On the month of the celebration of UN Day (October 24), one of the lesser-time colleagues was selected as the employee of the month: Millena Damásio, Assistant to the Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) Centre of Excellence against Hunger. She told her story and the recent achievement of the dream of working for the United Nations. Millena has been working at the Centre since April last year and said to be fulfilled by the job she develops which contributes to a better world. “I have always wanted to work for the United Nations, due to the history of the Organization, to the reason why it was created, to its track record, to the humanitarian work done by its agencies, and also due to its purpose of making the difference in the world, providing a better life for people without distinction and seeking the best for all. Bringing everybody together in a common purpose, for the common good”, she says.
Millena holds a bachelor’s and a licentiate´s degrees in Social Sciences, but since her first internship she has been in contact with the international area. She started her career as an intern at the Brazilian tourism offices for France, the United States and the United Kingdom, which were responsible for promoting Brazil’s touristic image abroad. After graduating, she worked for the Brazilian Tourism Institute (Embratur). She was then invited to be the assistant to the Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Culture at the time, and this was how she began to gain experience in assisting senior executives. Before arriving at the Centre of Excellence, she also worked in the International Affairs Office of the Superior Electoral Court.
The Centre of Excellence was the first international body Millena worked for. “I always wanted to work for the UN, because I believe in the work done by the United Nations in the most varied fields. Besides that, the SDGs delight me. Working with a purpose, helping countries achieving the 2030 Agenda goals and objectives building a better world for all are things that make my eyes to light up”, she says.
Millena gives an advice to those who want to join the team: “Many people I talk to give me the feeling that working at the United Nations is something almost impossible to do, that it is something achieved only by extraordinary people, something unattainable, but then we realize that we all can do it, we can be part of it, we can contribute to the Organization. In addition, it is also possible to help the UN building a better world without working directly at the United Nations. Here I learned that there are several ways to collaborate with the work of the Organization”. An example of this is to become an online UN volunteer through the online volunteering platform.
According to her, what has been most interesting about working for the Centre of Excellence is discovering new professional skills. “Over the course of a year and a half, a lot of challenges have come up, I felt my bosses trust me to deal with these challenges and as a result I started to realize I had skills that I didn’t know about. For example, it was challenging to write speeches for major events with the frequency and the themes involved, because I need to translate the technical knowledge of the colleagues in an emotional speech that can touch people. And I think I could learn that here”.
Being challenged and discovering new skills is always very motivating, but besides that, Millena says she feels even more fulfilled because she knows she’s part of a team that “delivers a very important job at the end. Every time I write a speech for an event, or that I prepare a presentation, and I have to research the data on what we were able to accomplish, I feel very happy to be part of this team that is changing the lives of children in very poor countries. It is very gratifying when you realize that you have helped one of these countries implement a school feeding policy that is benefiting thousands of children and that they will have a better development. Even though I am not in the field, and I’m sitting in the office in front of my computer every day, I know that what I do has a big impact on the lives of people who really need it”.
“In one word, I feel complete working for the Centre. I can see the result of my work, I can feel challenged in many ways, and I can feel also that I am instigated and supported to overcome these challenges. In addition, we are encouraged to have a life-balance between work and personal life and that makes all the difference in the work we do”, she concludes.
