New Lives:Aoife Cormacain and Jim Mara are using their job skills to work with Goal, writes Claire O'Connell
For many people the start of a new year sees the beginning (and end) of a diet, or a commitment to go to the gym more often. But logistics expert Aoife Cormacain and accountant Jim Mara are being a little more adventurous in 2007. They will spend this year in Sierra Leone in West Africa, working with the humanitarian organisation Goal to help rebuild a country ravaged by civil war.
Cormacain had her first brush with this type of aid when she visited her sister, who was working with an NGO in Brazil. "For me that highlighted the work and the good that NGO workers can do," she says.
She returned home to Belfast for a friend's wedding, where she met Mara, an accountant from Maynooth who was working in the Cayman Islands. They kept in touch and Cormacain eventually moved to the Caymans to work as an office manager.
But despite the exotic location, the couple wanted to travel further.
"I was getting itchy feet to get out of the Caymans again and we were searching around for jobs," explains Mara. "On the Institute of Chartered Accountants website I saw an ad for work for an accountant with an NGO. It sounded interesting."
When Mara submitted his CV, Goal responded. "They got in touch and said they would interview me. I said Aoife and I would need to go together, so they had a look at Aoife's CV. They saw all the logistics experience that she had and Goal are also in need of logisticians."
Goal interviewed the pair when they came home to Ireland for Christmas and accepted them straight away. But to get a posting together, they would have to wait.
"Because the two of us wanted to go together it made it a bit more difficult, because not every disaster zone or developing country needs an accountant and a logistician at the same time," explains Mara. "So they said if you can just be patient and hang on, eventually a situation will crop up where both skills are required."
They waited, but when nothing concrete had come up by July, the couple began to think this wasn't going to happen. Mara took an accounting job in Luxembourg and Cormacain moved over to look for work there. A week later, they got an e-mail from Goal to say a post had come up for them in Sierra Leone.
"In the beginning we thought it was not the right time, we can't do it," says Cormacain. "But then we realised how much we wanted to do it, so we just said now is the time, we may as well go for it."
Initially, the pair knew little about Sierra Leone. "It had been in the press in the past and lots of people had heard of it in relation to either diamonds or civil war. That was the extent of our knowledge at the time," says Cormacain.
But with a bit of help from Google and Goal, they filled themselves in on the issues that the impoverished country faces after its 11-year civil war. "A lot of children were recruited into the army," says Cormacain. "Children have been displaced from their parents and they have lost the structure of family, people to look after them. We are looking at a country that has a very young population that has no direction. So it's just trying to help them get back on their feet and to rebuild the infrastructure of family, getting children in contact with their relatives again."
Other problems include corruption, thanks to the country's natural resource of diamonds, HIV/Aids and a lack of education. "The infrastructure of the country is devastated, there's a fair bit to put back together," says Mara.
Cormacain will leave for Sierra Leone later this month and Mara goes in early February to join a team of local and international Goal staff based in the nation's capital, Freetown.
"One of the main projects is helping the homeless kids, getting them off the streets," explains Mara, adding that Cormacain will also work with Goal's community health programme in the Kenema region.
"I'll be working as an accountant and Aoife will be working on the logistics. We will be working together on a lot of things, keeping track of the stock and where the money is going and producing the accounts."
Cormacain has already attended a week-long preparation course for overseas aid work. "It prepared your mind, asked you questions about why are you going, what can you do to help, as well as talking about issues in different countries like gender issues or taboo subjects.
"It also provided practical information like when you are away how to manage stress or if you are feeling down and lonely and things are getting on top of you."
She is philosophical about the potential risks.
"You can be in danger anywhere if you want to put yourself in danger - I wouldn't walk home late in Belfast," she says. "The NGOs have been there for quite a few years and know the pitfalls. They have set out ground rules and we will have a driver, someone who knows the way, knows the roads."
And they go with the blessings of home. "Yes, our parents are worried but they are great because they see this is something we want to do," says Cormacain. "Also, a few of our friends have gone into fundraising mode and have arranged events to raise money for Goal."
As they prepare to head out for at least a year, the couple are very excited about their adventure.
"It's going to be a new area of accounting that I haven't worked in before so I'm looking forward to the challenge of the job," says Mara. "And living in an African country and being immersed in their culture, it's going to be totally different."
And for Cormacain, the thrill will be getting stuck into the projects and seeing improvements happen: "I'm not saying I'm going out to save the world but if we can help a few people along the way, hopefully it will be great."
See www.goal.ie