Sligo Champion, January 2008

Most people associate overseas aid work with disciplines such as medicine or engineering, but Sligo accountant, Marie Leydon, discovered to her great satisfaction that her particular skills were also extremely valuable in GOAL'S work in North Sudan.

The Sligo Certified Accountant took a year's leave of absence as Certified Accountant with Sligo County Council to take up a post as Financial Controller with GOAL which works in three areas of extreme poverty providing essential basic services to the people of North Sudan.

"I always wanted to work in Africa but had never set myself a time or a place," Marie explained. "So in spring of 20071 felt it was worth pursuing the dream once and for all. My problem was that my talents were not in the obvious frontline activities, such as medicine or engineering. Although I hadn't though about volunteering as an accountant, when I saw GOAL was looking for accountants I felt it would be very fulfilling to contribute the skills that I had."

WATERSHED

The official signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of the Republic of the Sudan and the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement in January 2005 marked a historical watershed for Sudan. It brought an end to 22 years of protracted and costly civil war that had caused tremendous loss of life, devastated the country's infrastructure, and destroyed livelihoods, trust and hope.

As the initial steps towards healing and reconciliation evolve, aid agencies such as GOAL are at the coalface helping to rebuild the war-torn country ensuring that basic health facilities are in existence to redress the major causes of death in the region. GOAL'S nutrition, water and sanitation and literacy programmes address many of the underlying causes of poverty, and livelihoods programmes are increasing the income and assets of vulnerable communities.

Even with sufficient funding, there is a significant constraint with regards to the dearth of qualified personnel in these conflict affected zones. A past pupil of Mercy College Sligo, before qualifying as a Certified accountant, Marie's professional accountancy skills matched the quality personnel GOAL desperately needs to run emergency and development programmes in 12 of the poorest countries.

The Certified accountant recently returned to her job with Sligo County Council and Sligo Borough Council where she had worked for six years before her year volunteering with GOAL.

CONTEXT

"It was like any other accounting job, and involved controlling and recording expenditure for all of the programmes of work that are undertaken," she continues. "It could involve safe counts of thousands of Sudanese Pounds, preparing donor budgets, long-term strategic planning, training local NGO partners, or performing field support visits and audits. You need to be able to think on the spot. The financial basis was the same in the GOAL office as any accountancy operation in Ireland – it was the context that was different. You had to always have a deeper consciousness for Sudan."

Everyday practices which one takes for granted at home presented their own particular problems in Sundan.

"Driving in Khartoum was just madness," she recalls. "Junctions are complete craziness and the bigger vehicle wins out. Most of the streets are just dust tracks with the main roads tarred.

"The main food is called ful, which is a brown beans mixture formed into a paste and eaten with bread by hand. There are lots of fruit and vegetables available and being in the city most western style food are available at a more expensive rate.

"Electricity power and water supply is not always reliable either, and there is no evidence of a postal system at all."

SUPPORT

Marie – who received tremendous support and enthusiasm from friends, families, and neighbours – was presented with a cheque for over EUR6,000 at Christmas from her colleagues at the Sligo County Council and Sligo Borough Council. The funds went towards GOAL'S work in Kassala, an eastern state in North Sudan.

With a population twice the size of Sligo, some 10% are forced to live in seven squalid camps around Kassala which have among the highest malnutrition rates in the country Here outbreaks of malaria, dengue fever, meningitis, cholera and TB strike annually, bringing communities to their knees.

The stereotype of Sudanese people as warmongering angry people proved grossly inaccurate, according to Marie.

"The people are all about extended family and supporting each other.

They are warm, friendly and generous. Their local greeting to each other is right hand to right shoulder and then to shake hands, and their way of life is very relaxed, to me they do not seem to get anxious or panic about issues. No one is in a rush.

"The religion is Muslin and under Sharia law, which requires conservative dress. For Westerners this means covering shoulders and knees."

The Sligo accountant was in the country a few days when Ramadan started – a period when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset for 30 days. Shari law also means alcohol is illegal which means not much socialising.

On her return journey to Lissadell, the aid worker was struck by the lush green fields that stretched in all directions – in sharp contrast to the deserts and sands storms of Sudan.

"I missed the coast and the freedom to drive around. But the experience I gained and the people I met made it worthwhile -1 encourage anyone who is interested to try it – you won't regret it," she concludes.

GOAL are always looking for engineers, healthcare professionals, logisticians and accountants to join them in their humanitarian work in the developing world. For more information, log on to www.goal.ie/jobs.