From L-R: Volunteer Services Abroad’s Hana Te Puni, Tamar Porat, Angela Calkin Goeres and Lupeti Finau enjoy making new connections at Pasifika Festival 2025.
Connecting people and watching the transformation that follows is a highlight of the job for Tamar Porat, the Wellington-based Volunteer Services Abroad (VSA) Business Development Manager.
A long-term partner of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), VSA recently joined the MFAT Pacific Connections team at its pavilion at the two-day Pasifika Festival in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
Established 63 years ago, Tamar explains VSA sends skilled people from Aotearoa New Zealand to work with partners across the region alongside grassroots level community organisations, right up to government or regional organisations.
“Our job is really to make those connections and through those connections, we look at how we can share and transfer skills … and also build capacity,” Tamar says.
“When our volunteers go away, we always tell them we don’t want you to be missed.
“We know people are going to miss you, you are lovely, and had a good time …but when you leave, you leave.
“The organisation you were working at, is in a better place and they can do the work that they want to do.”
Tamar adds MFAT has supported VSA from the get-go and VSA could not operate on the scale it does, without its advocacy.
When it comes to the Pacific Connections team, Tamar says it is where you see partnership in action.
“For example, being at Pasifika would not have happened if it wasn’t thanks to Pacific Connections and its Director Felicity Bollen.”
Connecting people is a shared purpose of both VSA and Pacific Connections, so if the two organisations can complement and support one another, they will, Tamar adds.
“This way there is only going to be more impact made, so it’s really exciting and working with MFAT Pacific Connections.”
Volunteer Services Abroad has 10 programmes in nine countries throughout the Pacific, including Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Kiribati and Timor Leste, which is technically not in the Pacific, but a country which New Zealand has a very strong connection to.
Tamar says Pasifika Festival is a great chance to connect with as many people as possible, to promote VSA and also encourage Pacific people to volunteer throughout the region.
“We definitely need more Pacific volunteers, and we are very keen to remedy that.
“We know there are generations of Pacific people who can give so much back to the region.
“I have absolutely no doubt that the impact Pasifika, going back to the Pacific, whether to their own countries or other countries can make, is huge.
“The connection is there…and the want is definitely there.”
Visit the Volunteers Services Abroad website for more information and follow MFAT Pacific Connections on Facebook.
