Volunteering to learn

15 October 2007

RMS Refugee Resettlement and ESOL Home Tutors - the work closely interlinks.

Both organisations have been established for over 30 years, building an extensive bank of expertise. RMS works to resettle refugees and trains volunteers to help support them. ESOL Home Tutors trains volunteers to provide practical English language skills and social support to migrants and refugees.

Seeing with new eyes 
Marcel Proust once said "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." In many ways that describes the experiences of RMS and ESOL Home Tutors volunteers.

Training to meet the need
Training as a volunteer with either organisation not only provides new skills and enables volunteers to teach others, it opens the doors to ongoing learning experiences. Volunteers work with people from other cultures helping them integrate here but they also learn much themselves, with fundamental benefits for our society. As they discover more about the people they help, they share that with others, creating a domino educational effect, challenging perceptions and helping people to understand other cultures.

Training volunteers and matching them with people from other cultures contributes to changing society's perceptions and breaking down barriers - providing better social outcomes for this country. Ten million people worldwide are displaced from their homeland. While migrants make the choice to move to a different country, refugees do not choose to come. They are forced from their homelands by persecution leaving behind all they have known. New Zealand takes 750 refugees a year plus 300 people through family reunification. Many currently come from Myanmar - formerly Burma.

The benefits to New Zealand 
Our training helps make New Zealand more welcoming. Being welcomed helps dignified settlement and contributes towards people becoming valuable members of society. RMS's volunteers become part of the support network which helps recently arrived refugees. After arriving in their resettlement area many refugees will be referred to ESOL Home Tutors for assessment and support. Gradually people become independent but it is still important for them to know someone is there. Learning is not just about facts. Many have endured so much they have to learn to trust. ESOL Home Tutors provide practical tutoring - offering lessons in the learner's home but also going out with learners to help with language skills for particular needs - such as speaking to a child's teacher. Tutors and learners introduce each other to experiences from both their cultures. The service is not funded for the social outcomes it produces - but its work for New Zealanders is part of a far more extensive learning process.

RMS and ESOL Home Tutors regard ourselves as sister organisations. We possess a huge bank of expertise, have much in common and are working towards the best settlement outcomes for our clients. We can identify need and help formulate the best policies to unlock the many skills and gifts the people we work to help can bring to this country.

Photo: Jude Walcott (RMS Resettlement) and Grace Bassett (ESOL Home Tutors)