After nearly 20 years in a corporate finance role for a large accountancy firm, Roisin Scott, (nee Wilson and Class of 1997), has recently taken up a position with Fields of Life, a NGO working with local partners in East Africa to transform the lives of vulnerable people through the provision of education, clean water, health promotion and other community based programmes.

Roisin has recently returned from her first overseas trip, to Uganda, with Fields of Life and we caught up with her to learn more about her new role.
 

After school, where did you go to university and what did you study?

"After leaving Sullivan in 1997, I studied Economics and Business Economics at Queens University. I then spent a year in Portugal volunteering for a Christian Student organisation called International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, and then I came home and straight into a Masters in Business at UUJ, graduating in Summer 2002".
 

Where did life take you after university?

"I was always interested in finance and really wanted to work for one of the large accountancy firms so I applied to PwC and started a 3 year graduate training role with them in October 2002. I worked 5 days a week and studied for my accountancy qualifications by attending classes every Saturday for three years".

What is your job role at Fields of Life?

"I am Financial Controller for Fields of Life, which was a new role created in April of this year. Fields of Life is a charity specialising in international development in East Africa. I lead a small team in Northern Ireland, but a big part of my role is capacity building and working with our colleagues in East Africa, who are our eyes and ears on the ground".

Some of the children from the local community where Fields of Life are active in Uganda

After such a long time at PwC what prompted you to make a change and apply for the job at Fields of Life?

"I had been with PwC for 19.5 years and had an amazing career there. I started off specialising in insolvency and business recovery and worked with many of the largest companies in Northern Ireland.

In July 2016 I moved over into a fairly new department which was specialising in Fund Management, mainly for government clients. I started to work on an £800m global education fund called the Girls’ Education Challenge. This was funded by the UK government (Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office) with the intention of getting over 1m girls into school in some of the hardest to reach countries in the world.

I started as a Finance Officer to learn the ropes and immediately loved it. I absolutely loved using my financial skill set to help the lives of girls in far off places like Afghanistan, South Sudan, Uganda and Somalia. All finances on this global fund were managed from PwC Belfast.

I worked my way up to Finance Manager and then to Finance Lead, leading the finance team and loving every minute. I got to visit Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia and meet with some of the NGOs who were doing the work on the ground.

Growing up, I had never thought that NGOs doing this sort of international development work, would need to have finance staff. I have definitely found my ‘sweet spot’. I remember saying to my husband that after being on the funder side for 6 years, I would love to move to the NGO side, but that ‘those sort of jobs never come up in Northern Ireland’.

A few months later, a friend from Queens, who was the former CEO of Fields of Life, shared the job vacancy on Facebook. I read the job description and said to myself – ‘that is my dream job’. And the rest as they say, is history".

Tell us a bit about your work there and your recent trip to Uganda

"It is truly amazing how what I was doing as Finance Lead in PwC, has prepared me for this role.

Rather than being the one giving out the money and scrutinising for value for money, I am the one ensuring we meet the standards of all donors, whether large or small. One example is Irish Aid, who have provided funding to build latrines and rainwater harvesting tanks in schools, drill boreholes in remote communities, and train up teachers. I guess I know what ‘good’ looks like, and what is expected, so I am able to bring that lens to Fields of Life to ensure we can provide excellent governance and stewardship of the funds we have been given in order to follow through on our vision to see ‘educated and skilled young people, inspired by faith, hope and love, transform their communities.’

In September I got to travel out to Kampala in Uganda to do some training and workshops with our East Africa team of around 45 people.

As I was going all that way, I was keen to see where the money goes, so we travelled 1000kms in 4 days to visit 8 schools and our Vocational Training Institute in Northern Uganda.  Anyone who has been to Africa and travelled on the dirt roads will appreciate what I mean by saying that after 1000kms by jeep, my backside was sore!"

The Fields of Life Vocational Training Institute in Uganda where up to 300 students can learn skills such as dress-making or how to be a car mechanic

A new school latrine and washblock built through Fields of Life's 'I Am Girl' project in Uganda

"It was truly inspirational to see our drilling team provide a remote community with a borehole. This community who had been living off swamp water for decades, now has access to a clean, safe water source. And to see schools provided with latrines and washrooms so that when girls had their monthly periods they didn’t have to stay off school. Or to see young boys and girls be trained to make liquid soap so they could wash their hands properly in school and sell the soap to the local village, or trained to make reusable sanitary pads so again, girls could come to school, and also sell these to make money for their families. I could go on and on".

A new village borehole installed for safe and clean drinking water

Can you tell us anything about forthcoming projects at Fields of Life?

"We are delighted to have received another grant from Irish Aid for a further 3 years of funding for our 'I Am Girl' project.

'I Am Girl' aims to reduce the barriers to girls' education so they can stay in school and fulfil their potential. This new project in Eastern Uganda will help to tackle child protection and gender-based violence issues, provide clean water and safe latrine and washroom facilities and equip pupils with skills in making reusable sanitary pads and liquid soap. It will educate whole communities, including boys, on the importance of supporting girls' education, and much more. 

We also are hoping to start a project in South Sudan this month. Our Head of Programmes has just returned from a trip there and said what she saw was devastating. She described one school she visited where there are hundreds of children attending but no latrines, and another school where she was told that last year, 2 children died crossing the river to get to school. Our programme will work alongside these schools to provide clean latrine blocks and a safe school environment for the children, helping these children to thrive".

And finally, looking back, what are your thoughts on your time at Sullivan and are you still in touch with friends you made at school?

"I had a wonderful 7 years at Sullivan. My favourite subject was A Level Economics with Dr. Mac, he encouraged everyone in the class to take it in turns to present the week's business and economic news to the rest of the class. I remember asking to do the budget each year (geeky I know), but I always found that stuff interesting.

I am still in touch with many friends from school. Four of us in particular, one of whom has lived in North America for almost 20 years, have stayed in very close touch and we found that ‘lockdown’ brought us even closer together. We had monthly Zoom calls, where we put the world to rights and it was a wonderful chance to reconnect on a regular basis.

I found that I've crossed many paths with school friends some 25 years later with, especially now that our kids are playing sport together, whether that’s mini rugby at Kerr Park, or hockey for Sullivan on a Saturday morning. I’m seeing and chatting to many faces who I remember from the corridors of Sullivan".

For more information on Fields of Life please visit https://fieldsoflife.org