by Austin Kpoto, UN Volunteer

29 May 2012

Timor-Leste: My name is Austin Kpoto and I come from Liberia, Africa.

On 18 December 2006, I was recruited as a UN Volunteer and deployed to the United Nations Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) to work in the Transport Section. I have since worked with a number of local and international staff in several areas, including maintenance of vehicle electrical systems, enhancing efficient diagnostics and troubleshooting maintenance and repairs of related electrical tasks.

I have voluntarily established a capacity building training programme for national and international staff in the transport unit, provided trainings for University of Timor-Leste Electrical Engineering students, and delivered extended technical training on the operations and usage of Toyota Intelligent testers to UN staff in the four regional centres.

To make the trainings sustainable, several documents that would serve as future references for the trainees were developed. Along with the Transport team, I prepared training modules and manuals with all substantial information. The manuals and the trainings combined made the programme very successful.

During my spare time, I participate in extra volunteer work directly with the Timorese people. I have been supporting local efforts to establish a pre-school named St. Mary’s Child Development Centre. The objective of this pre-school project is to enhance life opportunities in a modern society for Timorese children through a diversified education.

My support in this project does not have anything to do with electrical engineering. Instead, my contribution is to plan, mobilize and utilize local materials in an innovative way. I strongly believe this will contribute to Timor-Leste's pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals in Education and Gender equality.

There are aspects of volunteerism that can be measured not only in the long run, but in the short term too.  To deliver a service that has a direct impact on the host communities provides the volunteer an immediate feeling of satisfaction.  

Volunteer contributions such as doing capacity building and knowing the long-term effect that it will have on people, also gives the volunteer an invaluable feeling of purpose. By sharing our knowledge we are sharing tools with Timorese people to use for the upcoming challenges, just like the Chinese proverb says: “Teach a person how to fish rather than give him the fish”.

As UN Volunteers, the contributions we make and the ideas we have should be geared to capacity building that will help towards the development of countries where peacekeeping missions exist.

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BIO
Austin Kpoto studied in his homeland, at the University of Liberia, where he obtained a BSc in Electrical Engineering. Upon completing his bachelor studies, he was appointed as Capacity Building Lecturer for the Electrical Engineering Division College of Science and Technology. The position was created under an agreement between the University of Liberia and the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). Austin is currently pursuing an MSc.