Carmarthenshire officer's key role in Cameroon
A Carmarthenshire Council officer has practiced her skills in developing participation and public services in Cameroon.
Ros Bellamy, a Quality Officer at the Council’s Adult learning Service, heard about International Learning Opportunities, a leadership development programme run by Public Service Management Wales and Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).
She saw it as an opportunity to enhance both her professional and her personal development.
With support from her employers, she took a two-month break from her role and accepted a placement as an advisor for a local council in the North West Province of Cameroon.
Ros Bellamy said:“I’ve travelled on my own and met retired professional people who are giving their skills in totally different environments – doing the same seemed an exciting prospect to me.”
Once in Cameroon, Ros worked alongside the Mayor and Executive Committee to build relations between the council and community, in order to encourage more responsible public service and greater participation.
“There’s a gradual process of decentralisation in Cameroon, so the council needs to build its capacity to deliver more public services such as education, health and improving infrastructure,” added Ros.
The placement was a huge success. Ros reinforced tools like time management, monitoring and evaluation, which her colleagues at the council had previously found hard to apply, and ran a series of workshops to introduce economic planning and communications techniques.
She also helped ensure sustainability by training three of the council staff in Excel, on the understanding that they would go on to teach their colleagues their newly advanced spreadsheet skills.
Ros is now back at work in Carmarthenshire, but inspired by her experiences in Cameroon is planning a longer placement in the future. She would recommend volunteering to anyone.
She said:“There’s no doubt in my mind that I’ll be a better leader and manager now.
“The chance to be out of my comfort zone, take risks and try new ways of doing things, has given me a real boost of energy.”
To find out more about the many different ways you can get involved with VSO, go www.vso.org.uk
Ros Bellamy, a Quality Officer at the Council’s Adult learning Service, heard about International Learning Opportunities, a leadership development programme run by Public Service Management Wales and Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).
She saw it as an opportunity to enhance both her professional and her personal development.
With support from her employers, she took a two-month break from her role and accepted a placement as an advisor for a local council in the North West Province of Cameroon.
Ros Bellamy said:“I’ve travelled on my own and met retired professional people who are giving their skills in totally different environments – doing the same seemed an exciting prospect to me.”
Once in Cameroon, Ros worked alongside the Mayor and Executive Committee to build relations between the council and community, in order to encourage more responsible public service and greater participation.
“There’s a gradual process of decentralisation in Cameroon, so the council needs to build its capacity to deliver more public services such as education, health and improving infrastructure,” added Ros.
The placement was a huge success. Ros reinforced tools like time management, monitoring and evaluation, which her colleagues at the council had previously found hard to apply, and ran a series of workshops to introduce economic planning and communications techniques.
She also helped ensure sustainability by training three of the council staff in Excel, on the understanding that they would go on to teach their colleagues their newly advanced spreadsheet skills.
Ros is now back at work in Carmarthenshire, but inspired by her experiences in Cameroon is planning a longer placement in the future. She would recommend volunteering to anyone.
She said:“There’s no doubt in my mind that I’ll be a better leader and manager now.
“The chance to be out of my comfort zone, take risks and try new ways of doing things, has given me a real boost of energy.”
To find out more about the many different ways you can get involved with VSO, go www.vso.org.uk
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