thought that I shouldn't stay idle, I had to find some work to do. After a few difficulties, I finally got the chance to work on the event again. So on the eve of the event, we stayed a few hours overtime to complete the work. We prepared a file for each guest and carefully placed a glossy sticker title banner of WWD on each file.

Regards,
Jesina