World Pulse and Heather Tucker Collide

Heather Tucker

A Little Bit About Me

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• 2011 VOF Week 2

Helping people and making a difference has been a personal goal and vision of mine ever since I convinced my friend Brian in the 3rd grade to paint rocks and sell them to raise money for charity. I’m not sure where my desire to serve originally came from. Perhaps from having a sister with a disability, perhaps from the personal struggles my family experienced or maybe it was just something that was always within me.

Fast forward ten years, just after being a Rotary Youth Ambassador to Estonia, and you would have found me in a number of primary schools in South-East London. My role was to work with children with special educational needs, behavioural challenges and problems at home. I loved my work and the children and families that I was able to help. In my spare time I volunteered with two domestic violence refuges, a charity that supported families in need and was a school governor. In 2003 I was asked to set-up a service for children and young people who had been victims and/or witnesses of crime in South London for Victim Support. Again this was another job that I loved and I continued with it until 2007 when I moved once again, this time to the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands life was different. Due to the language barrier I was unable to continue in my line of work. I now work as a freelance writer and photographer. While I enjoy my work, the aspect of helping and making a difference was missing. After a bit of time, I began to find opportunities to fill that desire. First, I began sponsoring a child at Akany Avoko in Madagascar. Next, I volunteered to be a high school career mentor for disadvantaged youth and most recently I became an Ambassador for Aid the Nations, including becoming a pen pal to four orphans in Uganda. But I was still looking for a way to utilize my writing to help people and contribute to making the world a better place.

That’s when I found World Pulse. When I saw the website, the Voices of Our Future programme and all the great work being done by the women here, I knew I had found the perfect place for continuing the journey of my personal vision to help people and make a difference.