Embracing the volunteer experience – Christeen’s story

Christeen is originally from Israel, she moved to New Zealand with her husband and her 3 year old daughter in 2018. Her first step to meet people and get experience on the job was through Multicultural Whangarei, where she was introduced to Volunteering Northland.

During her time volunteering with Multicultural Whangarei she has been a great asset to the office not only by sharing her wide administrative/accounting knowledge but also by volunteering in one off time events and participating of workshops like “The Treaty of Waitangi”.

The benefits Christeen gained from volunteering

 Getting to know people and widen her social network
 Learning more about New Zealand customs and culture
 Able to practice her English which improved her fluency and confidence on the language
 New Zealand working experience
 Had fun and felt good by helping others

Christeen has also showed interest in other administrative volunteering roles after participating of the Volunteering Northland Guided Workshop not long ago, which she really enjoyed. Unfortunately, her situation has changed and due to not having been successful in getting a paid job to support her family, she has decided to go back home.

By Nataly Cardoso.

Thank you Volunteering Northland for sharing this inspiring story about Christeen.

Volunteering New Zealand have produced a National Strategy to Support Volunteering for Recent Migrants, we encourage you all to read it here.