Internal Communications Manager and Board Secretary

Sarah wears two hats within the A Rocha International team, as Internal Communications Manager and Board Secretary. Under the first, Sarah is looking at ways to keep communication flowing and relationships strong within the ARI team as well as within the A Rocha worldwide family, with regular gatherings and publications to share learning and to talk and pray together. Under the second, she supports ARI’s Board of Trustees. She brings a background of literature and programme administration to the role, plus several years’ experience around the A Rocha world, particularly in France, Canada, the Czech Republic and the UK, as a volunteer and as staff.  

Sarah writes: ‘My background with A Rocha in different places and roles helps me see us from different perspectives – from the ‘inside’, able to explain who we are and how we function, and from the ‘outside’, remembering what it was like on arrival. I’ve lived in several countries, including ones where I didn’t speak the language, and discovered the joys of culture shock. I hope that makes me a thoughtful listener to people from around the A Rocha family, an administrator who can anticipate what support and information is needed, and a helpful example of someone who has survived (and thrived from) volunteering with A Rocha. I am daily encouraged by the joint efforts of the A Rocha family to live lightly and care for this beautiful world and all that inhabits it.’

Canadian by background, she and her husband, Chris Parkman, are now based in the coastal town of Menton, France, close to the Italian border.