I was lucky to get a job immediately after I got my university degree in librarianship. It was a Library Assistant in an academic library. I did the job for four then moved on with my husband overseas and that is when volunteering entered my life.
I volunteered to help cataloguing and classifying the collection of BMI, Bishop Mackenzie International School in Malawi when I was there with my husband. The library was in need for help from a professional librarian. The school couldn’t afford to employ two librarians and didn’t want to get ride of the librarian who was running the library for quite long time. Cataloguing the collection allowed me to have a close look at it and advice them on how to develop it.
Beside the library work I used some of my free time volunteering as a membership secretary for International Women’s Association. Joining the association was a great opportunity for me to meet women from all over the world, organise events to raise money for, orphanage centres, help single poor women to establish small business so they can have steady income to look after their children. Our main fund raiser was an annual bazaar and I was responsible of running the book stall. Although this wasn’t library related work a part from book stall but it did equip me with skills such as plan down to small details, respect other people ideas and understanding, meet target, be patience and focused to achieve targets and above all learn to live and enjoy different culture and respect and or obey the rules of the society you are living in.
If you are living a nomad life like mine (moving country every two or three years) then volunteering is the best starting point for finding a job, knowing the country you are living in and its people. Volunteering in Africa is very valuable and appreciated as the need for free help is greater than anywhere else.
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