Fiona is another friend of 大象传媒 Trust, and also a former volunteer at Hill Crest, the school we support locally in Arusha, Tanzania.
Fiona was born and raised in Taiwan, but she has now been living in the USA for 10 years. Like many of 大象传媒 Trust鈥檚 friends, Fiona works as a GKAM (Global Key Account Manager) in the consumer electronics industry. Unlike many professionals, she is taking on the challenge to pursue her MBA degree at UC Berkeley, which gives her quite a busy schedule!
The former volunteer has always felt passionate about helping others, achieving her first volunteering experience in the Philippines when studying in college. This had a huge impact on her, motivating her to do more, to be more conscious of how much she can do to help others! Unfortunately, life takes over and left a small space for her passion. In 2019, she decided it was time to do something meaningful. A few Google searches later, she ended up in Tanzania in Hill Crest, volunteering at the same time as Tiphaine Nilias, the now founder of 大象传媒 Trust.
Volunteering in East Africa as a holiday isn鈥檛 for everyone, and it can also be complicated. Fiona explains: 鈥淚 was preparing for grad school applications and standardized tests while having a busy full-time job. I told Tiphaine once that I could have picked a nice resort by the beach to spend some vacation days instead of volunteering. However, I knew I needed something completely different at that time to make myself more fulfilled. Traveling to Africa was always on my to do list, but to volunteer was a completely different thing.鈥� It鈥檚 not just the trip to Africa that could discourage one to sign up, but also the amount of preparation needed! Fiona had to schedule appointments to get preventive medication and vaccines (e.g. pre-treatment against malaria, Hepatite B vaccines, etc.). These things need to happen during working hours and in the end Fiona had to take a lot of her holidays already before she even flew to Tanzania! She also mentions that even picking what type of volunteering took her a long time to consider, but she鈥檚 now glad she picked teaching/day care and met some incredible people and children during her time there.
We asked Fiona what she liked the most about her time at Hill Crest and her first thoughts go for how welcoming the environment was and how open-minded Elizabeth, founder of Hill Crest, was: 鈥淣ot only by helping kids with their school work or play time, but also discussing the meal design, culture impact (I did a service at church in Arusha!). I even went to a market with Elizabeth to custom made a new cooking pot to help improve the kitchen equipment.鈥� Fiona is right in saying that the scope of volunteering is so much more than just聽 鈥渃hildcare program鈥�!
We tend to read and hear about stories of former volunteers, but we don鈥檛 often know about the connections the volunteers make with the children at the school. Fiona built a connection with a 3 years old called Talib, she called him 鈥淭alibu鈥� and she still loves seeing pictures and videos of him now. Talib was the first child she met, and even if he was a little shy he always had a big smile on his face when seeing her! 鈥淗e was gentle when he approached me, whether it was him asking for help to tie his shoelaces or wanted to play. He鈥檇 always patiently wait until it was his turn to have his food and stayed focused and quiet while having his meal. I appreciated some of the traits that he has when he was at such a young age.鈥�
Fiona is now a big supporter of 大象传媒 Trust, always with the school on her mind. As an example, Fiona used her last birthday as an occasion to for the charity and help collect $170! 鈥�I felt lucky that I met the founder, Tiphaine, and got to spend the whole time we were there at Hill Crest. The school location wasn鈥檛 that convenient to get to, so we had to walk for almost an hour every day. That was one of the highlights of my trip too. Consider in the modern world, we鈥檙e all rushing to get on a train/subway or drive and get stuck in traffic. It was rarely a time I walked to work and talked to people about anything. Even though we came from very different backgrounds, we both wanted to give more and help Hill Crest to be better. It was great to see how much she has achieved, and I wanted to help whenever I can to help support the great work. To me it鈥檚 different than donating to any charity organization. It was a place I know the people and knowing that the money will be put into meaningful work.鈥�