Paul Morkel
I have worked at Informa for nearly two years in marketing roles and have been in marketing based jobs at two other companies since finishing university. Volunteering in Costa Rica will be a complete change of lifestyle from my normal day-to-day routine and provides the opportunity to make a difference to the lives of others. In marketing it is important to track the results of your efforts to see what is effective and learn for the future. This will be the case for the house building scheme too, with the extra incentive of working alongside the prospective families adding to the experience and providing further motivation to the project.
I am very much looking forward to working outside and physically challenging myself, as well as improving my fitness for the IBI squash league. It will be a welcome break from the desk and computer and will be extremely rewarding to see the results of your efforts taking shape around you. I am familiar with working in teams at work and in sport and hope this experience will benefit the group in this unusual situation.
End Goal
I am keen to be put into this challenging environment and work closely with the people that will benefit from this scheme. Essentially helping to improve people’s lives in Costa Rica is the main aim, with the added benefit of developing my personal and practical skills. I would like to raise awareness of the work being done by these schemes and the value they provide to both participants and recipients.
What can I do to achieve this goal?
Work hard, support the team and keep spirits up.
Learning from and interacting with the families we will be staying with and working alongside will also help to underline the importance of this scheme and provide the drive to be as productive as possible. Maintaining the blog will provide others with insight into the project and will help to promote the work being done in these areas and ideally encourage more staff to sign up to future programmes.