“Dogs don’t care if you speak Dutch or not”

The Amsterdam metropolitan region is home to around 100,000 expats. Public perception of this group of young international employees is not always positive; they can afford expensive housing and they stay within their own bubble, without contributing to the local society. Nevertheless, the Volunteer Center has noted a considerable growth in the number of young internationals who want to do volunteer work. We spoke to one of them, Briony, about her motivation and her experience at Animal Shelter DOA. “If I didn’t use the PowerPoint presentation in my work,  the world still turned around.”

At first glance, Australia born Briony Lipscombe fits the stereotypical image of the expat. She is a university-educated economist. As a teenager she backpacked around the world and then also visited Amsterdam. The city impressed her, although, she says, she didn’t see much more than the Dam Square and its surroundings. After graduation she started her working life at a large international consultancy company in Sydney. Pretty soon, however, she was getting restless again.

A wake-up call

Briony: “I was like, I really want to go somewhere else. I am happy, but I want to travel again. Then my manager, who happened to be Dutch, said: ‘Why not come to Amsterdam?’ And I did. At first I thought I would work here for a few years and then maybe go back home, or move to another place… That’s now nine years ago.”

Briony ended up in the hotspot for expats: the Amsterdam Zuid As, where she continued her consultancy work. Her partner, from the US, also settled in Amsterdam. Together they moved into a house in the Baarsjes, the fast gentrifying neighborhood in Amsterdam West. So far the stereotypical image fits, but then: “The last few years I’ve kind of taken a step back professionally. I realized, I don’t want to work so much, I really want to have more balance in my life. It was like a bit of a burnout.” An important event in that period was the passing away of her dog. It was like a wake-up call. “I realized I wanted to do other things, with my partner, my dog and not only be stressed and working.”

So she quit her job and started freelancing. The same kind of work, but for three days a week only. And, something completely different, she started teaching swimming. And there was also time for voluntary work.

Volunteering at DOA, motivation and rewards

“I was looking for volunteer opportunities. Then I saw that DOA (Animal Shelter Amsterdam) was looking for volunteers and I kind of thought: yeah, that is something to look into. My dog had passed away really suddenly. Only a few weeks later, I thought of contacting  DOA. I just thought that might help. So that was my personal push and motivation, almost like self-therapy. Then I signed up.”

“At DOA they have a special team that called me to arrange an interview. They were very professional, I was so impressed. They explained about different things that I could do, asked me how much time I could commit, how I was  going to get there etc. I said I wanted to work with dogs and they said, we always need people with the cleaning team. So I said, sure, sign me up, I can clean.”

After starting at DOA, Briony was coupled to a buddy, who took her through the whole process of how to clean the dog kennels, how to interact with the dogs and select the ones that need to be walked.

Joy, confidence and respect

Now, a year later, she is a trainer herself and introduces new volunteers, in her case mostly other internationals, to DOA. These international volunteers are largely people who have been staying in the Netherlands for a longer period of time. In general, Briony thinks, not very many expats are volunteering. This group work fulltime and besides that, language can be a problem. That is not the case at DOA: dogs don’t care if volunteers can speak Dutch or not! Hence, there is a substantial group of international volunteers.

Briony loves working at DOA. Asked what it brings her, she answers without much hesitation: “Joy, confidence and respect. Confidence through doing something completely out of your comfort zone, respect for both people doing cleaning and for the staff.” She realizes the importance of the work; if you don’t show up, the dogs don’t get fed and the kennels cleaned. “If I didn’t use the PowerPoint presentation in my work,  the world still turned around.”

She found someone very special

Generally speaking, she gained more respect for people working in the service industry. It is not by chance that many volunteers work in places where employees work hard and their pay is low, like in care homes. She also found someone very special at DOA: a new dog, a seven years old chihuahua named Flo. With Flo, in her new life-work balance, she and her husband are now slowly integrating  into the Amsterdam society. “It’s a diverse city and that is what I also love about it, you can experience the Surinamese culture, the traditional Jordaan Amsterdam culture but also the international culture – similar to Sydney or New York etc.” However, eventually they will move on, she thinks. Somewhere where it doesn’t rain all the time in spring or get dark at 4 p.m. in January.

Do you also like volunteering?

The’re also a lot of other possibilities in Amsterdam: Search in our online database.
Or contact us if you have any questions or need help! m.bacic@vca.nu / 06-37199450

Text: Piet Renooy
Photo’s: Kitty de Jong (photo 2 & 3). The husband of Briony (photo 1)

DOA:

We are the largest and second oldest shelter in the Netherlands. With much knowledge, experience and love we give dogs , cats and rabbits all the care they need. Unlike many other shelters, we have all services under one roof, including our own veterinary practice and many trained professionals. In addition, when people adopt from us, they know what kind of animal they are getting, and we carefully match animal and new owner. Newly adopted pet mom and dads receive free advice and guidance if necessary for three months. We are a large shelter but a small independent charity that depends on donations from donors to be able to fulfill our care for the animals. We help about 2000 animals every year. We do our work with the efforts of volunteers, for more than 120 years.

Australian expats

The group of Australian newcomers in Amsterdam is modest in size. In 2023 there were 689, of a total of approximately 47,000 foreign settlers.