The question Claire McGlone is most often asked is, ‘How do you provide speech pathology in a language you don’t speak?’
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The Bendigo health worker has spent the last 10 months in Tonga, a Pacific nation 3000 kilometres off Australia’s east coast.
“Because my role is to train and support my colleagues in developing skills in the area of speech pathology, thankfully the children I work with aren’t dependent on my terrible Tongan,” she said.
Ms McGlone turned in her job at Bendigo Community Health Services to become one of 1200 government-sponsored Australian Volunteers for International Development currently lending a hand in 24 countries around the world.
The 27-year-old is embedded at the Mango Tree Centre, a church-run organisation in the Tongan capital, Nuku’alofa, for people of all ages who are living with a disability.
In addition to speech pathology, her colleagues offer Braille lessons, provide wheelchairs to the community and teach adults how to use computers.
Asked why she would swap her regional Victorian home for an island just one-quarter its size, Ms McGlone said: “It was completely self-serving in a lot of ways, knowing that I would no doubt gain a lot more than I would be able to provide, but I felt that it was also my social responsibility to share some of the knowledge and education I have been privileged enough to receive.”
But the sea change was not without its challenges.
Ms McGlone said the country’s socio-economic status impacted on the health of her clients and their families, as did its negative perceptions of disability.
“While views are certainly changing, people with disabilities are not naturally viewed as individuals who have the potential to contribute greatly towards society in Tonga,” she said.
“At times there can be a focus on the perceived limited abilities of a person with a disability as opposed to the limitations that their environment or situation places on them.”
She also contended with limited resources, including stationary, and Tongan time, a relaxed approach to punctuality.
Even visiting clients’ homes could prove eventful, bringing the speech pathologist face-to-face with a snarling dog or rogue pig.
The same sorts of animals dot the landscape of palms and swamplands outside Ms McGlone’s front door in the capital, sights that are accompanied by a soundtrack of church choir rehearsals in the distance.
Despite their cultural differences, Ms McGlone said the Tongan people were kind during her stay.
Strangers on the street changed her bike tyre, invited her to their Sunday umu – an barbecue cooked underground – and bought her groceries when she forgot her wallet.
“Nothing is too much trouble,” she said.
Sharing food was a particularly popular past time in Tonga; Ms McGlone’s morning drives around the island to pick up the day’s clients often made pit stops for bananas or mangoes that were then passed among the 20 or more passengers.
The morning routine saw the speech pathologist balance on her lap everything from children to birthday cakes and watermelons.
“Tongans are very eager to make sure you’ve eaten enough at a celebratory feast, as well as making sure you’re shoving as much food as humanly possibly into bags and pockets to take home with you,” Ms McGlone said.
“It’s a competitive sport.”
Set to return home in May, Ms McGlone is already considering more overseas volunteering.
She encouraged others to give it a try too, saying it was a sustainable way to swap knowledge with others in her field.
“It's a brilliant opportunity to expand skills, both personal and professional, and experience a culture and country.”