Fresh out of high school, young Tesa Enari decided to take on a work experience role with Barnardos in 1993 as a receptionist. Little did she know that she would dedicate decades of her career to Barnardos.

As one of Barnardos’ longest-standing employees, Tesa is now the Barnardos Early Learning administrator based in the national office in Wellington. But it hasn’t always been that way.

“Working for an organisation for 29 years has granted me the opportunity to explore a range of roles within Barnardos. I took a leap of faith and decided to give working as a casual residential youth worker a go when a vacant role became available in 2005.

“By day I work in the office and by night, sometimes I switch to a hands-on frontline role to support young people in the specialist group homes,” says Tesa.

Why Barnardos for 29 years?

It’s the people who have driven her passion to continue at Barnardos.

“A highlight is the connection with my co-workers. It feels like being in a big extended family. I love being able to work with a range of different people within numerous services, which is a bonus of working with large organisations.”

“My work week could change from providing a listening ear to the young people in our care space to supporting our educators across the motu and being able to collaborate with people from different walks of life. It reminds me why I have been loyal to Barnardos for so many years,” says Tesa.

What would she say are the biggest differences between now and then?

“I have seen new services come into fruition, I have also seen them close too, I’ve worked under four different CEOs, and I’ve watched the organisation restructure several times. I definitely have seen the highs and the lows.”

Despite seeing many of her colleagues leave over time, Tesa knew that she had made friendships that would last a lifetime.

“I have seen many staff leave Barnardos and it made me sad every time, but I knew it wouldn’t be goodbye forever – because I am still friends with some of them now. I call them my aunties because that’s how close we are, it’s like a family unit.”

Getting to know Tesa

Tesa is Barnardos Early Learning senior administrator and a casual residential youth worker and admin for various specialist group homes in New Zealand. She also supports Barnardos kaiako and educators across the motu. Her role involves; police checks of future employees in the early learning space, arranging uniforms for kaiako and educators, being the righthand woman for Barnardos Early Learning General Manager - plus her care duties in the specialist group homes.

When a one week work experience, turns into 29 years of dedication to Barnardos