HELPING others can be a learning experience, writes EDWINA HALL

Volunteers are a special breed. In a busy era, driven by the economy, it is comforting to know there are people who willingly to sacrifice their time for the greater good of others.

Volunteering has taken two rural women - Hollie Baillieu and Kate Mutsaers - overseas, not just to exotic locations, but also to share agricultural and environmental knowledge.

Hollie Baillieu, India

LAST year, Hollie Baillieu, the chairwoman of the NSW Young Farmers Council of Australia, headed to India.

Hollie grew up on a sheep and cattle farm in Exeter, in the NSW Southern Highlands, and is completing a bachelor of agricultural sciences at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga. She travelled with 11 other Australian students to demonstrate water efficiency to farmers in the Punjab region, with the Syngenta PaniPipes Connections program.

Water efficiency is critical in the region, with almost 80 per cent of its water used for agriculture, she says.

"I'm interested in water and water management. It's such an important issue for the whole world," Hollie says.

Each day Hollie and the other Australian volunteers would visit properties to provide simple ways for the Indian farmers to assess their water use.

"The Indian farmers were very stuck in their ways," Hollie says. "It's very hard to change people's perceptions of how they farm."

She found the trip beneficial - learning about India's farming practices, forming friendships with local students and learning about India's culture.

"The farmers were planting rice and a couple of the Australian students who are from rice farms were amazed that, in India, they plant the rice crops by hand. In Australia it is planted by plane," she says.

Hollie urges everyone to give volunteering a go. "Just do it," she says.

Kate Mutsaers, Papua New Guinea

IN 2007 Kate Mutsaers left her hometown of Castlemaine, in central Victoria, to volunteer for a year in Papua New Guinea with Australian Volunteers International.

Her first impression was how incredibly different it was.

"PNG is only 150km from Australian shores, but it is a world away," Kate says.

While in PNG, she volunteered to support programs including rural sanitation, river care and biodiversity education. "It is simple in our culture, as we are used to planning. However, it's much more complex in indigenous communities."

Kate found her time in PNG invaluable, learning to accept and respect the different cultures.

"I haven't always been good at observing another culture and interacting with it," she says.

Kate, who worked as a bushfire recovery community development officer with the Mount Alexander Shire until May, drew on her experience in PNG when working with Black Saturday bushfire survivors.

"When I began working with the Bendigo and Redesdale community, I didn't jump to conclusions. I instead observed how the community interacted in their new environment, aware of their vulnerabilities," she says. "You have to be patient in a fragile environment; you cannot make too many assumptions."

Kate recently moved to Alice Springs to work as a community engagement officer. "My experience in PNG equipped me for this role."

She would love to do more volunteer work and urges everyone to give it a go.

"Volunteering is an essential and incredible thing for people to do. It is a feeling you cannot find in a professional job."

syngenta.com.au Australian Volunteers International australianvolunteers.com