VICS is a lay volunteer missionorganization started by the Canadian Spiritans 42 years ago in which skilled volunteers are sent for two-year terms to work in developing countries. VICS volunteers have varied skills, like nursing, carpentry or teaching.

“The basic philosophy of filling a need is really, really important,” de Gooijer said.

She intends to continue that philosophy as she takes over as director from Fr. Bob Colburn.

De Gooijer, originally from Saskatchewan, took on the role in January, shortly after she and her husband returned from a two-year placement in Tanzania.

“One of the things that has been a challenge and will continue to be a challenge (is) finding volunteers for a two-year posting,” said de Gooijer. “Short-term placements offer really good opportunities. Two-year placements offer the opportunity to really start becoming more embedded in the culture.”

Twenty years in education in rural Saskatchewan prepared de Gooijer for her three placements over the past 25 years: teaching high school Math and English in Kenya, working as a principal of a 400-student boarding school in the island nation of Kiribati and teaching students with physical disabilities to read and write Swahili in Tanzania.

For all three of her postings, the first three months were “new and exciting,” she said, but “it’s after that you start getting deeper into the culture… you get to know more people and have some deeper experiences and you get to know yourself better over a longer period of time.”

On why some may be hesitant to sign up, de Gooijer believes the idea of giving up a job or not having one to come back to discourages potential volunteers. When she first joined VICS in the late 1980s, jobs were easy to find when she came back. Ten years ago, however, after her second mission, it took her four to five years to find employment. Yet de Gooijer and her husband signed up for a third time.

“I know they (the Spiritans) really wanted to have someone who knew the organization and had a sense of who we are and what we stand for, what our philosophy is and someone who can carry that on,” said de Gooijer.

VICS volunteers, between ages 21 and 65, go overseas with the intention of “working themselves out of a job,” she said, meaning the local people will become equipped to take over when VICS is gone.

De Gooijer also hopes to start working with universities.