Mayo locals volunteer with SERVE in Mozambique
THIS summer, two Mayo locals, Sinead Coll and Diane Tierney, will travel with 10 others to Mozambique for three weeks where they will work on various projects on the Dondo and Manga campuses, in collaboration with Young Africa.
The programme will be coordinated by SERVE- a Cork-based international developmental organisation.
Diane Tierney attended school at Mount St. Michael’s before going on to study environmental science in UL.
“I always kind of had an interest in science (which might come as a surprise if any of my past teachers are reading this!),” she joked. “When I was in transition year I participated in Gaisce so that involved volunteering in the local community so I would have helped out in the parish at masses and with local Foróige clubs being a youth leader. I also volunteered in Lourdes twice with a Parish group where we brought adults and children living with disabilities to stay for a week. We were there to help their carers and nurses to let them rest if they needed it.”
Sinead, who attended Davitt College, is presently studying mechanical engineering at UL. She too has previous experience with volunteering, having volunteered with SERVE in 2019.
She said: “Since going to Zambia I knew I wanted to do something like this again for a longer period of time. I chose to go with SERVE because I'd such an amazing experience with them the first time.”
Sinead also hopes to gain a new perspective on her future career path and find a way to use her degree to help other people.
SERVE’s work contributes to the 17 Global Goals. As a part of their commitment to becoming Global Citizens, volunteers engage in an extensive training programme in the months leading up to their trip.
Sinead and Diane both noted the value of the workshops, not only for getting to know the other volunteers before going overseas, but also the deeper levels of education on relevant topics.
Sinead said: “I think the training days are really good for getting to know the other volunteers, and they're also educational as we've learnt about the Global Goals. We've learnt that it’s not only about what we do in the countries but about learning what to take from it and how to continue the work in our everyday lives.”
Although they have continued their work in Ireland, SERVE’s overseas programme has been on hold since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Castlebar-based Laura Canning is SERVE’s volunteer programme and global citizenship education coordinator.
Laura commented: “It’s National Volunteer Week and witnessing the journey of all our volunteers is an extreme joy. It's also great to be able to send volunteers overseas to our partners for the first time in three years. We are really looking forward to seeing the impact that the GCE Programme has on our volunteers when they return and how they put their learning into practice through active global citizenship.”