“Concerted action between local networks and TRIAL International is a great and sustainable set-up”

Portraits of volunteers #7  

Since 2018, twelve volunteers have taken on the specific mission of translating TRIAL International’s website news. To thank them for their invaluable commitment, the “Portraits of volunteers” series gives them the floor. In this final episode, Marine Bloch looks back on her volunteering and her professional curriculum in criminology.

When did you start volunteering for TRIAL?

I have been a volunteer at TRIAL since March 2017. It was a friend from my Master’s program, herself a volunteer at the time, who told me about it. But I already knew the NGO since 2011, through my studies at the University of Geneva. My faculty was actually a stone’s throw away from TRIAL’s office!

From the very start, I was able to state the number of hours I could dedicate to TRIAL. The workload therefore fits very well in my timetable.

Where do you work at the moment?

I currently live in Montreal and work at the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC). I also support the coordination of the Network for Exchange and Support for Local Actions, whose mandate is to support and improve local initiatives against bullying, sexual exploitation, street gangs and radicalization.

Originally from Switzerland, I completed my Bachelor’s degree in International Relations at the University of Geneva. It was during an academic exchange at the University of Montreal that I discovered a passion for criminology. I therefore pursued a Masters in Criminology and Security Law at the University of Lausanne.

Before taking up my present job, I interned as an Analyst at the French Centre for the Monitoring of Delinquency and Criminal Responses (Observatoire national de la délinquance et des réponses pénales, or ONDRP), where I specialized in homicides and their statistical classification. I also worked as a community worker with the Official Youth Foundation, a Swiss organization that hosts and supports young adults in difficulty.

On a more personal level, my interests are as eclectic as they are changing. One day an improvised painter, I can be a professional skier the next.

Do you think your volunteer experience could be useful in your career?

My experience as a volunteer translator has already proved a professional asset. In my current position, I sometimes have to translate documents or correct the translations of team members. 

Which aspects of TRIAL’s mission are you most interested in?

As first responders, actors in the field are a crucial part of the action chain. Because they are in touch with local populations, they are best placed to assess the cross-cutting nature of local issues. That is why the trainings TRIAL delivers to various actors involved in the fight against impunity (lawyers, prosecutors, journalists and NGOs) seem to me an essential part of its program’s success. Concerted action between local networks and TRIAL International is a great and sustainable set-up.