Volunteer News at The LEAD Group

Volunteering at The LEAD Group contributes to Career Progress

By Robert Taylor, Volunteer Researcher, The LEAD Group, Sydney, Australia

Here at The LEAD Group we like to watch our volunteers extend their skills and grow in their roles. We also like the recommendations provided by our fearless clan leader, the Irish redhead, the fighting Elizabeth of the O’Briens who contributes to this. Volunteering is a key role for this undermanned outpost, providing a source of employment references for individuals who frequently have little work experience within this country. In the past month Iman Hegazi, a toxicologist from Egypt, who worked very hard in responding with informative advice and library articles to clear the backlog of requests for information sent to us via our website , has won a scholarship for a PhD in medical education. Even though she will no longer be coming in to the office every week (and her presence will be sorely missed) Iman is completing two fact sheets on lead and Alzheimer’s (for lay and technical readers respectively) that will be web published on our site.

Orlando Aguirre-Lopez, a Columbian who translates documents into Spanish, has begun a TAFE course as a paraprofessional translator. His Spanish translation of the Iron Nutrition and Lead Toxicity factsheet will shortly be web published. Gayani Vaz Gunawardena has obtained paid employment in an IT position after less than a month with us. Ellie Li has obtained her first work in marketing since finishing her Masters degree during which she expanded her skills by designing and undertaking an online marketing project for our lead test kits.

A young Chinese woman without longstanding family connections in Australia who recently joined our office team has said that volunteering has helped her become better at communicating and socializing with individuals from multi-ethnic backgrounds. “Secondly, I have been an environmentalist since I was a teenager. It is very meaningful for me that I can do this volunteer job for our environment, which helps me to achieve my dream.”

As for the Manager, Elizabeth O’Brien, she says: “I really look forward to such dedicated volunteers coming into the office every week. There’s always some new task that needs to be done in administering an information and referral service run by a charity, so it’s great when the volunteers love taking on the challenge and expanding their skill-set.”

We hope to report many similar success stories in future. Any one who wishes to contribute to our effort at lead education while expanding their résumés and work experience should contact us at 1800 626 086 or check out The LEAD Group’s volunteer job ads at www.seek.com.au - then click on Seek Volunteer; or www.volunteersearch.gov.au or www.lead.org.au/volunteer.html