Thandi Dike tells ther volunteering story as part of our National Volunteering Week 2016 #NVW2016 Consider Volunteering Campaign.
ARRIVING in a new country can be daunting for anyone, but what happens when you are not allowed to work or study in your new home? That was just the situation facing Tralee woman Thandi Dike when she came to Kerry from South Africa in 2009 as an Asylum Seeker with her two young children.
Under Asylum rules Thandi was not allowed to work or to take on study, and so was left with the prospect of doing nothing or volunteering- she chose volunteering and has never looked back. When she first registered with the Kerry Volunteer Centre in 2009 Thandi was living in direct provision in Johnston Marina, and while it has been a long difficult process she was delighted to be awarded residency in September last year.
“For me it was a choice of volunteering or nothing at all, and I like to be busy,” Thandi explained. “I volunteered for a year in the Enable Ireland Charity Shop and have been involved with the Kerry Volunteer Centre for seven years taking on the role of Office Support Worker: I do everything from answering phones to helping put data up on the system, I really enjoy it”.
“For me volunteering has been a great experience, especially when you come from a foreign land and you don’t know anyone. It’s been great to get to meet people and it really helps to get a feel for what is happening in the country and to get settled in,” she added,
Having gone through the system Thandi is more aware than most of the importance of volunteering in helping Asylum Seekers to integrate into their new communities: “For me volunteering has been a great experience, especially when you come from a foreign land and you don’t know anyone.
“It’s been great to get to meet people, to make friends. It really helps to get a feel fro what is happening in the country and to get settled in,” Thandi revealed.
“I would advice any one to just do it, it’s great to keep your mind busy and to get out and do something, give something back to the community,” she added.
With her residency confirmed Thandi is now very much looking forward to the future. Having recently completed the Tralee Jobs Club Career Planning course she is due to start a full time course in September.
It will mean moving on from her role of seven years in the Kerry Volunteer Centre but she is certainly not giving up on volunteering in her life. “I will still volunteer. I won’t be able to do what I do now but I will look to see what I can do at the weekends, once off events, collections. There is always something you can do,” Thandi stressed.
Even as a full time student and busy mum Thandi is determined to keep going: “My two children are teenagers now but school hours are a great time to give yourself an hour or two to volunteer, and do something.”
Her advice to anyone coming in as an Asylum Seeker is to give it a go, but equally to anyone with some spare time on their hands that wants to give something back and keep busy. “It is terrible to have nothing to do, when you volunteer time flies,” she concluded.
