About me

I am Emmy-Lou and I created this blog to share my experiences and my learnings during my internship for UNICEF in Goma, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, from May till August 2021.

I was born and raised in Paris, France, and I am currently pursuing a Master’s in Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). Before coming back to school, I first had the chance to teach history and geography in a high school in the suburbs of Paris, and then to work for nearly five years for a strategy consulting firm, providing solutions to French and African clients on a variety of topics, ranging from telecommunications to digital strategy.

UNICEF’s mandate is at the convergence of issues that affect me personally and are topics of study for me at HKS. As a product of the Republican meritocracy myself, I firmly believe that every child deserves a chance, and that is what I have tried to bring to life for my students as a teacher. Secondly, the issue of gender equality and the support of women in developing countries is a strong focus for me. In this perspective, my internship will take place in Goma, in a region hard hit by economic and security vulnerability, in a country that in 2020 will have 5.5 million internally displaced persons. The team I work with focuses on emergency response and the fight against cholera, which is largely endemic in this part of the country, in coordination with the thematic sections (education, health and nutrition, child protection, gender-based violence, water, and sanitation).