VSA Volunteer Briefing
Oct 14th
For the past four days I've been in Wellington participating in a Volunteer Service Abroad briefing. I've thoroughly enjoyed the experience, it's been a full on four days but I found each of the sessions very useful and I hope have better prepared us for our placements.
It was a big group of volunteers, and for many their accompanying partners, and a chance to meet some of the VSA staff that will be supporting us in the field. The volunteers were going to the four corners of the Pacific including Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, Samoa and in my case Kiribati. Just as the placements varied so were the backgrounds and skills of the volunteers but we were all united in a common purpose, to leave our regular lives, family and friends behind for the chance to travel to a far flung corners of the Pacific to share our knowledge and skills in what will no doubt be a life changing experience.
For me the highlight was on third afternoon when I had a skype interview with Diane the Programme Coordinator responsible for Kiribati. She provided me with a powerpoint presentation which included photos of possible accommodation, places around Tarawa and information from the organisation I will be working for. Suddenly it all came into focus and became somewhat more real and tangible!
The last session on the final afternoon was a meeting with a former volunteer, Peter, who had recently returned from Kiribati. Being able task questions and get information from someone what had spent a year there, and was heading back shortly for a holiday, really helped to better understand the place and potential challenges and again made the whole thing seem more real. Peter gave me plenty of good advice and suggestions for places to visit while there and I really appreciated him taking time out of his Saturday to come in and talk to me about Kiribati.
I was really impressed by the whole briefing, it included a wide range of topics including medical briefings, mental health, intercultural communication, capacity building, VSA and development., gender and development as well as keeping safe on assignment. The staff and experts that were brought in were all welcoming and really engaging and were obviously very experienced in the whole process. I came away very impressed with the amount of support put in place for us in the field and confident that I had chosen the right organisation to work for, and one whose values and principles aligned with my own.
I still need to get all my medical checks etc done we are one step closer to departure and my guess of a late Jan departure seems to be accurate so now have a timeline to work towards....
As there were no flights back to Timaru till Sunday I had a few hours to kill after the breifing ended so I went for a walk along the waterfront of Wellington. On the walk I spied some bronze plaques on a wall and paused to have a look. They were dedicated to the people of New Zealand from the 2nd US Marine Division. The 2nd Marines arrived in Wellington in May 1942 and after several months training in and around Wellington and the Hawkes Bay left from Wellington as they departed for the Battle of Tarawa (Nov 20-23 1942), one of the bloodiest battles of the War in the Pacific and the place where I am hoping to head for my assignment. I covered this battle recently in my gaming blog here.
This plaque is dedicated to the marines and the battles, including Tarawa, that they fought in the Second World War.
Craig
For the past four days I've been in Wellington participating in a Volunteer Service Abroad briefing. I've thoroughly enjoyed the experience, it's been a full on four days but I found each of the sessions very useful and I hope have better prepared us for our placements.
It was a big group of volunteers, and for many their accompanying partners, and a chance to meet some of the VSA staff that will be supporting us in the field. The volunteers were going to the four corners of the Pacific including Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, Samoa and in my case Kiribati. Just as the placements varied so were the backgrounds and skills of the volunteers but we were all united in a common purpose, to leave our regular lives, family and friends behind for the chance to travel to a far flung corners of the Pacific to share our knowledge and skills in what will no doubt be a life changing experience.
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| VSA Offices n Wellington |
The last session on the final afternoon was a meeting with a former volunteer, Peter, who had recently returned from Kiribati. Being able task questions and get information from someone what had spent a year there, and was heading back shortly for a holiday, really helped to better understand the place and potential challenges and again made the whole thing seem more real. Peter gave me plenty of good advice and suggestions for places to visit while there and I really appreciated him taking time out of his Saturday to come in and talk to me about Kiribati.
I was really impressed by the whole briefing, it included a wide range of topics including medical briefings, mental health, intercultural communication, capacity building, VSA and development., gender and development as well as keeping safe on assignment. The staff and experts that were brought in were all welcoming and really engaging and were obviously very experienced in the whole process. I came away very impressed with the amount of support put in place for us in the field and confident that I had chosen the right organisation to work for, and one whose values and principles aligned with my own.
I still need to get all my medical checks etc done we are one step closer to departure and my guess of a late Jan departure seems to be accurate so now have a timeline to work towards....
As there were no flights back to Timaru till Sunday I had a few hours to kill after the breifing ended so I went for a walk along the waterfront of Wellington. On the walk I spied some bronze plaques on a wall and paused to have a look. They were dedicated to the people of New Zealand from the 2nd US Marine Division. The 2nd Marines arrived in Wellington in May 1942 and after several months training in and around Wellington and the Hawkes Bay left from Wellington as they departed for the Battle of Tarawa (Nov 20-23 1942), one of the bloodiest battles of the War in the Pacific and the place where I am hoping to head for my assignment. I covered this battle recently in my gaming blog here.
This plaque is dedicated to the marines and the battles, including Tarawa, that they fought in the Second World War.
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