The worlds most famous volunteer--Santa Claus--would probably agree that the road leading from a good idea to its realization is a long one :). It takes many tiny steps: planning, hours of "googling", sending mails, writing letters of intent, going to meetings etc, etc.
For the first few months our idea was still hatching and we talked about it only as hypothetical, as we looked over the internet sites of various non-profit organizations that were involved in international projects. After we saw all of the good opportunities in Africa we decided to go there. After we had narrowed our search to Africa we needed to find a good organization to go with, which wasn't as easy as it would seem.
We wanted to go for 2-6 months, in the beginning of 2013. This made things a little bit more difficult: most of the shorter projects ran through the summer, while most of the bigger organizations (who also cover all the expenses for their volunteers) had projects lasting a year or two. This is especially true of the United Nations which, in addition, is also looking for volunteers to work in war and post-war areas, and volunteers with backgrounds in medicine.
Another organization which is just getting off the ground and wasn't offering many options at the time we wanted to go was the European Volunteer Service (EVS). This organization will probably be a major player in volunteerism similar to AmeriCore; the first group of Slovenian EVS volunteers will arrive in Busua shortly before we depart. They will also be teaching within the same project as Tomaz and I but at different schools.
The third foreign organization which caught our attention was Austrian Project-E (Ethiopia-Education-English), which opened a school in Adis Abebi in 2009 geared toward the education of orphaned girls. But despite a program that was professional looking and apparently quite successful we had trouble getting an answer from them, one arrived after months [and at that point we already had other plans]. We found a pronounced tendency among the various European-level volunteer organizations which we contacted to favor people of their own European nationalities.
So, we decided to search on our own territory - Slovenia. We quickly found Humanitas. Humanitas is a humanitarian organization which works with disadvantaged groups around the world and also in Slovenia, and it immediately seemed like a good fit for us. We had a meeting, and immediately felt that this was what we had been looking for, from here on things went more smoothly. Barbara from Humanitas got us in touch with Ebeneezer, and you guys know the rest of the story :)
Slovenians are very active in international volunteer work, which is also evident in the data on the portal Globalno Prostovoljstvo (http://www.globalno-prostovoljstvo.info), where it says that 100 to 130 Slovenian volunteers per year participate in programs in the "global south".
The portal also contains good advice for the would-be volunteer preparing to join a project:
- Think about the big picture and about how the context of the situation in the country you will work in will shape your experience.
-Be realistic about how much you can achieve.
- Talk to veteran volunteers before you go and to other volunteers while you are there. Their experiences and advice can help you.
- Learn the local language, even if just to learn a few basic phrases, it can really help.
- Take some time to explore your host country and to get to know its culture and history.
- Try to refrain from judging foreign cultural practices. Be prepared to accept different ways of working, and prepare for your cultural prejudices to be challenged.
- Ask questions! Start before you go.
- You may not receive a warm welcome from everyone you meet, be prepared.
- Be careful how you behave, you never know how the local community will interpret your actions.
- If at all possible stay open to new ideas and interests.
- Learn from others and let them help you.
For additional inspiration take a look at this animated film, which won an Oscar in the year 1987: The Man Who Planed Trees. This story is about how one dedicated individual can, over the course of a lifetime, make an impact by staying quietly, humbly dedicated to a purpose bigger then himself. The act of planting a tree is used as a metaphor for every quiet work--secretly great--that requires care, patience, perseverance, faith, a sense of the eternal, and, ultimately, life in the deepest sense. It encourages us to do what we can, right where we are, within the limits of who we are, with what is given to us in the present moment; to build something new and important for others. I hope you have a chance to watch it.
Najslavnejši prostovoljec - Božiček, bi se verjetno strinjal, da je od plemenite ideje do njene realizacije dolga pot :). Pelje preko številnih drobnih korakov načrtovanja, prenekaterih ur »googlanja«, pošiljanja mailov, pisanja motivacijskih pisem, sestankov itd itd.
Prvih nekaj mesecev je bila najina ideja še v ovojih, o njej sva se pogovarjala zgolj hipotetično, ter informativno pregledovala internetne strani nevladnih organizacij, ki se ukvarjajo z mednarodnimi prostovoljskimi projekti. Ko sva prebirala vse te zanimive možnosti prostovoljstva v Afriki, je padla dokočna odločitev. Zdaj je bilo potrebno najti "le še"pravo organizacijo in program, kar pa se ni izkazalo za tako enostavno stvar, kot se zdi na prvi pogled.
Glede dolžine odprave sva se že ves čas nagibala k srednjeročnemu prostovoljstvu (kar pomeni dolžino od 2-6 mesecev), časovno pa sva se orientirala v začetek leta 2013. Oboje nama ni ravno olajšalo iskanja primerne možnosti - večina projektov se namreč izvaja poleti, vse večje organizacije ( ki ponavadi tudi pokrijejo stroške), pa večinoma pokrivajo daljše projekte; recimo enoletne, celo dvoletne. To drži predvsem za ZN, kjer sva hitro ugotovila, da iščejo predvsem prostovoljce za daljšo dobo, ki bi delovali večinoma na vojnih (oz povojnih) območjih, preferirajo pa medicinsko osebje.
Druga organizacija, ki je sicer še v zaletu, in ki v času najinega iskanja še ni ponujala veliko možnosti (za tiste ki so bile, pa sva bila prepozna), je European Voluntary Service (EVS). Ta organizacija je z vsakim mesecem bolj v zagonu, nedvomno bo prihodnjim prostovoljskim navdušencem ponujala veliko priložnosti!
Tretja tuja organizacija, ki naju je pritegnila je bila avstrijska oranizacija Project-E ( Ethiopia-Education-English oz. Etiopija-izobrazba-angleščina), ki je leta 2009 v Adis Abebi ustanovila šolo in zagnala izobraževalni program za deklice iz sirotišnice. A zgleda da ne delujejo ravno ažurno - odgovora namreč kar ni in ni bilo :) Pomembno je poudariti, da se pri različnih evropskih mednarodnih projektih še vedno čuti močan lokalizem. Kar nekajkrat sva zasledila, da so organizacije preferirale lokalne prostovoljce.
Tudi iz tega razloga sva raziskovanje usmerila na "najino" območje - Slovenijo. Kaj hitro nama je padel v oči Humanitas. Društvo za človekove pravice in človeku prijazne dejavnosti, ki se zavzema za manj priviligirane skupine prebivalstva tako v Sloveniji kot po svetu, se nama je hitro zdelo prava rešitev! Zgodilo se je prvo srečanje, začutila sva da je to to, od tu naprej pa so stvari potekale bolj tekoče. "Humanitasovka" Barbara naju je povezala z Ebenezerjem, nadaljevanje zgodbe pa že poznate :)
Slovenci smo zelo dejavni na področju mednarodnega prostovljstva, na kar kažejo tudi podatki portala Globalno prostovoljstvo (http://www.globalno-prostovoljstvo.info), ki pravijo, da se letno preko različnih organizacij kar med 100 in 130 prostovoljcev vključi v programe na t.i. "globalnem jugu".
Na omenjenem portalu so objavili tudi zelo koristne praktične nasvete za pripravo na tako izkušnjo:
- Razmisli o širši sliki, o dilemah, ki ti bodo približale kontekst države, v kateri boš opravljal delo.
- Bodi realističen glede tega, kar lahko dosežeš.
- Govori z bivšimi prostovoljci pred odhodom na prostovoljno delo in z ostalimi prostovoljci med opravljanjem dela. Njihove izkušnje ti lahko zelo pomagajo.
- Uči se lokalnega jezika, saj ti poznavanje vsaj osnovnih fraz, lahko bistveno pomaga.
- Posveti nekaj svojega časa raziskovanju svoje gostujoče države in spoznaj kolikor je mogoče njeno kulturo in zgodovino.
- Poskušaj se zadržati obsojanja različnih kulturnih praks. Bodi pripravljen sprejeti različne načine dela in se prepusti izzivanju svojih kulturnih predpostavk.
- Sprašuj! Začni že preden greš!
- Bodi pripravljen, da mogoče ne boš dobil tople dobrodošlice od vsakogar, ki ga srečaš.
- Bodi previden s svojim vedenjem, saj ne veš, kako bo tvoja dejanja razumela lokalna skupnost.
- Če je le mogoče, ostani odprt za drugačne ideje in interese.
- Uči se in pusti drugim, da ti pomagajo.
Sama bi - za dodaten navdih - med predloge dodala le še ogled animiranega filma, dobitnika oskarja leta 1987: Mož, ki je sadil drevesa (The Man Who Planted Trees). Ta navdihujoča, srčna zgodba, poraja vprašanje kako veliki (oz majhni) smo sami in kaj lahko s tem zgledom počnemo v življenju. Posaditi drevo je zgovorna metafora, ki ponazarja skrbnost, potrpljenje, vztrajnost, vero, veličastnost, večnost, življenje. Vzpodbuja nas, da tudi sami tam kjer smo, v okviru svojih zmožnost, s tistim kar imamo (kot je ob neki priložnosti dejal Theodore Roosvelt), ustvarimo kaj novega in pomembnega za druge.
Sonja
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