AFTER GIVING back to the local community, a newly retired health authority employee is heading overseas to give back to the global community.
Doug Phillips travels to Mozambique, Africa next month to work as a financial advisor for Kubatsirana, a group that works to help reduce the spread of AIDS. He is going to Chimoio, a city of about 200,000 that’s about 70 km from the capital city Maputo.
“That we have more similarities than differences,” he says, about what he hopes to learn overseas.
Phillips worked for northern health for six years and before that worked for Cominco, a mining company, for 28 years, living in Rossland and working in Trail.
A big part of his job in Mozambique will be to train the Kubatsirana staff to be financial managers.
The main language is Portuguese and he hopes to return here fluent in the language.
For the meantime, he was told that his lack of Portuguese won’t be a problem as a lot of people speak or work in English.
Phillips says that’s his “unselfish” reason for going on this two-year trip, which he’s doing through CUSO-VSO.
CUSO-VSO works with groups and governments in the developing world to identify areas of greatest need and then develops volunteer positions to help that need.
Phillips’ “selfish” reason for going overseas is that he didn’t start travelling until he was in his mid-40s, and never had the opportunity to immerse himself in the cultures in other countries so now he has that chance.
He recently went to Ottawa for five days of training, which included learning about different cultures and what to expect.
One thing he learned was that in Mozambique, it’s considered rude to have your hands in your pockets, and that many land mines are still out in the country from the civil war there about 20 years ago, which could cut down on any ideas of going for walks, he says.
A highlight during training was spending half a day with a person who grew up in Chimoio, Mozambique and whose family still lives there.
Phillips will be arriving in the country’s rainy season, which is the summer and lasts until February.
Temperatures during that time will run 30 to 35 Celsius and in the winter will drop to about 10 to 12 C, he says.
“From the travels I’ve done, it’s [surprising] how quickly you acclimatize,” he says about getting used to the weather in other places.
Phillips will spend 26 hours flying to Mozambique, going from Vancouver to Heathrow, London, then to Johannesburg, South Africa and onto Maputo, Mozambique, followed by an eight-hour bus ride to Chimoio.
He doesn’t expect to come home this Christmas but expects to come back to visit during his 30 day holiday next year.
During his time overseas, he will be fundraising for CUSO-VSO and is expected to raise $2,000, which goes to the organization, and not to him.
Donations to CUSO-VSO are tax deductible.