Help others, help yourself

A stint as an aid worker is good for the soul and the CV, writes Anne Fawcett.

Jane Lynch never imagined she was capable of building a hospital in the middle of southern Sudan or organising a vaccination program for 600,000 displaced people in Uganda until she had to do it.

The 34-year-old mechanical engineer, who has repeatedly volunteered as a logistician for humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres, says nothing can beat the skills and experience gained by assisting communities in peril.

"It's quite unlike any experience you could have in Australia. You have a lot of responsibility and autonomy and you have to make things work no matter what."

Lynch, who works for the Cape York Land Council, has a career interest in developing sources of renewable energy and helping indigenous communities plan infrastructure. "Since I was a kid I always had a sense that I was lucky and there were other people in the world who were not so lucky," she says.

"In high school I realised the job of aid worker existed but I knew I didn't have the aptitude to be a doctor or a nurse because I cried every time I had a vaccination. I became an engineer, assuming that aid organisations would need people to build hospitals and water supplies and supply technical support for medical work."

Before joining MSF, Lynch had learnt other skills she thought might come in handy, including basic plumbing, welding and electrical wiring. Additional training provided by the organisation has equipped her to perform advanced duties in the field - at a greater scale than she could have imagined.

Her missions have seen her overseeing the provision of water and food supplies, sanitation and electricity to hospitals; managing resources such as vehicles and medical equipment; providing technical support for other logisticians in the field; managing up to 300 hospital staff; and liaising with governments, the United Nations and non-government organisations.

During her first mission in southern Sudan in 2003, Lynch was charged with overseeing MSF's sleeping-sickness treatment program in a rebel-held area. "The country was in civil war, we were in the middle of nowhere," she recalls. "A plane arrived every 10 days at an airstrip a few hours from the hospital and we had a supply truck from Uganda every two months.

On my first day I was told I had to build a hospital six hours' drive from the existing hospital and you couldn't buy cement anywhere in southern Sudan at the time. That was quite a challenge." Lynch was put in charge of 70 logistics staff and rose to the occasion.

During a stint in Indonesia following the devastating Yogyakarta earthquake in 2006, she helped set up and manage a 100-bed temporary hospital when two MSF clinics were flattened. Those experiences have enabled her to deal with challenges that arise in her work in Australia.

Lynch believes that volunteering has allowed her to grow as a person."You get to know yourself better when you are working at the edge of your abilities, doing things you never thought you'd be able to do. It has certainly helped me with stress management. I've learned that there is no point in getting stressed because it just inhibits my thinking."

The head of MSF's field human resources section, Emmanuel Lavieuville, says many potential volunteers don't realise that they don't require a medical background to volunteer with the organisation.

"Every year we recruit a variety of non-medical staff including financial administrators and logisticians. Professionals from an engineering or building and construction background, project managers or water and sanitation experts are especially suited to the work of a logistician."

Christine Crosby, from volunteer recruiting organisation Australian Volunteers International, says that volunteering overseas is good for your soul - but also very good for your CV. "Many volunteers say they get back more than they give" they develop an in-depth understanding of lives and issues facing people from other cultures and a new perspective on life," Crosby says.

A recent study conducted by AVI in conjunction with Monash University found that volunteers developed a range of skills that are highly transferable and sought-after in the workplace.

These included cross-cultural communication skills, time management, resourcefulness, conflict management and problem solving. The study found that volunteers were more likely to develop these skills at an accelerated rate due to the unique challenges and responsibilities of their assignments.

Employers familiar with international volunteers value their skills highly. "We recognise former volunteers as a rich source of leadership capability," says Christine Shewry, head of people and culture at Insurance Australia Group.

Published: 24 May 2008