New staff placements 2019

Date: 18 July 2019

World YMCA welcomes two new young professionals, Erjola Shaka and Vaibhav Goel, who will support our programmes from our offices in Geneva.

Erjola Shaka comes to us from Albania and holds a BA in Social Work and MA in Human Rights and Democracy in South East Europe. She is also finishing an MA in Gender and Women Studies. In Tirana, she worked for YMCA Albania and shared a bit about her experience.

“I did trainings on gender issues and human rights, democracy and good governance,” Erjola said. “I did not know YMCA before, so I got to know the mentality and how YMCA functions and works.” Erjola arrived in Geneva beginning of July and will be helping to collate and map the data gathered for the SDG Impact Report.

Originally from India, Vaibhav Goel studied in Geneva before heading to the UK where he earned a BSc in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Edinburgh. He joined World YMCA because he “was interested in knowing more about this worldwide organisation and [to gain] professional office experience.” Vaibhav does some administrative work, as well as data analysis and presentation.

Each of them was asked to describe YMCA in one word. For Erjola, it is “fresh air.” “I come from a country where civil society is highly politicised and at some levels corrupted as well,” Erijola said. “This is not only in my country, it is a reality worldwide. When I got involved with YMCA, it was fresh air for me.” For Vaibhav, his word was “underrepresented”. He said, “Everyone knows YMCA but not many know their true influence on the young generation.”

Welcome to Erjola and Vaibhav!

Find out more about the World YMCA staff placements.