RICS Americas has many members involved in charitable endeavours. Paul Fish FRICS, of the Altus Group in Toronto, is one such individual who has recently swapped his Real Estate Consultancy guise for that of a Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) volunteer. This philanthropic change involves a sabbatical from work to provide support to a small community in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Paul is offering practical assistance to help Makeni, a town with a population of 12,000, rebuild and re-skill their community following the recent war conflict. By training local staff, he is enabling natives of Makeni to participate in their community and influence decisions that affect their lives. Paul's work plays a significant role in the long term regeneration of this African region.

This is the second trip for Paul, who first visited the region in November 2006 to provide expertise and guidance to the local government administration in creating a property valuation and tax assessment system. Following the success of his first visit, he returned to extend the assessment program to neighbouring districts and provide aid on other projects, including the development of a food processing plant.

Thanks to generous donations from RICS members, Paul has raised sufficient funds needed to purchase a truck for the local food processing plant. This will allow for easier transportation of goods to the centre and later, the local market.

You can learn more about Paul and his charitable work by reading his blog:
http://paulinsierraleone.blogspot.com/

We are always keen to hear what our members are doing to help others in the workplace or charitable initiatives. To tell us more, please contact Lyndsey Tait, RICS Communications Coordinator at ltait@rics.org

Caption: Paul with the new truck purchased from the generous donations of RICS Members