28/03/2023
A MEANINGFUL VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY WITH AN AMAZING COMMUNITY!
Head on down down to Salisbury this Friday (8am-3pm) if you’re looking to do some volunteer work. Their active every single week so stop by even if that’s only for an hour or two.❤️💛🇵🇬
TALENTED VOLUNTEER
Here at Books 4 PNG Kids we rely on the goodwill and dedication of our volunteers, many of whom have hidden talents and experience living in PNG.
One of them is Catherine Levy, who lived in PNG from 1986 to 2013, and is a talented linguist, translator, teacher, charity worker and Harry Potter devotee.
Catherine says she first lived in PNG "in the bush near Bogia", on a small island in Hansa Bay, "working as a minion (the manager's wife) for a research station belonging to the University of Brussels".
"Then I moved to Madang and taught at the Department of PNG Studies, Divine Word University, while doing linguistic research on local languages (seven years), then worked freelance on NGO projects evaluation, adult literacy schools, HIV and AIDS awareness, community conversations and more.
"Then we moved to POM as a family, and I was a French teacher there at the POM International High School."
Both of her children were born in Madang, and maintain PNG connections. Her son Sam swam internationally for PNG for 13 years, and her daughter Tamara has volunteered for Books 4 PNG Kids.
Catherine has loved books and literacy all her life, but when she moved to Brisbane, she despaired about being able to send books to PNG, because of the cost of freight.
"But then I bumped into Heather at the PNG Independence celebration in 2014, and she changed my life! The rest is history," Catherine says.
Now Catherine volunteers on Fridays at Books 4 PNG Kids' Brisbane factory, and she is the one to thank for compiling complete Harry Potter sets.
"If one of the seven volumes is missing for too long, I print and laminate a summary of that particular books, so that the readers can have access to the whole plot."
Catherine also does charity work for Days for Girls (reusable sanitary pads), and does Tok Pisin translations for local charities.
"Volunteering at Books 4 PNG Kids is incredibly feel-good - being active at the fundamental level of literacy, practising social justice as the right for all to access learning, knowing that the books are indeed making a change.
"I cannot thank Heather enough for making this happen."
