From the Volunteer Coordinator: Vision of Kabissa from a volunteer's point of view

On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 7:41 AM, Diana_C <***@***.***> wrote:

>
>
> *Introduction*
>
> I am Diana, a 23 years old Romanian, who discovered Kabissa on the UNV
> online volunteering website. After being interviewed by the Executive
> Director, Tobias Eigen, I was given the great news that I have been
> accepted in the team, as a volunteer coordinator.
>
> I have obtained three bachelor degrees (Law, European Affairs and
> Economics) and a master degree in EU’s External Relations and Diplomacy. I
> can speak English, French, German, a bit of Arabic and a bit of Spanish.
> Currently I am doing an internship at the European Parliament in Brussels.
>
> I have developed an interest for Africa after having participated in the
> Geneva International Model United Nations 2011, a simulation of the UN
> decision-making process, where other participants and I were asked to write
> a convention on the elimination of all forms of violence against women.
> Having to do research on this subject raised my awareness regarding the
> problems that African countries confront themselves with.
>
> Following this new fresh interest, I have envisioned my career plan: I
> would like to participate in the EU’s Junior Experts in Delegation program,
> in order to go to a European Union delegation in a developing country in
> Africa, for two years. That was the moment when I realized that beforehand,
> I want to invest some time and energy to get to know African people, as
> well as non-African people working with the African communities. In my
> view, one cannot go to an African country and try to improve things,
> without first getting to know better the African culture, their perceptions
> and their desires as well. I wanted to fill in the gap between the “us” and
> “them”.
>
> *Achievements to be proud of*
>
> Until now, my objectives have been met. As a volunteer coordinator, I have
> the chance to recruit the new volunteers. The fact of conducting many
> interviews with Africans, besides Americans, Europeans, Indians or New
> Zealand citizens, helped me understand the African culture better. It is
> incredibly encouraging to see that all these persons show a shared desire
> to help Africa overcome its obstacles. As a young idealist, seeing this
> desire to cooperate and to put energy together in order to help others is
> very touching.
>
> On the internal side of my experience at Kabissa, I would start by saying
> that I enjoy a wonderful work relation with Tobias, part of the reasons
> being that he chose to develop a flat, horizontal approach inside the team,
> instead of a classical, vertical hierarchy that might limit the volunteers’
> creativity and input. He has always treated us, the volunteers, on an equal
> footing, due to his much appreciated perception that we can contribute
> ourselves to develop Kabiss’s strategy. After having worked with him for 3
> months, I can say that he is a resourceful person and that I have learned a
> lot from him (starting with leadership and social skills and ending with PC
> software, like Doodle, Etherpads or DropBox). In addition, his enthusiasm
> when it comes to Africa is contagious and he keeps the energy flow going,
> supporting Kabissa by all his means.
>
> My relation with the other 12 volunteers has many positive aspects,
> because there is mutual respect and mutual support. We are all trying to
> give as much as we can, considering that volunteering for Kabissa comes on
> top of our studies or jobs or family commitments.
>
> We have recently managed to implement the objective of having weekly team
> meetings. This is an occasion to monitor what has been done and to decide
> on the future actions that need to be taken. These meetings contribute to
> creating the inner glue between the volunteers, given the physical distance
> between us and the fact that everything is managed 100% online.
>
> *Lessons learned*
>
> Although, usually, work runs smoothly, sometimes there are also critical
> points to be addressed. For example, we encountered situations where
> volunteers had to leave the team on short notice due to increases in other
> commitments or cases where communication with a couple of volunteers
> totally disappeared for a while.
>
> All these situations challenge me to adjust the recruitment strategy and
> to try to predict when these situations can happen. What is a bit tricky is
> that even now I don’t know how I could have foreseen either the
> precipitated leave or the absence of any communication, given the
> information that I had at that moment. These situations made me reflect on
> the fact that not only should I recruit resourceful persons, but also
> volunteers that can commit for at least 6 months constantly. This aspect is
> a bit difficult to assess during the selection interviews.
>
> As a volunteer coordinator, I also have to support the current volunteers
> in their work. We have developed and implemented the concept of a work plan
> with timeline for several activities. Although it seemed a good idea, for
> the moment this plan is not efficiently used by the volunteers in many
> cases (even if they are the ones having written it). Therefore, this is
> another challenge: to come with an idea of how to better use this tool.
> Besides this, a volunteer coordinator has to also take into account that
> each person has a different work style. Therefore, while some volunteers
> just pursue their responsibilities with no need to be motivated or
> encouraged, in other cases I feel that some “chasing” is sometimes
> necessary.
>
> For the time being, I plan to come with an idea, together with newly
> recruited project manager, of teambuilding activities suitable for a team
> working online from all the corners of the world. I have started to feel a
> dissipated atmosphere inside the team, a lack of enthusiasm and maybe
> commitment. My perception is that this is not necessarily due to an
> increase in other commitments, but to the fact that, sometimes, the work at
> Kabissa does not necessarily have some countable or perceptible results,
> therefore the volunteers might feel a lack of direction. This is why I hope
> that the roadmap that will be created by Arthur, the project manager, will
> reach this target.
>
> *Conclusion*
>
> As a concluding remark, I would want to say that I advise any person to
> volunteer, be it for the NGO sector or not. Especially when young and at
> the beginning of the career, it is important to start with a position where
> the responsibility is not overwhelming, but where it is possible to confirm
> one’s knowledge and skills and to gain experience. I would also encourage
> the choice of a volunteering field which is the translation of a passion.
> By doing this, the work seems a hobby and never becomes tiring.
>
> Before closing, I would like to thank Tobias for his constant support,
> professionally and personally, and to the whole team for putting efforts
> together in order to create a better world.
>
> With lots of enthusiasm and looking forward to the upcoming challenges,
>
> Diana
> --
> Full post:
> http://www.kabissa.org/blog/volunteer-coordinator-vision-kabissa-volunte...
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