Wrapping up with the Aid Workers Network
04:22, 5 February 2009
.. Posted in Development, Relief and Advocacy Efforts.. Link
One of the things I'm most proud of from my time as both volunteer coordinator and advice page editor at the Aid Workers Network (AWN) is my joint authorship of a detailed document on how to find work in aid, relief, development and humanitarian efforts for those looking to do such outside their own countries. It's been particularly satisfying to see much of the advice stated in this resource repeated in advice columns in various media regarding finding a job in general -- which means myself and my co-author aren't as off-base as some might like to think. We talk about networking a lot, more than which web sites have job listings, because just as with any profession, it's through networking and reputation-building that most people land aid work. We approached writing the advice on this page to emphasize that aid work isn't for people who have some extra time on their hands, are looking for adventure and fun, need to "find" themselves, or have no experience working in low-infrastructure, low-literacy communities where English isn't the native language. International aid work is very serious business with a goal that such outside workers won't be needed eventually.
I'm also proud of my AWN advice page on volunteering abroad. Communities in the developing world are demanding more and more that international volunteers have professional expertise and the ability to transfer skills to local people so that these local people can eventually take over the activity; many people who want to volunteer abroad fail to understand this. With this AWN page, I tried to address volunteers in aid work in a more realistic way than some other web sites. I also tried to emphasize the ways that volunteering locally can be used for professional development, to make one more marketable for work abroad (something I emphasize in a page on my own web site as well).
As volunteer coordinator for AWN, I both set up a volunteer management system at AWN and then used that system to recruit and coordinate all volunteers for more than a year -- neither an easy task, as not only is AWN now an all-volunteer organization with its volunteers dispersed around the world, but also, no one had ever tried to track who was doing what. I was still discovering "lost" but active volunteers working on projects six months into my role! But it was nice to see all of the principles I've espoused regarding effective management of online volunteers (since 1996) still hold true! (but, ofcourse, I learned a lot as well, particularly the realities of using Web 2.0 tools with volunteers -- the practice proves somewhat different than many of the theories out there).
In addition, I ended up doing much more than I signed on for (surprised?), such as moderating the AWN discussions (a rather thankless task), editing web page content, and generating content for the AWN advice pages along with the many new volunteers I recruited (a very fulfilling task, actually). When does a volunteer coordinator get to be just a coordinator of volunteers?!
But now I've moved on from AWN, and can now concentrate on two very big research and writing projects (more details coming soon) and the big move back to the USA in April!
