Thank you all for coming to today’s
presentation. I’m very excited to talk with you about the wonderful volunteer
opportunities available through our organisation. Following the presentation,
I will gladly answer any questions you may have.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with
our organisation, I’ll give you a bit of background. Our founder, Jim
Rossdale, was volunteering for numerous NGOs and humanitarian agencies in
Uganda and Ghana about twenty years ago when he came to a realisation. What
he saw was that there were lots of people volunteering, but they weren’t
really doing anything meaningful. So he decided to start his own venture,
with the goal of providing opportunities for volunteers to have a tangible
impact on the communities they worked with.
And so, Active Worldwide was founded in 1983. What
began as a small group of committed volunteers setting up libraries in
developing countries is now an international network of projects across the
globe.
Active Worldwide works to bring reading and computer literacy
education to isolated rural locations in the world’s poorest regions. In
these areas, schools are often very basic, and the teaching quality varies
greatly from village to village. Printed materials and computers are rarely
available. Unfortunately, this further marginalises those living in poverty.
That’s where Active Worldwide comes in. We
locate communities in need and, through the generous support of donors and
our volunteers, send people to those communities to set up educational centres.
Each centre is
equipped with an English-language library with books for both kids and
adults. Computers powered by solar panels, as well as training materials and
teacher resources, are also available.
Our volunteers can get involved in a couple
of different ways. Those with construction or programme development skills
can help to set up one of our new centres. But people who are better suited
as educators can volunteer to teach English or computer literacy, or to train
local teachers.
In order to ensure that volunteers make a
meaningful contribution, we require a minimum one-month commitment. There is
no limit to the length of time you can stay, but we do strictly abide by our
minimum. This is because, in both our experiences and in research studies, it
has been proven that anything less than a month is not enough time for
volunteers to establish relationships with communities...to develop that
trust is so important out in the field. We appreciate your understanding in
this matter.
Another aspect of our volunteer programmes
I want to cover is the cost. I know that most people think that paying to
volunteer is a little, well, ridiculous. But if you think about it, how else
can we cover the costs associated with running these programmes? It’s also
beneficial to the volunteers to have a financial investment in their
experience. This leads to greater commitment, a sense of ownership in the
projects, and lower dropout rates.
Nonetheless, we do keep the cost as low as
possible. We know that there are a lot of travel expenses that volunteers
incur, and that they often lose income by taking leaves of absence from work.
So our standard $350 per month volunteer fee covers on-site accommodations, a
small administrative fee, and a contribution to the salaries of local employees. Our organisation is entirely
not-for-profit, and our administrative fees go solely towards website
maintenance, mailings, and telephone bills.
Of course, not everyone is in the position
to be able to make the trip overseas. But there are plenty of other ways you
can support our work. We do accept monetary donations by bank transfer,
check, or money order. Regrettably, we can’t accept credit card payments at
this time. You may also wish to donate children’s used books for our
libraries. Books may be sent to our headquarters address, which can be found
in the contact section of our website.
If you are indeed interested in applying to
volunteer, we have an online form that you need to fill out. One of our staff
will contact you as soon as possible to proceed with finding the right
programme fit. And, yes, you are welcome to express an interest in particular
locations, and we will do our best to accommodate your wishes.
Now, are there any questions?
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