Positives, Pitfalls and Possibilities of Volunteer Abroad

Join Cuso International's Volunteers 4 the World Committee to celebrate International Volunteer Day by exploring some of the issues that surround international volunteering on Wednesday December 5th in Toronto, Canada.

In the past 50 years, volunteer abroad programs have become an extremely popular and transformative pursuit for Canadians interested in seeing the world and contributing to social justice. The benefits for individual participants are substantial, not only through the cross-cultural experiences and skill-building challenges they offer, but also through the international cooperation and goodwill they contribute to Canadian diplomatic relations. But what are the systemic impacts of sending tens of thousands of Canadians abroad to volunteer in projects and programs identified in lower income countries? Is the greater project of social justice threatened by potential pitfalls of these ventures? Drawing on research on and experience with overseas youth programs, this presentation will engage in various theories of volunteer abroad and their implications for practice. The goal of this gathering will be to explore ways to ensure that volunteer abroad programs can authentically fulfill their promise of promoting greater international cooperation, cross-cultural understanding, and global social justice.

Guest speakers: Gary W.J. Pluim, OISE and Jacquie Brown, Cuso International Alumni

When:

Wednesday December 5, 2012

6:30pm – 8:00pm

Where:

Bloor/Gladstone Library, 1101 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario (One block east of Dufferin and Bloor)

Register online at: http://ivd2012.eventbrite.ca/

Questions? Please contact Cuso International at: Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser. or 1.647.478.4089

A variety of assistive or learning technologies (AT/LT) are being used successfully within the education system to support the learning process for students with learning disabilities. As is the case with any new software there is a significant learning curve for new users. Through an innovative combination of trained volunteers and online resources, the Ottawa Volunteers in Education program is training volunteers to support students as they begin to use learning technology, so they can reap the benefits of these tools as quickly as possible. Free online AT training and resources are available to all English and French speaking individuals.

www.onfe-rope.ca/at

This year the Kenya Red Cross Society Machakos Branch in partnership with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (IFRC) is again celebrating International Day of the Volunteer. We are expecting an increase on last year's participants, targeting a number between 100-200.

Participants will receive breakfast, before 'marching' under the IDV banner to meet with officials for speeches, etc. As with 2011, Clean-Up and Tree Planting activities will then take place, before all participants will be invited to take lunch and sign the "Volunteering Matters" mural at the marketplace (which will be refreshed from last year).

Itinerary
8am: Meet at Red Cross Compound for Breakfast (Chai & Mandazi), divide volunteers into 'teams'
9am: March from RC Compound to Meeting Point A (next to Mosque)
930am: Speeches from Mayor, Town Clerk, Branch Co-ordinator, etc.
10am: Teams move to Clean-Up Site  (TBC)
12pm: Teams move to Tree Planting (site TBC)
1pm: Lunch (supplied by Baba Joe's) and Final Remarks at Market Site for participants to sign their names on a freshly-painted mural
2pm: Finish

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Volunteer movement – what is it?

On 5^th of December the world celebrates the International Volunteer Day (IVD). Thousands of events and information campaigns take place to celebrate and promote volunteerism this day. United Nations Volunteers always join the movement, and UN Volunteers in Crimea, Ukraine are not the exception.

I as UN volunteer at the UNDP Sub-Office in Crimea together with the UNV/UNOSDP/UNDP Project “Young Football Volunteers: Sport and Development for Millennium Development Goals” (YFV) will conduct an information session on volunteerism, its role in the world, and its benefits for social and personal development. The info session is a panel at the BarCamp “Ideas Out Loud” organized by a local NGO the Center for Regional Development “Top Kaya”. The first in history of Simferopol BarCamp is dedicated to civil journalism and cooperation between civil initiatives and media will take place on 1 of December.

During the session the UN Volunteers programme information materials will be spread out. The most active participants will receive prizes from the YFV project: the project t-shirts and informational materials on HIV prevention and the UN MDG comic book. The participants will also have an opportunity to observe the photo exhibition “Charity through the Prism of Objective Lens” which is the result of the all-Ukrainian contest organized by the Ukrainian Philanthropists Forum, and the materials of the UNV campaign “Volunteering Matters”.

Despite the fact that the term “volunteerism” and “volunteer movement” became a buzz word nowadays, not many are aware about its true meaning. “Unpaid labour” is the first that occurs to mind. In fact, this is not the case. On the international level volunteerism is recognized as a powerful driving force based on strong civil society. Why? The point is that people talk about volunteering aloud and appreciate its value. In our country volunteer movement is like grey economy – nobody tells that it exists, nobody promotes it, let alone understanding its true value. Thus we lose the opportunity to use this tremendous resource for our personal sake and for the sake of our society. 

I am a big fan of Massive Open Online Courses. These high quality education material changed my life, made me a more knowledgeable and confident person, also fulfilled my childhood dream of studying in top universities in MIT. There are loads of other people in my country who have same kind of needs and thirsts regrading quality education material like I do. So about six months back i started telling people about these courses. Most of the peoples were skeptical and did not give me much listen. But I started finding people in need of these material and also passionate about quality education. Also, people who cant access higher education in my country due to money problem are also befitting from these material. Me and my friends are collecting the materials from different online courses and supplying them to anybody in need. The curator of TEDxDhaka, Mr. cal Jahan and the HRM Mirza Salman Hossain beg started a project under the TEDxDhaka named TRANSED. It means, Transforming Education. I believe the root cause of all the problem my country, Bangladesh have lies in the education system, and i want to transform it in my own way. I am going to jailbreak it.

I celebrate International Children day on 20 November at Village Sakri Union Council Dabhro Taluka Diplo District Tharparkar Sindh Pakistan on The platform of PREH Development Foundation Tharparkar. I conducted rally with children and their parents and after that arrange workshop on children Rights in society.

I plan on visiting a selected number of hospitals in my community to preach the gospel and also donate neccessary food items to some number of  sick children and adults. And to join a volunteering group in clean up exercise or any other opportunity on Volunteering Day.

I had an experience of engaging in the donation of cloths food stuffs and clothing in the Upper West Region of Ghana specifically Bolgatanga.

Thank you.

This festive season, let’s celebrate the spirit of volunteering and active citizenship.
VSO India is organising a series of events to commemorate 5th December, International Volunteer Day. 

In South Africa, Agnetta Nyalita, a VSO Volunteer, working at the University of Venda is leading the celebration of the International Volunteer Day at Nzhelele Community in Limpompo Province. Various Partners including VSO RAISA, UNV South Africa, Peace Corps will be at the Lufuno Home Based Care Center where the celebrations will take place. 

Activities of the day include Sharing of Volunteer Stories from the various organizations, Offering of free diagnostic services, sports activities with the OVCs and Donations of food and clothing items to the center. 

I worked once as a daycare worker in our place and caring for the children is always the best a mother like me could offer, be it to my own children or others, i always loved seeing children holding crayons and chose bright colors, the artwork shows freedom and bright future, enlightenment and peace, and that was what not everyone will be lucky enough to experience with...all the first time moments of these children, i was there to witness those moments, from the first loudest cried you could heard , scary children being withdrawn from their parents on their first time to be an individual, the first feeding by their own , the first toilet moments, the cheerful smiles and the laughters and songs ...and the courage to make them feel safe and taken care of, thats my priceless experience, the trusts not only the adults had given me, but those looks from those children saying, iam safe here with mrs LEAH mom, don't worry about me... i won't trade that experience... i would always loved being a childcarer, if i will be given a chance again.