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Anna is a Canadian online volunteer who has recently joined NABUUR. Below she shares her experiences so far, and discusses the project she is currently working on.
"Upon returning home from Ghana for the second time in May 2009, I felt a strong desire to stay connected to Africa, and the rest of the world as a whole. With my work and school commitments and because I was unsure where I would be living in the next year (due to school opportunities and travel desires), I began to scour the internet to find out if there were online volunteering opportunities.
Online or virtual volunteering was not a concept I was familiar with, nor did I know if it existed. Luckily, I was directed to the United Nations Volunteers website, on which I discovered UN online volunteering. I looked through the list of potential volunteer opportunities and settled on Social Development International, a Cameroonian based NGO that was seeking the help of a online volunteer to develop a project and funding proposal to support orphans and vulnerable children in Cameroon.
I began this project and still felt disconnected from Ghana where I had spent so much time in the beginning of the year. I searched through the UN online volunteers' database and came across Nabuur – a website that was seeking a project facilitator for a village in Ghana. I applied to facilitate this village, however, someone had applied before me. I looked through the list of villages seeking facilitators and came across one project that struck my interest – Buterere village in Burundi.
As the facilitator for Buterere, there are many challenges. Funds are always a problem because it is difficult to get any projects started in Burundi without obtaining money to start with. Although there are some very committed volunteers, others contribute for a while and then we don’t hear from them again. We are also constantly searching for volunteers with the time and skills to commit to some of our bigger tasks. There are always ways to try to recruit new volunteers, so when our village starts to get quiet, I spend a lot of time posting our project information all over the web.
Right now in Buterere we are hoping to raise $500-$700 to host a conference which will help to create a Board for our University project. It was tentatively scheduled for the beginning of September; however, lack of funds has prevented this. This project, both the conference and the university, are very essential to improving the lives of Buterere community members by promoting the importance of a higher education.
So far my experience with online volunteering has been great. I really feel it is a great method for me, here in Canada, to participate in global development across the world, and specifically in Africa. I often recommend the Nabuur site to people who I feel might be interested. It’s a great portal for people to connect and share their knowledge and skills."
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Profilul autorului:
Romina Oliverio
My name is Romina Oliverio and I'm based in Toronto, Canada. I work as the volunteer manager and online communities manager for NABUUR.com, an online volunteering platform that connects virtual volunteers from around the globe to projects and villages in developing countries. Check us out at www.nabuur.com!
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