Jill Hunter works as a Development Officer with Voluntary Service Bureau (VSB) in Belfast. Her role is to promote and manage the transport buddying service offering door to door transport and to recruit, train and manage the volunteers for this service. Jill therefore, knows only too well the importance of people giving their time to help others, their community or the environment.

Jill began volunteering herself, at South Eastern Regional College as a teaching assistant in an ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) class in September 2009. The class takes place every Monday evening for two hours throughout the academic year. There are twenty five students in the class and include people from Poland, Germany, Latvia and Romania.

Explaining how she got involved Jill said, "I rang the college to enquire if I could get involved and they matched me up with a language teacher. I enjoy working with people from other nationalities in an educational environment and I enjoy helping people. I have always had an interest in foreign languages and learning about other cultures. Volunteering is a great way to learn new things while giving something back. I travelled and worked abroad when I was a student and I was always very well looked after while in other countries so it's nice to be able to help other people who are new to my country.

My role as teaching assistant shadows that of the teacher. Once a task has been set the class is usually split in two between the teacher and myself, so whilst the students are working I help out with any problems and offer support on a one to one basis. The skills required for this type of position include being a good listener, good communicator, being patient and having a desire to help. I get a lot of satisfaction from helping people and seeing them progress and ultimately become more settled in their new country. I believe that I get as much, if not more, out of volunteering my time as the organisation gains. It is a very rewarding experience and I would really encourage other people to think about volunteering."