Update: Volunteer Bank

23/04/20

doc ref: agn-2

Prospective interventions/ projects

1) Agricultural Prism: (insights; sharing practices, processes, issues, solutions relating to agriculture)

2) Turning the Tide: (intervention to address human trafficking and exploitation of Africans) (Subset of The Poverty Trap initiative)

3) Language Bank: (language & translation resource)

Please see below for details on these projects.

Hi,

I hope you are all keeping safe and well. Since my previous ‘Volunteer Bank’ update there have been some revisions and amendments.  This update serves to inform you of this as well as to impart additional information.

Admin

1) Volunteering scope and process; this element of our processes has been expanded to make it more clear. I would strongly recommend reading it. The updated information is available in the ‘Volunteer Scope and Process’ section of our website here; details

2) Project roles have been specified and are set out here; details

3) General volunteer groups have been specified and are listed here; details.  While there is some overlap between the groups listed here and roles specified as project roles, please note general volunteer groups are not project specific.

It is fine to put yourself forward for both project roles and to join a general volunteer group. The latter will sometimes serve as a pool that can be drawn on to fulfil project roles.

4) You can put yourself forward to join a general volunteer group at anytime and your name will be added to the list of people in that group. While experience or qualifications are not always necessary, if you do have some it is helpful to state how much work experience or qualifications you have in relation to the group you would like to join.

5) When putting yourself forward for a project role or to join a general volunteer group, please also provide the details set out in point 2 (sections A to E) listed in the ‘Volunteer Scope and Process’ section of our website, again referenced here; details

6) Only a few people have expressed a desire for a general whatsapp group where all volunteers can join to communicate.  Each project will have its own whatsapp group so unless you are involved/ subscribed to that project you will not be able to engage with any volunteers or you will only be able to engage with those in the same team.

If more than 5 people express a desire for a general whatsapp group I will open one. There are currently over 60 subscribers to the ‘Volunteer Bank’.  Each person will need to provide their permission for me to enter them into the general whatsapp group.

If you have any comments, queries or suggestions please do feel free to raise them.

It would be helpful to know how the majority of you prefer to receive updates e.g. as an attached pdf to a whatsapp or email message or as a link to a pdf on our website where you can download it or hosted as a page on our website etc.

If you are only an email subscriber, which about 5 of you are then obviously you will only receive updates by email.  Obviously your interaction and involvement in activities will also be a bit more limited.

Projects

** Agricultural Prism

1) There is now a team in place to take this project forward. The project has its own whatsapp group. Team member profiles and roles are available here; details

The next step is for the team to start putting a project plan together.

** Turning the Tide

1) A telephone meeting was held between Ri and Princess, co-founder of PIAM in Italy about the work her charity does in order to gain insight into the world of human trafficking and exploitation of Africans.

2) Meeting notes have only been distributed to those who expressed an interest in this project. The project also has its own whatsapp group. Some members are yet to feedback regarding the material previously sent and the meeting notes.  If you are yet to feedback kindly do so.

3) Further consultation with other bodies and professionals is still required in order to gain more insight into this issue

** Language Bank

1) A few people have put their details forward and highlighted the languages they speak so as to be included in the database. The bank will serve as a resource that can be drawn on to aid communication between members who have different levels of fluency.

2) As a network part of our aim is to cross the Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone divide as well as encourage communication between people who only speak/ are most proficient in an African language.

Please do consider signing up for this if you speak 2 or more languages. For the avoidance of doubt, one of the languages can most definitely be a traditional African language.

3) Classifications for command of languages are, native, proficient, moderate and basic.

A minimum command at the level of ‘moderate’ is required for addition to the bank.