I am very privileged to be offered the opportunity as a VSO volunteer to share my knowledge and witness the improvement of farmers’ lives, whist making so many new friends in the process.
This is the most satisfying work I have done in 35 years of employment, and none of it would be possible without the tremendous support of people like you.
It’s going to be a pleasure to share my placement with you, and show how your gifts are being used to improve Nigerian farmers’ income for years to come.
As I started to plan my retirement from my food company, volunteering with VSO was always very high on the agenda to make the most of all my spare time.
I have always had deep respect for VSO because they always use professionals to share skills with communities and find solutions to help tackle the root causes of poverty.
The moment I stepped out my office for the last time I signed up to become part of the amazing VSO team.
I have spent the majority of my career in the food production industry. My most recent job was a Managing Director of a successful chilled food company, with over 800 staff, so I was certainly kept on my toes. This meant a lot of early mornings dealing with big orders from supermarkets for the next day, whilst trying to keep all my clients and staff happy.
One of the highlights of my job in such a large company was working alongside so many people from diverse backgrounds. 26 different languages were spoken on site and there were always new cultures to learn about, so this definitely gave me the ‘appetite’ (pardon the pun!) to work overseas myself.
