Oranmore Native Nuala Keher to spend 6 months volunteering in South Sudan

“I’m at an age in my life and I have been very lucky and had a very successful career, I have done lots of things here in Ireland so I just felt it was the right time

Many of us see retirement as the silver lining to years of hard work and excelling in careers. For many who are now forced into early retirement the thought of endless days of not having their daily routine is quite a daunting prospect. Instead many people are opting not to pick up the golf clubs for endless days on the golf course but instead are using their years of expertise and skills and venturing on a new path, of volunteering abroad

Nuala Keher, originally from Oranmore in Co Galway is about to embark on a six month volunteering programme in South Sudan with VSO Ireland.

The executive Director of EQUAL Ireland and former director of NUI Galway’s open learning centre and CEO of the Lionra Network is taking a career break and moving to one of the world’s newest countries, namely South Sudan in East Central Africa.

Nuala is well known in education and training circles in Ireland. Speaking of the upcoming journey and of the inspiration and influence behind her decision to become a volunteer with VSO Ireland.

 Ms Keher said: “I’m at an age in my life and I have been very lucky and had a very successful career, I have done lots of things here in Ireland so I just felt it was the right time.

“I had the experience and skills and VSO are looking for people with these skills, and they are very interested to transferring those skills to developing countries.”

VSO Ireland is an international development organisation that works through volunteers. Their approach to working and volunteering abroad is quite different to working for other Non-Government organisations.

The oranmore native affectionately referred to her daughter as a “role model” who inspired her to make the decision to go to Sudan and use her expertise to help others. Ms Keher’s own daughter has spent time volunteering in Ethiopia and Kenya. She added that her family have been extremely supportive in her decision as has her employers at EQUAL Ireland.

The Galway educator will be working with the Department of Education in South Sudan and will assume the role and responsibility for teacher training and for developing the capacity of the department to deliver training throughout the country. Her work with EQUAL Ireland has provided hundreds of adults with routes back into education.

Ms Keher says:” The work I am going to be doing is about is about training people there, who in turn will train others” adding to this: “I feel it is the right time to make a contribution, if I can, to people worse off than ourselves, I know this will not be easy but equally I am convinced that it will be worthwhile” said Ms Keher.

The Galway woman spoke of what an exciting opportunity it is for her and added; “I’m hoping from my experience I will leave behind some skilled people who can maybe train others and be able to establish a good education system for their people”.

Ms Keher says:” I am nervous, but also looking forward to it, VSO Ireland has done a lot of training around the culture change”. Adding to this she says:” You never can be prepared for everything”.

The temperatures will be soaring into the high 40’s so this is one part of the journey that will take some getting used to for the Galway woman.

Marketing and Communications Advisor Donnacha Maguire with VSO Ireland explains that the NGO works in 19 countries across Africa & Asia. On an international level VSO is working in over 33 countries. The main area of focus is within health, education and securing livelihoods ensuring people have an adequate income to pay for education and health services.

A key focus area under these three sectors is gender equality and climate change which are interwoven. The NGO wants better equality in terms of women in developing countries and to ensure young girls have access to education.

An emerging trend in volunteers for overseas projects has seen a surge in early retirees applying. Mr McGuire remarks on the change in image of the type of volunteer they now receive. This has seen a shift towards early retirees offering up their services as public sector redundancy plans in the past two years have awarded such people the options to spend time volunteering. Adding to this he said: “This has increased the pool of applications,” he says

 With the current economic climate still at a low, people’s commitment levels have changed. There are now people who cannot commit to voluntary programmes because they have mortgage repayments to meet, and other such obligations to fulfil.  A lot of people are struggling to meet mortgage repayments in this country. VSO has seen increases in private sector applications and a lessening to the public sector. This is largely to do with our economy at present in Ireland.

“We feel that sending people skills and abilities over the developing countries have a far greater and longer lasting impact in terms of fighting poverty than simply sending cash resources” says Mr McGuire.

Echoing this sentiment says: “We feel a person’s time and skills and resources are of far greater importance than the cash they can raise”. 

VSO organise fundraisers prior to volunteer’s departures to raise awareness of the organisation. VSO do ask volunteers to do some fundraising which is about 1500 euro.

One of the striking elements is that people being forced into early retirement due to fears to cuts in redundancies and pension plans are not ready to retire in the majority of cases. Work is often a social element to many people’s lives and the keen upsurge in retirees going abroad to volunteer shows their willingness not to be defeated by bureaucracy.

Those who are choosing to volunteer through VSO will be lucky enough that the NGO supports their volunteers financially throughout the duration of the project. VSO provide a living allowance for volunteers while they are working in a country to fund such things as work, travel, vaccinations and on-going care.

VSO Ireland looks at the ‘long term’ as projects are usually between one and two years in duration. Mr McGuire says “We send volunteers for longer periods as it has greater impact”. In comparison to other NGO’s VSO don’t send teachers to teach in a class or nurses to work directly in a hospital. We would send those professionals to work in either the teaching training or nurse’s colleges to help train other professionals. This helps improve the overall standards of care and education.

The vision for 2013 from VSO Ireland is to increase the number of volunteers going to Africa and Asia.

“Ireland has a strong tradition of volunteering overseas, historically through the missions but lately through lay organisations” says VSO’s Marketing and Communications Advisor.

Adding to this Mr McGuire adds:” I think despite economic conditions in Ireland there is still considerable interest to volunteer overseas and to improve, share skills and improve the lives of people

“I think it’s something within the Irish psyche that we like supporting other countries and developing organisations because we know how hard it is to get off the ground and get going as a country”.

VSO Ireland is currently recruiting experienced, qualified professionals in the area of health, education, business management and IT for one or two year placements. If you are interested in finding out more information on VSO Ireland visit www.vso.ie or call 01 640 1060. To support Nuala Keher’s vision you can visit her mycharity.ie to make a contribution