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The Guardian, 4th October 2006
Olivia McGill of GOAL UK wants to hear from accountants and
engineers who would like to make a difference.
 If
you are an accountant or engineer, you might not have thought of
yourself as being in a life-saving profession. Think again.
Our accountants are helping to rebuild lives torn
apart by war in Sudan. Our engineers saved lives after the earthquake
in Pakistan. We are , and we are looking for more people like you.
People like David Cassidy, who spent three years as
a management accountant with Rolls Royce, traveling widely in Britain
and Germany, but who has just finished his first month as roving
accountant with GOAL - in Sudan. David says his life will
never be the same again.
"This is my first job in the humanitarian sector
and unlikely to be my last," he said. "It's very different
to life in the UK, the weather, the attitude, the people. "
"Most of the foreign nationals haven't had a
formal education, which makes improving their ability in the profession
difficult. What I enjoy most about my job is visiting GOAL
projects. Accounting is accounting, for me it's this environment
that's exciting".
Unlike many of the bigger international development
aid agencies, GOAL recruits professionals who have
no volunteering experience. It's a policy that helped David to find
his niche in the third sector.
Founded in Ireland almost 30 years ago by John O'Shea,
a former sports journalist, GOAL is expanding in
the UK, and is looking for more GOALies, as we call our
volunteers. Goal UK is urgently looking for accountants and engineers,
and two information evenings for recruits are coming up in London
- the first is tomorrow.
The aid agency has received praise from the likes
of Mary Robinson, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Kofi Annan, the secretary general of the UN, and the Foreign Office.
"For GOALies, GOAL represents a non-bureaucratic
approach to work, a can-do attitude, and with a low administration
cost - under 5% - you're confident that the money is going straight
to projects we're working on," David said.
Martin Otley, an associated chartered accountant,
is just back from a year with GOAL as a financial
controller in Honduras.
Sitting at his old desk in Deloitte Touche in London,
he is patiently waiting for the dust to settle.
"I felt like I was in a factory, I couldn't sit
another day here. I wanted to see another part of the world - and
I had an interest in development work so it wasn't purely altruistic,"
he said. "My biggest challenge was being part of the emergency
response after a hurricane in neighbouring El Salvador. Because
GOAL is one of the smaller organisations there are more decision
making powers at my level.
"As an NGO we worked closely with government
agencies. It depends on what gives you a buzz, but for me that's
very exciting."
GOAL was one of the first agencies to arrive
in the Bagh region of Pakistan after the earthquake last October.
Andy Cox, an engineer, was among those at the forefront of relief
operations.
"We saved lives by creating one warm room for
the vulnerable," he said. "The people wanted to remain
on or near their homesteads for winter, and we facilitated this.
"Otherwise families would have streamed downhill
when the cold set in. They would have crammed into camps where the
potential for disease and protection issues would be extremely difficult
to counteract."
With a need for earthquake-resistant building practices,
GOAL funded workshops training masons and carpenters in safe
building practices.
Kubilay Hicyilmaz, a British earthquake engineer,
said: "Few of the agencies, except for GOAL and
one other, had an engineer in Pakistan working to address the cause
of the problem rather than just dealing with the fallout.
"Through the workshops GOAL
identified individuals with the right skills, to ensure that the
programme can continue even after we leave."
GOAL urgently needs accountants and engineers
to volunteer to help run its programmes in 13 developing countries.
There's plenty of scope for movement into management positions,
and initiative is rewarded and emphasis placed on a proven ability
to get things done.
So why not transfer your skills to where they could
make the difference between life and death?
GOAL UK is holding an information evening for
finance professionals on October 5 and for engineering professionals
on October 19, both at 6.30pm at Jurys Kensington Hotel, Queens
Gate, London. Registration is required: contact Laura Byrne on lbyrne@goal-uk.org
or 020 7631 3196.
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