Zainab – Mount Roskill
“I love children. I love to play games with them, like outdoor games in the park, and I just want to chill out with kids. I learned from them that they don’t have any worries.
They just laugh and they don’t get tension; everything we adults go through. I think that with children you can enjoy each moment of your life, because they teach us how to laugh, how to smile and how to be a joyful person.
I’m from India, a Southern part of India. I came here to join my husband. I completed almost one and a half years in Auckland. I find New Zealand a very beautiful country. I was doing contract-based [work] since February and at present I have a permanent job role with ANZ Bank.
So, I’m looking forward to work as a service consultant. It’s a great opportunity for me to make a career here in Auckland and I have learned many things about the work culture, working with people, and more about the living standards and work ethics of New Zealand. I enjoyed my variety of roles that I did for my previous jobs with Statistics New Zealand. So, it’s a great opportunity, I’m looking forward to working with ANZ Bank.
Yeah, I was welcomed here by many people. Wherever I go I meet with different people, different ethnicities; Asian, Indian, Chinese, more kiwis. When I came here I joined Toastmasters Club; it’s a professional speaking club where [I’ve been] enrolled [for] one year, and I’m enjoying delivering my speeches. We have a fortnight meeting every Thursday so I get an opportunity to meet with the club members, share thoughts. They provide you [with] a variety of roles, [and] since then I have delivered seven speeches.
So it’s a 10 speech manual; once I complete that I’ll get a communicator manual certificate from Toastmasters, and apart from that I will have been enrolled like a Grammarian. So I enjoy going to workshops that welcome migrants like me. I attend a workshop at ARMS, along with the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. They help me a lot; how to prepare a CV, how to prepare for the interview, and now I am blessed that I got a fulltime work opportunity!
I don’t have any children. I didn’t have any children, because my husband and I were planning to settle down here. My husband [has] stayed here a long time, but I’m a migrant from India so I have to understand [the] work culture, so [I] just want to settle down in [a] career, then we can start [a] family, but I love children. I have my sister-in-law’s children. They come to me and we hang around and we go to [the] park, and we go to many events that we organise for children. So I enjoy their company.
I think that for helping humankind we have to be connected with each other. So if we meet altogether, you know like a meet-up, start up a meet-up, and if you are living in one community, you can meet with that community and share their problems, what problems they are facing. Like some people are migrants. They want to settle.
Some people have health problems. Some people feel lonely. So [these] kind of meet-ups will help the people to share their views. If they can feel that someone is listening to them, and raising funds to help the people who are sick and really need help, you can raise funds from your community and go beyond. Like, [with] social media you can approach the people who want to donate something to help people, to help humanity.
So it’s not just [a] concern about one particular area or one community or one religion. I think that whoever is in need; if you can help them physically, go physical. If you can help financially, go financially.
I want to share my story; I worked as a volunteer for Mercy Hospice Shop. I saw that the organisation helps the people who are in [their] dying stage, [and] they provide free medicine, free consultation, free medical equipment [tho those who] are in their last stage of life so that they can help and support their families.
So I feel these kinds of organisations are helping the people, and if you get involved [with] that and help them [by working] as a volunteer to raise their funds, that will provide a great opportunity. Even your support can save someone’s life, or make someone’s life better.”
