Volunteer Voices: Khaled

Enjoy our new feature, where our volunteers share their experiences. To start us off, please meet the fantastic Khaled!

I am a student and doing a master’s degree in Impact Evaluation for International Development. Also, before I came to the UK, I was the regional MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning) Manager with an international NGO called IHR where I worked to manage the MEAL activities for their teams in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey.

I am working with Youth and Adult and Family services as a volunteer and help mainly with the hardship fund, providing interpretation with Arabic speaking clients, following up with some cases, developing the feedback mechanism, providing some IT support, and advocating for adopting a monitoring and evaluation policy.

I have been a volunteer since June 2020, so now I have been with Asylum Welcome for three months.

Being a part of such a supportive and active family that challenge your skills and knowledge and build your experience. When I am in Asylum Welcome, I don’t feel I am working in an office, I feel among friends who are active and working together to provide the best of what they can to help their clients. I am amazed by the dedication and energy of the staff and their determination in their work. For me being a part of that team is the best thing about volunteering with Asylum Welcome.

I feel joy and happiness every time I see the positive impact of our work on clients. My best memory was the first time when Helena told me that a client I was contacting, got an acceptance to his application to claim support and since he was an Arabic speaker, I was very pleased to be the one who told him the good news. I probably was happier than him with that news. It really made my day back then.