More than trimming roses
Nan spends her time trimming, planting and fertilising the beautiful roses as a volunteer gardener at the Werribee Rose Garden.
Nan tells her story in her first language of Karen, with English subtitles.
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Volunteering case study transcript (English)
Hello, my name is Nan. I live in Werribee and I am from AKO, Australian Karen Organisation. I do volunteer work at Werribee Rose Garden.
How did you get involved?
First, I joined the garden club. After that they sent me to the Rose Garden. Because I would like to do some volunteer work to thank the Government as they are helping my Karen people in many ways.
What do you do?
Many people are working there and for us we are doing some trimming and fertilising the plants.
Do you need any special skills?
We don’t need any special skills. Because we are helping one another to plant good roses.
What is the most challenging thing?
There is no difficulty. Because it is just trimming the branches and planting the roses.
What do you like the most?
What I like the most is having conversation meeting many friends and especially trimming the roses.
Do you have any advice for others?
I have opportunity to meet new friends and also there are three Karen women from my own community. We have made more friends and they are helping us in many ways.
What have you got out of it?
Because of volunteering we have opportunities to meet more friends. These friends are helping me in many ways. I can help our students by giving them computers and other things that they have given me.
Nan’s uniform
This is the hat given to me after one year volunteering. I put this on my head while doing volunteering. It looks so nice and I feel very happy with it.