Rising to the challenge: Martin Fawdry in Nigeria
After eight years in banking Martin Fawdry was craving a new kind of challenge. So he took a career break to volunteer abroad in rural Northern Nigeria. Here he explains how volunteering has helped him progress, both personally and professionally.
What were you doing before volunteering with VSO?
I was working as a policy manager at the Cooperative Bank in UK, but I wanted a new challenge. My career was going really well, and I had been promoted recently, but after eight years in banking I was looking for a new kind of challenge. My employer agreed to give me a one-year career break.
Why did you choose VSO over other charities?
I sat in the pub with my partner, Clare, and we wrote a list of the criteria we were looking for in our volunteering. We wanted to use our skills – if we weren’t using our skills, why not just employ a local for the same cost? We wanted to work with the most disadvantaged people in the world, as they probably needed help the most. We didn’t want to work in a war zone or somewhere we’d face extreme risks, and learning a new language would be a bonus. All those things considered, VSO stood out as the best organisation for us.
Explain a bit about the organisation you worked with.
Hope for the Village Child is a small charity employing 24 staff, run by a determined nun from Kansas, Sister Rita. It provides vital support to poor village communities – vaccinating children against polio and meningitis, providing medical care for children with rickets, and setting up and running schools to name but a few services.
What was your role and how effective do you think you were?
The organisation lacked the proper business structure and HR systems to run effectively.
So I worked as an organisational development adviser to help staff understand its strengths and areas for development. It was a tough challenge, but I loved it and I'm really proud of what the team achieved. We went from virtually a standing start to having objectives, work plans, policies and budgets. But most importantly for me, by the time I left the change was being lead and driven by the staff – we'd got some real momentum going and it was being sustained.
What professional skills did you develop?
Flexibility and resourcefulness. The company I was working for before had over 10,000 employees, while Hope for the Child only had 24, and very limited funding. So everyone chips in to help out, and has to be imaginative when it comes to solving problems. Working in an organisational leadership role – I guess you could say I’m a big cog in a small machine, rather than a small cog in a big machine back home. The work I did shaped the direction of the whole organisation, and I enjoyed that responsibility.
What do you think you have gained from the experience?
The VSO experience has helped me develop a truly global view of the world. The culture and the perspectives I have learnt about have helped me challenge my pre-conceptions. From my work in the UK, I’ve seen that staff who take on challenges like VSO, and continue to learn, are the ones who seem to prosper in adverse circumstances. They’ve experienced the highs and lows of a VSO placement and have learned how to adapt quickly.
