![\"\"](\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/goldenplains\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/01\/Zonta-Strap.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
WHEN not occupied by family and criminal law, sole legal practitioner and Justice of the Peace, Dianne Hadden dedicates her time to serving other people.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s something that was sparked within her at university.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was encouraged to do volunteer work… I used to visit the Winlaton Young Women\u2019s Prison at Nunawading,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t have many visitors in those days, so I used to do that. That\u2019s where I started my community giving.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s this volunteer drive that has earnt Ms Hadden the honour of being one of Zonta Ballarat\u2019s Great Women for 2020, having been, amongst many things, a former State Member for Ballarat Province in 1999 to 2006.<\/p>\n
At Lifeline Ballarat, she spent 13 \u201cvery rewarding but sad\u201d years as a telephone crisis counsellor. With the Ballarat and Grampians Community Legal Service, Ms Hadden is on the board, and duty solicitor roster.<\/p>\n
She gives toiletries and clothes to the \u201camazing\u201d and \u201cunderutilised\u201d One Humanity Shower Bus, and with her daughter, she\u2019s a contributor to Share the Dignity, collecting goods and toiletries for vulnerable and homeless young women.<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung people need to have a volunteer spirit,\u201d she said. \u201cMy daughter\u2019s always known me to volunteer, but it\u2019s always for other people. Not to better me, but to try and make life easier for others.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the service Ms Hadden\u2019s most passionate about as a Ballarat Friend of Ainaro, lies somewhere just north of Australia.<\/p>\n
She has volunteered in Timor-Leste for over 10 years, six of them at the Ryder-Cheshire Foundation\u2019s home, Klibur Domin, which has beds for tuberculosis patients, cares for the elderly and disabled, provides respite and rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
When she visits, Ms Hadden lives like a Timorese woman, staying with her \u201cadopted\u201d local family.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like returning home. There\u2019s 13 in the house,\u201d she laughed. \u201cIt gives me a lot of joy and happiness.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany I\u2019ve known since they were one year old, so you see them grow and go to school, and it\u2019s wonderful to see their milestones. I feel very happy that they trust me because they\u2019ve had not a very nice history, Timor-Leste.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a new nation… Only 20 years old, now. Very poor. They need to trust you and accept you, you must be honest, accept their culture and work within their culture and traditions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Having picked up the \u201cdifficult\u201d tetun language, Ms Hadden loves speaking it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spend a lot of time listening and observing. If you can\u2019t speak the language and you make no attempt to learn it, they\u2019re not really interested.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like anywhere, you need to communicate. It\u2019s very challenging, but it\u2019s good fun,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Looking forward to her next trip to Timor-Leste in March, Ms Hadden will work to prepare and deliver a Domestic Violence outreach program to villages.<\/p>\n