As Palms Australia begins its jubilee year, we welcome two new staff members to our ranks.
Marie Gilbert has filled the new role of Recruitment, Events and Media Officer. Marie has twice volunteered with Palms, in Papua New Guinea and Kiribati. Her recent studies in media and communication is already proving useful as she re-engages Palms’ contacts to assist with recruitment.
Fiona Cairns is Palms’ new Country Program Officer. Fiona volunteered in Papua New Guinea for Mt Sion Centre for the Blind and Optical Workshop. Fiona brings experience in business, administration and counselling to Palms two days per week.
Fiona and Marie will focus initially on meeting our target of deploying 20 more volunteers immediately following our July Orientation Course. Following the initial recruitment period, their skills will be turned towards a variety of areas including publicity, Jubilee and CommUNITY events and resourcing volunteers and partners in the field.
Our recent Orientation Course was a tremendous success and this was in large part because of the hard work of Celine Passot. Celine has recently completed a 6-month internship with Palms, as part of our partnership with L’Ecole de Commerce de La Rochelle. Celine has returned to France to complete her studies and we wish her well.
Just as Celine has finished though, we are grateful for our new intern, Enora Brunet, who will be with us for the next five months. Enora will provide and develop her administrative support and marketing skills and we hope she learns much from the experience and enjoys her time in Australia.
Finally, we would like to acknowledge the contributions of Lyn Byatt, who has been volunteering in our office one day per week. Lyn’s talent and flexibility are proving very useful in a wide variety of tasks, from updating our educational materials to improving our office systems. As we have mentioned in our Social Capital series over the last year, it is contributions such as Lyn’s which allow Palms to ensure each donated dollar is well spent.