A Launceston lawyer has spent the past 12 months volunteering in a country in Micronesia.
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Ryan West had always been interested in volunteering overseas, but it wasn't until mid-2017 that he started actively looking for placement.
The Australian Volunteers program matches people with organisations in 26 countries across the Indo-Pacific region based on their skills.
"I started looking for volunteer placements on their website and come the start of 2018 the position in Kiribati came up and I applied for it," Mr West said.
Kiribati - pronounced kiri-bas - is about 4000 kilometres southwest of Hawaii and is part of the Pacific islands known as Micronesia.
The country has 33 coral islands divided among three island groups: the Gilbert Islands, the Phoenix Islands and the Line Islands.
Mr West's application was successful and he started volunteering at Office of the People's Lawyer Kiribati, which said was the equivalent of Legal Aid, in April last year. A lawyer at the Launceston Community Legal Centre, Mr West was grateful his work gave him 12-months leave to take up the placement.
"It made it a lot easier to make the jump knowing I had the safety net of coming back to a job," he said.
The Australian Volunteers program aims to support partners in the Indo-Pacific region achieve their own development goals, promote professional and personal growth in volunteers, and increase the appreciation of the value of volunteering in Australia and overseas.
"The aim of the volunteer program is really about capacity building and capacity development, so the main role of it is to try to build the capacity of the staff in that partner organisation," Mr West said.
The lawyer's main objective during his year in Kiribati was to develop a law handbook for the young graduate lawyers working at Office of the People's Lawyer Kiribati.
"Obviously when I got there I didn't know anything about the law so I was learning on the run," he said.
"You've got to speak to your colleagues and say, 'what are the main issues here? What do you need help with?'"
The people's office has 18 staff members that includes five lawyers and four paralegals.
"You all work together with everybody in the office," he said.
Mr West was the 126th lawyer to be admitted to Kiribati's bar in its almost 40 years since independence.
"There aren't that many lawyers in Kiribati," he said.
"When these young lawyers are first starting out they're being thrown in on serious trials, so they're in the deep end and they're quite busy."
During his time volunteering, Mr West was also involved in developing a memorandum of understanding with the People's Lawyers Office in Tuvalu to help collaborate for funding and training sessions going forward. But the experience wasn't all about working. Mr West had never visited the Pacific before the trip, pushing him out of his comfort zone and into an amazing experience.
"Everybody there is really friendly, they're so welcoming," he said.
"You don't necessarily have the stresses that you do at home. Obviously they have things to worry about, but it is a lot more of a relaxed vibe."
Joking and dancing are huge parts of the culture.
Mr West laughed before saying people would tell him things but he wouldn't know whether to believe them or not because they loved to joke so much. A child's first birthday is a huge celebration, Mr West said, so there were always big parties with lots of dancing to mark the occasion. Only two weeks after returning to Launceston, Mr West was already planning his next volunteering adventure.
- For more information, visit the website www.australianvolunteers.com