Copy
No.32, December 2018
View this email in your browser

First Pasifika Law Society head
traces 53-year VSA influence

Tiana Epati points to the influence of a VSA volunteer on her father in Samoa over 50 years ago as a factor in her recent appointment as president of the New Zealand Law Society.

Ms Epati, 43, takes up the role next April, the fourth woman and first Polynesian in 120 years to hold the position. She has followed her father, Semi Epati, into law. In an interview with online Sunday magazine e-tangata, she explained how he took his first steps into the profession.

“As a boy, he went to Samoa College where he met a young New Zealander, Bruce Robertson, who was there on VSA. He helped teach Dad English. And he spoke to Dad about his plans to head
READ BELOW

back to New Zealand and go to law school. So Dad’s interest first came from this VSA volunteer English teacher.”

Bruce also became a lawyer after teaching in Samoa in 1965. Now a retired... Read more >

'Experience of a lifetime': returned volunteers agree
While a VSA assignment can be hard going, it is also likely to be the experience of a lifetime, a survey of returned volunteers reveals.

VSA emailed the survey to over 900 RVs in October with 374 responding — a 40% completion rate.

Eighty-six percent rated their assignment ‘very’ or ‘moderately’ challenging compared to just 2% who rated it as ‘not challenging at all’. Yet, when asked to rate their assignment out of 10 (with 10 defined as “one of the greatest, fantastic experiences of your life”), 84% gave it between 8-10.

Personal changes

Contributing to a sustainable world doesn’t occur only on assignment — it appears that volunteers themselves are likely to live differently on return. Nearly eight out of 10 said they had gained an increased ability to work and live with limited resources. Seventy-six percent felt they had gained

increased resilience, and 69% gained increased adaptability. Not surprisingly, 84% said they learnt more about development issues. Read more >

In their own words: what motivates volunteers
Three broad themes emerged in replies to open text questions on why people chose to volunteer:

1. A change in personal circumstances:
Separations, bereavements, career changes, children and grandchildren all influence a decision that the time is right:

“I had recently lost my wife and the opportunity came for a volunteer to work in the area of my expertise which was not common. So I thought I would take the opportunity, otherwise I might regret it in the future. And my late wife would have thought it was a good idea and indeed it turned out to be so."
2. Bored and looking for a challenge:
“I was already working for peanuts in the building trade in NZ so decided to go and do some work elsewhere for peanuts.”

“The only difference between people who wish they lived exciting and interesting lives and those that do, is that they do.”

3. An altruistic desire to give something back:
“As a Pasifika person born and bred in the Pacific I wanted to give back to the Pacific and share my experience and knowledge.”

The true value of volunteering

Former volunteer Gerda Pentinga was ‘surprised and humbled’ by the reaction from around the world, especially Kiribati and Timor-Leste, when she shared news of her partner’s passing.

“I am living in New Zealand without my family and all the emails and messages have really helped me and made me smile. I feel so incredibly lucky,” she says. In this piece, Gerda reflects on the true value of volunteering.

A farewell from a Kiribati class.

39 assignment
vacancies
(with more to come!)

From Samoa to Timor-Leste, there's a typically exciting mix of assignments on offer — from speech therapist to lab technologist and investment adviser.
Here's the current list, with more to be posted
during December.

The deadline for applications is
3 February 2019.

Feel free to pass these listings on to friends or professional networks.

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST
You can register your interest in certain types of assignment. Just complete an easy online form and you'll be emailed when a vacancy in your field comes up.

Welcome to VSAConnect


Welcome to these volunteers who have recently joined VSAConnect on returning home (click to view blogs and profiles): 
Christmas gathering in Nelson
Top of the South VSAers are warmly invited to a Christmas gathering at the home of Julia O’Connor and Alastair Paton on Sunday, 16 December, from 12 noon.

Their home is in Hope, just south of Nelson. Bring food to share and a drink.

To RSVP and for further information, phone Julia on 03 544 7570 or 021 108 8641.

Among friends

 

Stay in touch by joining Friends of VSA, a closed Facebook group for returned volunteers that
now has 228 members.
 
NEWS CLIPPINGS
Mixed emotions on returning home

"The thing I noticed most returning to NZ is the way people talk, not as softly as PNGians," wrote Anton Nikoloff in a recent blog. His accompanying partner Christine (below) wrote about the joy of seeing family and friends again. The couple were describing the mixed emotions of returning home after six months in PNG.

Many volunteers find coming home a challenging time. This piece on the VSAConnect website, 'Don't burn up on re-entry', was written in consultation with a VSA counsellor who has interviewed many returning volunteers over the years.



Volunteering in Sarawak before the internet

"There were two leisure activities," recalls a VSA English teacher in Sarawak in the 1980s, "walking up the road or down the road."

The teacher was in touch with VSA recently to get a certificate of service for a superannuation claim. Her posting was remote, three hours by boat down the Sarawak and Sadong Rivers with no road access.

"I lived alone, which was hard and lonely. I was the only European in the school and local town and was teaching English where all the students had to study it but didn't have to pass. Therefore the attitude tended to be: 'Fail English, miss. Never mind.'"

Videos capture daily life in Timor-Leste

Nine short videos made by former volunteer Helen Reynolds provide a great snapshot of daily life in Timor-Leste.

Helen was a sales and marketing advisor in 2016-2017 for Hafoti, a local NGO of small rural women producer groups. The videos were a joint VSA/Caritas Aotearoa NZ project to provide teaching resources for Caritas's 'Lent in schools 2018 programme' which looked at life in Timor-Leste, the work of Hafoti, and Timor-Leste's journey to independence.

R.I.P. Jan Nye

VSA was saddened to hear of the passing of Jan Nye, a volunteer in Cambodia 2003-2006 with her husband, photo-journalist Robert Joiner. Jan, 68, died suddenly early in October while trekking in Ladakh, India. Our sympathy to Robert and their two daughters.
E-nius is sent to VSAConnect members who have supplied email addresses
Copyright © 2018 Volunteer Service Abroad, all rights reserved.


unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences