Both of IRRI’s projects, rainwater harvesting, and biodigester technology, are looking for an enthusiastic student with great social abilities and a high level of Spanish (speaking and writing). This intern will be working to analyze the levels of satisfaction related to the use of our systems. The intern will be able to choose which project they want to work for and then will design and implement surveys to measure the effectiveness, level of acceptance, barriers and problems of our projects in the communities where we work. During the internship this intern will spend the majority of their time visiting beneficiary households to conduct surveys and interact with users. Our research indicates that follow-up programs such as these that include user participation and adoption surveys, increase the likelihood that systems will be adopted successfully. This position may also include training other people on the use of our systems and mounting demonstrations for community members on the usage of biodigesters and rainwater harvesting systems.
Desired Skills:
- High level of Spanish, both speaking and writing.
- Posses great social skills, and ability to talk to people from different socio-economic level.
- Organized and interested in our work in low income communities in Mexico
Responsibilities:
- Design and implement surveys that measure the effectiveness of our projects.
- Visit community members and houses that have our systems at least once throughout the internship
- Train recipients on the use of our systems.
- Community work (surveys, mounting demos, interviews) to research the cultural or technical barriers related to the use of our systems.