Peter Cradock is certainly not your average 71 year-old; he’s a serial volunteer.
Now on his seventh voluntary placement, Peter strides around the coastal town of Madang in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in a smart shirt and trousers. Peter is back creating an action plan for supporting PNG’s technical and vocational institutions for the VSO education team.
Completely at home walking the dusty roads, Peter feels that to be successful in your role, speaking with people is important – and you can’t do that from inside an air-conditioned 4×4.
First placement
Peter’s VSO journey began in 1964 when he embarked upon his first placement in Borneo, Sarawak. He was based in the deepest, tropical jungle close to the Indonesian border where there was a lot of conflict at the time.
He recalls his first placement very fondly: “My introduction to where I was going to be working was when the chief agricultural officer showed me a map, drew a red circle, said that this is the land that they had acquired; go and find it and develop an agricultural station.
“There was about 90 acres of flat and fertile land that ran alongside an emerging road with water cascading down nearby but not through the land; it was perfect for agriculture.
“I would go out every day, look around, check what local people were growing and then work out what would be best for where, how production may be improved and then discuss with the local community. You had to learn the local language fast!”
Biscuit stealing
From Borneo to the VSO office in Hanover Street, London, Peter became the agricultural and natural resources recruitment officer for VSO.
There, by chance, a temporary staff member stole Peter’s biscuits and then his heart. The rest is history: Peter remains happily married to Janet to this day.
In 1999, Peter and Janet decided to volunteer together and the next leg of their VSO journey began, taking them to the highlands of PNG.
They both worked together at the only secondary school in Simbu, Peter teaching agriculture and Janet language and communications: “We arrived just after PNG’s most significant El Niño. Most of the root crops had failed as it was bone dry, so they didn’t survive. There were many deaths.
“The tales were vivid of droning airplanes flying over villages and dropping food. People hated the thought that they had to be the recipients of aid.
“For their whole existence, literally, people in the highlands have been among the earliest organised farming communities in the world and they had been able to support themselves living off the land.
“It was a great pleasure to teach the young people to regain their livelihoods through agriculture.”
Returning to PNG
Since 2003 he has been back to PNG five times, working with Janet in the national school curriculum development division and with school inspectors designing a new school improvement planning system.
Now very much retired, he is currently making great headway in setting up a project to support 20 volunteers working in technical and vocational institutions around the country.
Like many developing countries, the PNG population is a young one, with under-25s making up over 50%.
Peter’s impact on PNG
Peter has had a huge impact in the roles that he has had, most notably introducing growing rice into the highlands community where he worked.
The simple realisation that this was possible has transformed food security in this remote area of PNG.
Volunteering for retirees
Peter’s advice to anyone considering volunteering as they reach retirement is: “If in your working and personal lives you feel that you have learnt about an aspect of work; have wisdom borne out of experience and you don’t feel exhausted at using that knowledge, there are so many people that could have benefit from it.
“There is so much room for people who still have oomph and want to employ it and there are people that can really use it.
“In a very short time you get to experience different countries and communities and help people to realise their aspirations and usually take them in directions they want.
“You can be part of that evolution.
“The best thing for me is to see young boys and girls that Janet and I taught and got to know, that have now moved on and have their own families, are speaking on mobile phones, driving around in their first cars or trucks, living a life that they dreamed of, that is the reward back.”
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Feel like you have skills and knowledge that could make a real difference?