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The
online way
Surfing the United Nations
web site one night, Nigeria Adedoyin Onasanya’s attention was drawn to the slogan
of Netaid.org: online action against absolute poverty. “There was a list of projects
in which interested people could work, and without ever having to leave home!,” he
recalls. After enrolling and answering some basic questions about his skills, experience
and areas of interest, Onasanya became an online volunteer. Among his most noteworthy
achievements has been the creation of an e-discussion group for Nigerian development
practitioners. He has also worked for the Horizon Communication project, which investigates,
documents and catalogues succesful initiatives aimed at combating poverty and under-development.
Netaid.org was born two years ago through the joint effort of the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) and Cisco Systems, a world leader in Internet technology.
Its novelty rests in the way it has exploited information technology by tailoring
it to the limitations as much as to the wishes of all those people who want to join
in “voluntary work that is not physical, but online,” as the Filipino Chere Castaneda
puts it. Though financial donations are willingly accepted in a click of the mouse,
the most novel feature of the organization is the way it joins together people willing
to offer their time and talents with those who need specific help in developing a
project. And it doesn’t matter where in the world the sides are living.
To take one example, Joanne K. Morse–a professor at the University of Hampton, Virginia,
and author of science fiction novels–wrote a bilingual dictionary for children in
rural areas of Ghana. Designing web pages is another activity: Jade O’Hanlon, from
Britain, created a programme to assist children in Sri Lanka called Help for the
Children, while Ana Carvalho from Portugal did the same for an urban project in the
Philippines, the Rejoice Urban Development Project. Peter van der Zee from Holland,
meanwhile, helped translate documents from English into German.
Most volunteers will never meet face-to-face the people with whom they exchange e-mails,
but some enthusiasts have planned trips to do just that. Working from Arizona, Terry
Rosenlund has collaborated with an AIDS prevention project in Kenya, the Kenyan AIDS
Intervention Prevention Project Group (KAIPPG). His work involves securing resources
in the United States for the treatment of AIDS victims and orphaned children. This
year he’s planning to travel to Africa to “get to know the KAIPGG family.” Laurie
Moy, another online volunteer from the States, will soon visit the Ugandan handicapped
people’s project with which she has worked from Dallas. Judyth Sassoon, a British
scientist at the University of Bern, also plans to visit that country to get a better
idea of what help is required in the field of child health. She is already working
with the Uganda Children’s Fund in an effort to create a mobile health unit for children
in remote rural areas.
Netaid.org is based on the principle that there are many initiatives, small or large,
which can bring about major changes in the fight against poverty. All that is needed
are a screen, a keyboard, and the will to help.
More information:
www.netaid.org
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A
few tips
Would you
like to be an international volunteer?
The Co-ordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS), created
in 1948 and operating under the auspices of UNESCO, currently works with 140 NGOs
in 100 countries, which take on unspecialized volunteers to work in development projects
alongside the local population. Its role is to put potential volunteers in contact
with organizations that can decide what they should do.
The service encourages volunteering as a means to work for peace, international understanding,
solidarity, cooperation and reconciliation between the different peoples of the world.
CCIVS’ main fields of action are informal education, preservation of cultural heritage
and the environment, and emergency aid and reconstruction.
Are you involved in volunteering research?
CCIVS is currently co-ordinating a joint campaign for the International Year of Volunteers
that will end in 2002 with a four-day conference whose main areas of debate are:
access to volunteering for under-privileged people, volunteering and peace work,
inter-regional exchange, and the legal rights and mobility of volunteers.
To find out more, contact: The Co-ordinating Committee for International Voluntary
Service
UNESCO
1 rue Miollis, 75732 Paris Cedex 15, France
Tel: (00 33) 1 45 68 49 36
e-mail: ccivs@unesco.org
Internet: http://www.unesco.org/cciv
What are the aims of the International Year of Volunteers 2001?
The aims are increasing volunteering’s profile, promoting it as activity, making
it easier to become a volunteer and improving the exchange of knowledge and experience
between volunteers from around the world. The year also offers a unique opportunity
to pay homage to the millions of volunteers who each day provide essential help to
those who most need it.
For more information, see www.iyv.org
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United
Nations Volunteers
The United
Nations Volunteers Programme (UNV) was created by the General Assembly of the United
Nations in 1970 to serve as a partner in development cooperation. Every year, close
to 5,000 professions from over 150 nations work in a range of technical, economic
and social fields, from community-based initiatives to peace-building processes.
They listen and discuss; teach and train; encourage and facilitate. Seven out of
ten UNV volunteers come from developing countries.
More information:
http://www.unv.org
On the rise: total number of UNV volunteers worldwide
| Year |
Number
|
| 1971 |
35
|
| 1975 |
376
|
| 1980 |
1
052
|
| 1985 |
1
493
|
| 1990 |
2
637
|
| 1995 |
3
263
|
| 2000 |
4
780
|
Source:
www.unv.org
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