The AIDs coordinator volunteer
Janet Roberts, 57, from Liverpool volunteers as an HIV/AIDs co-ordinator in Rwanda "Volunteering had always been at the back of my mind, but I didn’t have the opportunity to go when I was younger as I had a family and a job with a housing association in Liverpool. “But in 2001, I thought, I’ve got ten years of work left and if I’m going to do something different I’d better do it now. So I decided to take the chance while I still could. “My first placement was two years in Namibia with VSO as a Training and Project Coordinator for a small woman’s non-government organisation. “I returned home, but nine months later I was off on a second placement run in partnership with VSO and CARE International, this time to Rwanda. “The people are amazing, everyone I worked with was so committed to making a difference and so receptive to what I, as a VSO volunteer, was trying to do. “The whole experience broadened my outlook and changed my perception of what life is all about. “I was never a very materialistic person before but now I find it difficult not to say to my friends in the supermarket ‘what do you want to buy that for? You don’t need it." Our thanks to The 'V' Word, which aims to challenge perceptions of ageing and promote volunteering to people over 55. Written by Sally Williams
This article was created: 22 August 2006.
This article was last edited: 13 November 2006.
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