While living at Wesley College in the University of Sydney, Alders became associated with Community Aid Abroad. This association led her to seek a position in a developing country upon the completion of her PhD. Dr. Alders was employed as lecturer for three years at the newly founded School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Zambia. She then spent three years working as Project Officer in Southern Africa for Community Aid Abroad, spending much of her time contributing to the renewal of small-scale agricultural production at the end of the civil war in Mozambique.