Julie is longest serving volunteer staff

CAREERS

LITTLE did she expect to come this far but Julie has closed 25 years with the organization she has worked with since 1999.
It is through perseverance, loyalty and commitment that you can reach your personal or professional goals in life.
These words of encouragement were given by Julie Raka during an in-house event celebrating her milestone achievement.
Julie started her career with the National Volunteer Service (NVS) on Feb 1, 1999 when the office was located at the Watkins Mall at 4-mile in the nation’s capital.
She joined the Community Education & Development Programme as the Capacity Building Coordinator and has worked her way up since.
She initially learned about the organization and the work it does when she volunteered to conduct a session on Conflict Resolution for one of its Batch 8 Volunteer Mid Service Conference (MSC) a year prior to her recruitment.
Julie says she was impressed by the organisation’s theme then; “People Growing Together through Volunteerism” which prompted her to find out more about the organization.
“Volunteering at heart to recruit and train volunteers to engage in rural communities to help raise their standard of living through various projects in different sectors is what attracted my attention and motivated me to join this worthwhile journey,” she said.
The mother of three from Central and Gulf is also the longest serving staff of the organisation since its establishment in 1990 through an Act of Parliament.
NVS, a state agency, is responsible for volunteer recruitment and volunteer management programmes in communities throughout the country.
This, was in line with Julie’s interest in humanitarian work as she understood the organization’s mandate, having herself equipped with a background in volunteerism.
Julie was thrilled to join NVS as she had some prior experience of volunteer work and wanted to utilize these skills.
Before joining the organisation, she was conducting community development trainings specifically in people skills and conflict resolutions and project management on her own accord.
Together with that knowledge, she pursued her journey in volunteer service working under various sections within the organization and acquiring a number of roles which included Training Coordinator, Training Team Leader, Program Manager and Acting Programme Director among others.
And upon the new NVS Restructure, she was given the role Director of the Volunteer Management Division (VMD), which is the position she currently occupies.
Under Julie’s role as Director VMD, she oversees four sections consisting of 25 staff who are responsible for Recurrent Volunteer Engagement in volunteer recruitment, Societal Partnership Responsibilities, Volunteer Project Management and Volunteer & Community Development Trainings.
Julie is a devoted Christian who spends her time with her family reading the Bible and devotions, reading resource materials and listening to gospel music.

Julie has walked the length and breadth of this beautiful country and says PNG still has a long way to go in terms of development and service delivery at the community level.
“Services are very much lacking in communities and NVS is doing its bit depending on what the Government allocates through its annual budget,” she said.
Julie said however, that even though funding from the Government was and is a very big challenge in implementing the volunteer intervention programs throughout the country, a program which she spearheads, her team as well as the organization is always motivated to go the extra mile due to the impact that these programs continue to have in the lives of ordinary Papua New Guineans.
She says the best part of her job is visiting rural villages and finding out the needs of the people in these communities whilst carrying out assessments before engaging volunteers.
These trips are often followed up by volunteer project monitoring visits in which there were visibly a lot of impacts done in those communities, according to her.
These impacts are what Julie says encourages her to work extra harder.
Julie also celebrated her work anniversary shortly after her 60th birthday on Jan 12 which she says is a double blessing.
“2024 is a special year for me having reached 25-years with NVS at the age of 60 as it was a professional goal to be a Director at NVS one day,” she said.
Julie joined the organisation at the age of 35-years-old and has grown with the organization over the years and is now a grandmother of 12.
“It is an achievement also for my family and I as I am the first staff of NVS to have reached this 25-year milestone,” she said.
“Those who have worked before me had worked for less than ten (10) years before leaving the organization.
“And I am satisfied that I have served Papua New Guineans in some of the most remote parts of the country through the work of volunteerism in this period.”
Julie says she also regards herself as a volunteer who works to serve her people through recruiting and engaging volunteers under the volunteer engagement programme.
She added that she has visited almost all the provinces in the country doing volunteer work except the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB) which she plans on visiting this year.
She went on to say that her experience in working under five different executive directors in the organization throughout her time with NVS, has taught her five different styles of leadership and management techniques which she applies to her approach in tackling difficult tasks.
She says this approach has also enabled her to improve in a lot of areas of her life including prudent financial management, transparency, accountability and honesty while using wisdom from God to make smart decisions in ensuring continuous service delivery to people throughout the country, who needed it the most.
She encouraged the staff of NVS as well as young people who had just started their journey in the work force to commit to their jobs and come up with a good work ethic in order to see positive results.

• Story and pictures supplied by NVS media