Martin and Tanya - an AVI romance
Martin & Tanya's Story
Martin & Tanya met while they worked at Community
Corrections in 2008, got married last year and are now expecting
their first child in October 2010.
After returning to Australia at the end of her volunteer
assignment, Tanya lived in Sydney for a year working in Child
Protection before moving back to Darwin. She commenced working as
the Intensive Case Manager with Community Corrections until
September 2009 when she moved across to Correctional Services to
work as the Senior Case Manager at the Don Dale Juvenile Detention
Centre.
At the end of his volunteering assignment, after returing to
Australia, Martin lived in Broome before Remote Recruiting
approached him to work as an Alcohol & Other Drug (AOD)
Counsellor on the Tiwi Islands. From the Tiwi Islands, Martin moved
to Wadeye to work as the Senior Probation & Parole Officer with
Community Corrections. In September 2009, he moved across to work
with the Department of Health & Families in remote Aboriginal
communities setting up Safe Places, a program addressing Family
Violence.
Both Tanya & Martin valued the opportunity to
volunteer overseas and learnt so much from the experience of
working in various cross-cultural settings under different work
conditions.
Even though both Tanya & Martin had worked with Indigenous
people prior to volunteering with AVI, the knowledge and skills
they developed overseas greatly assists both of them today with
working with Indigenous people back in Australia.
When it comes to volunteering, they both agree that besides
growing as a person, you also increase your capacity and skill set
as a worker.
"The volunteering experience rewards you more than you
realise, you develop skills and obtain experience that you cannot
learn at university or from reading books. We recommend
volunteering with AVI strongly to our friends and work colleagues
whenever the opportunity arises, as it is so beneficial to both
your personal and professional life."
You can read more volunteer stories at our Volunteer
Stories page.