Alefiya Presswala:

First, if you could just tell me your name.

Nami Walia:

So my name’s Nami Walia, short for Namrata Walia.

Alefiya Presswala:

Thank you. And could you tell me a little bit about yourself? Age, career, education?

Nami Walia:

Yeah, sure. I’m 58 and my career — most of my career, in fact, has been working as an accountant in the NHS. I started working there in the NHS straight after graduating from university. And then I worked there, I’m just trying to think, it must have been over 20 years now. And then I left the NHS after an illness, and I thought, I just wanted take it easy a bit. And I did for a while ’cause I’ve got two daughters now and one’s 29 and the other’s 22. But when I left the NHS, I then thought I’d do something else and that’s when volunteering came to mind and that’s when I continued the volunteering since then.

Alefiya Presswala:

Can you tell me a bit about your role as a volunteer, where you volunteer and what exactly you do?

Nami Walia:

Sure. So the volunteering started, I want to say, a couple of years before COVID when I started volunteering for Age Concern. And I was Befriending, so I was visiting two or three elderly clients — members — a week. And I found that really rewarding, just listening and speaking to them, like, once a week. And I think that was, for them was really special. It was one of the things that they put in their calendar because they wanted that social interaction, someone, so they would look forward to it after that continuity, whereas I kept meeting someone over a period of time and it really helped both me and the member as well. So I got a lot out of that as well. So that’s where it began with Age Concern. And after then COVID happened and then we had to go online, which I did for a bit, which wasn’t quite the same.

Nami Walia:

And after that I started volunteering for — well I was a member of the board for Westminster Connects in the Advisory Board, Volunteering Board. And I was there for maybe a year or two. And, in that particular position we were basically looking at ways to recruit volunteers, to retain volunteers, as well as just volunteering positions within Westminster Borough. And then after that came Aphasia Re-connect, which is where I’m currently at. Whilst I was working at Westminster Connects, I saw this flyer coming up saying ‘Would you be interested in bid writing for care homes?’ And I thought that’d be interesting, so let me go do that too, which is where I began actually, I started working at Attend, and I was doing some bid writing for Valerie and for care homes. AndI thought that was really good, I really enjoyed that. So we did quite a few applications and just work, find out how the care homes work, what funding they need, how hard it is for them to get funds.

Nami Walia:

David actually said to me, ‘Would I consider working as a chair for Aphasia Re-Connect?’ At the time I didn’t even know what aphasia meant. Since then, I’ve, you know, I’ve learned a hell of a lot. I accepted that the role, which I’ve never done anything like that before, so it’s a bit daunting when I first started. And yeah, so aphasia is basically, it’s a condition where you could perhaps lose the ability to read, write, speak, and quite often it’s after a stroke or after some brain injury. So Aphasia Re-Connect is a small-ish charity and predominantly based in London. And it’s actually amazing the work that they do ’cause they help members who don’t know treatment in the NHS anymore. They’re not being seen or helped by anyone in social care. But it’s a gap, where I think Aphasia Re-Connect really comes into its own. So it’s a charity whereby we have various groups, both face-to-face groups and online groups, and that can be helping them with things like getting back to work, social interaction, as well as that we employ speech and language therapy. So they actually do get the therapy to help them get better and just improve the confidence. And actually some of the time the transformation’s been amazing, just to see how they’ve progressed. So it’s one of those, there’s an area I think that’s always missing and I think where we come into our own is to really kind of help people like that. And yeah, that’s pretty much what Aphasia Re-Connect is.

Alefiya Presswala:

So obviously volunteering makes an impact on other people, but how would you say that it is making an impact on you?

Nami Walia:

I think probably the biggest thing is just, you know, giving back and how rewarding that is. I think whilst I worked have a career in NHS, that was great, but I think in this, there’s a lot more satisfaction. Even though I’m not directly involved in the charity, I’m not a speech and language therapist, but just the fact that I kind of see the work that volunteers are doing and I help out when I can. And with the board meetings, the strategic planning of the quarter and working with the treasurer to see where we are with the finances, the whole package, I think that it’s really interesting to me. And like I said, I do find that rewarding just to see how the people actually been helped by the charity.

Alefiya Presswala:

Do you have any favorite memories of what that you’ve experienced that while volunteering that you would like to share?

Nami Walia:

There’s been a couple actually. Well, one of them was when I was back with Age Concern as one particular lady who she really looked forward to me coming every week. And she got to know a bit about my family and she’s kind of said, ‘Would I bring my younger daughter once to meet?’ And I did, and just to see how well they got on, in fact, and my younger daughter kept insisting that she wanted to come every week. So it’s just to see that connection and I think they still try and keep in touch when they can. So that was quite, you know, that was quite good to have that, see that relationship. And now here with Aphasia Re-Connect as well, I think I’ve been to a few of the groups and you know, they’d do some fundraising, so I take part in the walks that they may have, and just to see how much it means to the members to actually have a group like this where they can get together, they can have a bit of a laugh, they can, they learn from each other and, you know, and you can see how how much the groups mean to them. That, to me, has been really rewarding with Aphasia Re-Connect particularly.

Alefiya Presswala:

What would you say to people who are considering volunteering or getting involved in some way? What would you say to encourage them?

Nami Walia:

I think you just have to do it. I mean, in the beginning it might just seem, well, you know, ‘Will I be able to, will it be worth it?’ But you know, until you actually give it a go, you don’t realize how rewarding it can be. And there is no end to how much volunteering you can do. There’s so much out there and so yeah, just, just give it a go. That’s what I say.

Alefiya Presswala:

Sort of on that same note, you mentioned earlier that when you were asked to do the board for Aphasia Re-Connect, you didn’t really know anything about aphasia. So, how was that process of learning more? How did you gather the information and take on that role?

Nami Walia:

Well, we’ve got Sally McVicker, she’s the kind of the founder and she works, you know, with Aphasia Re-Connect and she’s kind of leads the whole charity, if you like. So I learned a lot from her. And then obviously going to a few of the groups online and in-person ones, you know, you learn a lot and I think again, going to some of the fundraising events for me has been pretty good. And obviously reading up about it, the more you get involved — and when I was doing some of the applications for grants, you then realize, you know, how important the funding is for the work that they do. So I think through that process, it’s been taken a while, but through that process I think you get to learn more about the challenge and how it works and then, you know, meeting the speech and language therapist is absolutely fantastic. They’re dedicated to their work. So I think, yeah, all of that has helped.

Alefiya Presswala:

During your time volunteering, have you noticed any shifts within the charity? Is the charity different? Any different from when you started versus now?

Nami Walia:

We’ve had a couple of changes in terms of staffing, some speech and language therapists leaving, some coming along. But no, not particularly. One of the things I was quite, you know, concerned about when I first started was whether or not I’d be able to maintain the fundraising or rather the grants, if you like, the bid applications because they’ve been doing quite well up until now, and luckily we’ve been okay. We’ve got a quite good — someone called Leah and she’s been doing the fundraising for the bid applications for us and that’s been quite successful. So with the help of others as well, I think, you know, we’re doing okay, but that would’ve been my only concern, but I think that seems to be working out quite well.

Alefiya Presswala:

Okay. Is there anything else you would like to add? Anything else you think that listeners should know or want to know that I haven’t covered yet?

Nami Walia:

I think that if they want to get involved with a charity, I mean, obviously in my case I didn’t know what aphasia was and now that I’m involved in it, I really enjoy it. But if, for example they’ve got any particular passions or any particular areas that they are interested in, I’m sure if you look it up there’ll be some, you know, some charities, some volunteer organization out there which would need their help. So, in my case I didn’t know anything about it, I’ve still got involved, but if you do, if you are passionate about a particular cause, I’d say definitely look up, you know, the local volunteering around you and get involved.

Alefiya Presswala:

Okay. Thank you so much.