News

There are a range of vol­un­teer­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties with­in Coun­cil and our help­ful team are ready to coor­di­nate. Whether you’re pas­sion­ate about help­ing peo­ple face to face, or pre­fer to lend assis­tance behind the scenes, it’s nev­er been eas­i­er to be a volunteer. 

Roger Thom­son has been a vol­un­teer at the Alice Springs Pub­lic Library for more than a year help­ing peo­ple with Eng­lish as a sec­ond lan­guage improve their skills, say­ing it’s beyond rewarding. 

“It nev­er occurred to me to vol­un­teer until Des­de­mona Shee (Library Offi­cer), whom I used to work with and knew that I had taught Eng­lish to adults, asked if I could help out. I said yes with­out hav­ing a clue what I was actu­al­ly going to do,” Roger said. 

“Since then, I have had won­der­ful expe­ri­ences with my stu­dents. I have had stu­dents from Viet­nam, Peru, Nige­ria as well as a cou­ple of local Indige­nous men. 

“Each stu­dent has had dif­fer­ent needs and all ask intrigu­ing ques­tions about Eng­lish that real­ly make me think about the struc­ture of our lan­guage and how it works. Frankly, I think I get more out of the time with them than they do with me.”

Coun­cil have a range of vol­un­teers on board, some that have been giv­ing their time for years while oth­ers are new to the world. 

Harsh Bansal began help­ing this year, say­ing it gave extra pur­pose to his every­day life.

“I have found vol­un­teer­ing gives you oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­nect with the soci­ety,” Harsh said.

“Being a vol­un­teer means that you get to meet lots of won­der­ful peo­ple and they all appre­ci­ate your efforts. It real­ly brings pur­pose and mean­ing to my life. I am work­ing from home from past three years and vol­un­teer­ing give you that chance to phys­i­cal­ly go out and inter­act with folks.”

If you would like to donate your time and help the com­mu­ni­ty through vol­un­teer­ing, con­tact ASTC’s Vol­un­teer Coor­di­na­tor Roman Khi­ti­aev today at RKhitiaev@​astc.​nt.​gov.​au