Meet Modesta Read, Financial Assistant

I worked at Global Water Partnership (GWP) with accounts payable, accounts receivable, travel claims and decision archives. And before that, in 2012, I was working at Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). SIWI and GWP were in the same building back then, and now we’re all in Garnisonen, where SEI is located too. It’s a good feeling, always bumping into my old fellows and colleagues.

My current role is almost the same, but I also now work on time reporting – checking time reports from people in Stockholm, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

It was quite a challenge for me at the beginning because of the project structure, which we didn’t have at GWP – as well as having to use different software; reading through contracts when invoicing and closing projects; and working on SEI Africa’s cash book. And GWP is an intergovernmental organization but SEI is a Swedish organization, which means they’re very different, including the way we work with taxes.

I moved to Sweden from Namibia in December 1999. It was dark, it was cold, and you can go days without seeing the sun. That had never happened in my life. I grew up in a rural village in the countryside, where our sense of time was based on the sun. Our parents would tell us: when the sun is there, then you prepare dinner. When the sun is there, you do this. Then all of a sudden I was in this country where it is dark the whole day the sun has no role to play. I was depressed.

But I felt differently back then, because I knew we were going to leave the country after 7 months and move to Mozambique. When I came back to Sweden in 2004, I was more prepared and more positive because I knew I was coming here for good.

My studies. During my first move to Sweden in 1999, I studied Swedish with people who never went to school and who had to learn a new alphabet. That was a challenge for me as I wanted things to go faster. But when I came back to Sweden in 2004, I was ready. I spent a few months studying Swedish at Folk Universitet in Stockholm then moved back to the municipal classes at a higher level.

So my studies helped me feel at home, and made me feel more ambition. I was able to study business economics and mathematics in Swedish, and Swedish as a second language. I did try the English classes, but they weren’t fast enough for me. I didn’t want to waste my time again because I had resigned from my job in 1999 at the Office of the Auditor-General of Namibia to then take time off for my children, made possible by the Swedish parental leave system. With my Swedish language skills, I could start working in finance again more quickly.

I enjoy the interaction with other people. It’s encouraging when people say, “oh, Modesta, you’re so nice! You’re so helpful!” I really feel it. And this is a research centre – so the researchers are key. When they come and ask me something, I would never say I don’t have time. We are a support base for these people. That is our purpose, and that is why we’re here. If they were not here, I would not be here either.

I also like this combination of people from different backgrounds. I have never lived in a place where you have so many different people from different continents and countries. I did learn from moving from Namibia – because of our history, we have this difference of black and white – from the apartheid system. But now, whether people see skin colour or not, that’s none of my business. We are all people. I’m here to help everybody, regardless of who they are, where they come from, what their background is. Together we are SEI, and we are all a team.

For me it’s the diversity. We have all these diverse people from different backgrounds. And one person might complement another – I might have a shortage of something that somebody with a different background can help with. That is SEI. We fit together like a puzzle.

It’s also about the field where we’re working, with environmental issues. We come from different countries with different climates, different rain patterns, different cultures. Sometimes our cultures depend on the climate, depend on the seasons. All that comes together at SEI. It’s just so perfect.