Te Wiki Tūao ā-Motu – National Volunteer Week honours the collective energies and mana of volunteers in Aotearoa. Below are the stories of our own staff that we celebrate and acknowledge for the time and skills they share with our wider communities.
More stories will be shared next week as we had quite a response!
Grand National Eid-ul-Ghadeer Event 2022 by ICONZ, Muhammad is 5th from right
Muhammad Sajjad Haider Naqvi – Student Central advisor
By profession, Muhammad is an academician who has been associated with tertiary education sector for more than 15 years. He arrived to New Zealand in 2016, and from the same year started to volunteer with religious/community organisations.
Maja: Tell us about your current volunteering….
Muhammad: I am currently associated with a number of charities mainly catering for migrants from the Subcontinent and Arab communities.
- Al Murtaza Association is a platform where we come together to organise important religious events so we can have that continuity between our old and new lives, as well as to support migrant families integrate into New Zealand’s way of life. For example, we’ve provided short courses on digital marketing and Xero accounting software, aimed at specifically women so they could set up their flexible, work from home businesses. I am deeply involved with this organisation, and I was president last year, and committee member this year.
- The Islamic Council of New Zealand (ICONZ), is an umbrella organisation that has all the other constitute charities, as members of it. Within ICONZ, I am part of the Religious Diversity Trust, and for example, I am currently representing ICONZ within the Religious Diversity Centre and Department of Corrections Advisory Committee.
Maja: Is volunteering something you’ve always done, even back home?
Muhammad: Back home, I never did this scale volunteering. I was more of a participant, since there is no shortage of people organising these things. But when we moved here, only a few of us were able to give their time to these things. Also, as a migrant, my responsibility for my family grew to include sense of responsibility for other families. So initially, we started small. Groups of 7 or 8 of us were running things for first few years. After the March 15th shooting tragedy in Christchurch, the young leadership took the role of running ICONZ and increased their engagement within the community and with the other stakeholders. Currently, the network of ICONZ is all over New Zealand with entities from Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, and Hamilton.
Maja: So what do you get from this? Why do you still do it after all those years?
Muhammad: Well as I mentioned, first it was the need that got me into action mode. But once it started, I realised it is more than a need. It is something I love to do. It gives me spiritual satisfaction within myself. I believe whatever skills someone has, we need to use them for a better cause.
Paula with her daughter
Paula Arkensteyn – Language studies lecturer
A Unitec lecturer for around 20 years, Paula told us a story of how her volunteering journey started over a year ago.
Maja: So I hear you are a volunteer at Habitat for Humanity?
Paula: Yes that’s right. I volunteer at one of their op-shops (Wairau park). It started with seeing a sign on the shop window, asking for volunteers. Initially I wanted my daughter Nikki to do it, to gain confidence and experience in retail. She is quite shy so after her first training day, the store manager called me to say she wasn’t coping well. We agreed on the compromise, for me to come in with her, at least in the beginning. But I ended up really enjoying it, and we’ve been doing it together for a year and a half now. Every Sunday for 3 hours.
Maja: In addition to helping your daughter, why do you keep doing this?
Paula: I love recycling and believe there is a home for everything. There is that saying : “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” and by volunteering at the store, I get to see that in action. I also love the Habitat for Humanity ethos – helping people with their homes.
And it’s fun. Often it ends up feeling like Christmas, when I sort through the donations and find something interesting or unusual. I love when I put something out on the shopping floor, and see someone buy it that same day. In addition, I have learned a lot about design labels and different kind of pottery and glassware. We often carry out online research to help with pricing of the donations.
As for my daughter – she has a lot more confidence being on the till and helping customers, and found it really useful when she recently did Warehouse Red Shirts in Schools Gateway Programme. She’s looking for her first part-time retail job now so if anyone has any leads….