By Romy Stephens
Almost five years ago, Maree Schleibs made a life-changing decision.
The bookkeeper from Montrose, in her early 60s at the time, decided to pack up her bags and volunteer in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Maree initially intended to devote two years to the role. But after falling in love with helping the community of Kokopo and meeting her partner, Eoin, she extended her stay and only returned to Australia in May this year.
“It was a little scary at first…the weather was a little bit overwhelming,” Maree said.
“Then we got back to my base in Kokopo and I started my assignment.
“You immerse yourself in the community.
“People are very welcoming, they’re very friendly. They’re very curious about you and the way you live.”
Maree spent her first two years in PNG training accountants in local government as part of the Australian Volunteers program.
She helped transform the governments initially unorganised revenue system into a more modern, computerised accounting system before extending her stay and completing two other assignments doing similar work.
Maree said the locals were extremely enthusiastic about improving themselves, but unfortunately, they didn’t always have enough resources available.
“They’re willing to learn but they don’t have either the education or the teaching that is needed.”
“There’s school and there’s education but it’s quite a low level.
“Computers, computerised systems and things like that are not very prevalent.”
During her time volunteering in Kokopo, Maree also met her Irish partner, Eoin.
Eoin was also volunteering when they met three years ago and despite now living in different countries, the pair are still together today.
Maree still volunteers her time once a week as an energy mentor at Lilydale Assist. She said volunteering is an extremely fulfilling experience and the people in PNG taught her a lot about life.
“People make the best of things. They make things out of nothing, they make their houses out of raw material and they’re very willing to learn,” she said.
Australian Volunteers is a program ﹘ supported by the federal government ﹘ that gives Australians, with a broad range of skills, the opportunity to help developing countries.
Maree said the program not only connected her with an incredible location for her assignments but also provided her with an allowance so she could support herself while overseas.
According to Australian Volunteers, PNG has become a second home for more than 1500 Australian volunteers who have supported development there since 1964.
For more information on how to become a volunteer visit https://www.australianvolunteers.com/.
