Andrew Swindley ..... technician extraordinaire!

The people who work for us are the greatest ........ and that includes our volunteers.

We have had local volunteers in both the UK and Jos offices before now.  Volunteering is nothing new - in fact, in Nigeria, volunteering is seen as a way of demonstrating your skills to a prospective employer. 
 
When TASTE started, the name of Andy McMillen went down in TASTE history as the volunteer who spent six weeks in Achi, mapping out the terrain and more recently, Canadian Mike Cloutier, conducted an environmental study for Loughborough University.

However, Andrew is the first volunteer to work in the field with our drilling team.  Andrew has experienced overseas service already with three trips to Odessa in the Ukraine but this will be his first time in Africa.

Andrew's plumbing and air conditioning skills will come in very useful with the drilling team, who have to bring in an outside plumber whenever pipe runs or electric cabling are required.  As part of the terms of his service in Nigeria as an expatriate professional, Andrew is expected to pass on his skills to the team he works with, and Andrew is keen to offer technical, literacy and spiritual support to the team.  For their part, the team are so excited that somebody from the UK cares enough to travel (at his own expense) to work with them.

Andrew is paying his own way but we want to treat him like a 'proper member' of the drilling team, which means that when he spends time in the field on a project, he will get field allowances.  By UK standards, it's not a huge amount but it is an expense not in the budget!  If you would like to help support Andrew's field allowances, you can do so online via the donate button or direct to our Sheffield office.