ADRA: Helping your local community
The Adventist Development and Relief Agency’s (ADRA) National Program has hundreds of volunteers and staff who manage more than 120 projects all over Australia. ADRA helps communities through offering a wide range of programs and assists during times of crisis, such as drought, floods and bushfire.
Volunteers are at the heart of ADRA’s National Program, each giving tirelessly to local needs. Whether in soup kitchens, women’s refuges, community centres, employment and refugee programs or food and material relief operations, ADRA volunteers are doing their part to make Australian communities better places to live.
Another one of ADRA’s key initiatives is op-shops. ADRA’s 27 op-shops are staffed by volunteers, where all funds raised are given to local community needs, such as rescue charities, women’s refuges or other ADRA national projects.
Busy grandmother Mary Noble fits in volunteering at the ADRA Op Shop with babysitting three of her grandchildren after school, collecting food for ADRA and acting as her local church’s bulletin secretary. She also does a bread run for the op-shop once a month, delivering to 30 people in the area.
“Staying busy volunteering brings me a lot of satisfaction,” says Mrs Noble.
Mrs Noble has been volunteering at the Sandgate ADRA Op Shop (Qld) since it opened last year. She goes in two mornings a week and takes home washing and ironing to do while watching television in the evenings.
Mrs Noble has found since retiring she has gradually made more time to volunteer. She says she loves meeting and helping people and volunteering gives her a chance to do all this and more.
“I’ve developed better communications skills and taken up knitting again, to make scarves for the shop.
“I’d tell everyone to give volunteering a go, no matter what their situation. It definitely changes you for the better.”
ADRA has just opened its 27th op-shop in Newborough, Victoria, and has plans to open more in the future. To find out where your nearest ADRA Op Shop is, check www.adra.org.au, or for information about how you can volunteer in your local community, visit www.ADRAlendahand.org.au.
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