UNISON Ulearn Northern Ireland

I came over to Northern Ireland from Zambia in 2005. The home where I work is run by the Northern Ireland Institute for Disabled and they were recruiting staff through an agency in my country. I am widowed with five boys, the youngest of whom is 12 years old. I was working as a fully qualified enrolled nurse and midwife in Zambia, but it’s a developing country and the pay is poor. It is hard to earn enough to keep my boys, pay school fees, uniforms etc. Over here I cannot work as a registered nurse, so am working as a nursing auxiliary and sending all my earnings home. Zambia is suffering a big brain drain, particularly of health care professionals and it is a big problem for my country. As it’s a British Protectorate, the schools work through English, so many people chose to take jobs in South Africa, UK and the US because we already have the language.

When I came over here I got involved in a local Church, and it was a Church member who encouraged me to join UNISON. He said that coming here and not being familiar with the culture and work rights, it was very important to have a union behind me. I was a member of the civil service union in Zambia so I do know about unions and what they do.

The first course I attended through UNISON was the Building Confidence for Women. I really enjoyed it, it is a real wake up call to look at yourself and measure how high or low our self esteem actually is. We did an exercise on assertiveness and it was very interesting, because there are always situations where someone asks you to do something and really you want to say no, but you say yes, so you don’t offend them. I think the course helps you find your voice as a woman. I think women often think of great ideas and have opinions but don’t have the confidence to say them, whereas a man will just give his opinions without even thinking about them. It was at this course that I found out about the seminar for Health Care Assistants and Nursing Auxiliaries.

I found it very informative and learned more about Agenda for Change, the registration of social care workers and other learning opportunities which are available. I particularly enjoyed the presentation from Lucia about her experience and involvement in the union, as a nursing auxiliary. It is good to hear someone speak about how they have progressed, because you think, if she can do it, perhaps I could also succeed. It was a lovely event, because it was very informal, I got chatting to different people doing the same job and it was a chance to hear about how people dealt with different situations and the food was very good. We also received booklets about courses which are available through UNISON. For me learning really opens up the world to you.

I love learning, when I came over, I did the NVQ in Care at Castlereagh College and also saw an add on television for the Open University and have just finished the K100 course. I had to pay for these myself, but I want to gain the qualifications which will help me become a fully trained nurse. I was speaking to my colleagues in the nursing home about the K100 and encouraged them to apply. One of them is now about the do her K100 exam. I’m planning to start the Managing Care course with the Open University and because I’m a UNISON member I can get 10% off the fee which is £50. Then I would like to do the OU Public Health course, but ultimately I would like to undertake a conversion course to allow me to register as a nurse.