Volunteer

Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA is always on the look out for dedicated and skilled volunteers, particularly for help in our Sydney office.

You can also volunteer with a range of activist groups in many states that work to fundraise in support of our programs, including dinners, raffles and stalls at events.

Contact us to discuss how you may be able to help out.

Overseas Volunteer Placements
Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA's development philosophy is that the communities in which we and our partners work in - strive for self-reliance, sustainability and the community's ownership of their own development. We therefore try and use local resources and knowledge to ensure benefits stay in the community.

We do, however, occasionally, utilise volunteers with a particular set of skills that our partners would benefit from. This is almost always done at the request of the partner. If and when these opportunities come up, they will be advertised on the front page of the APHEDA website.

An existing commitment to Union Aid Abroad- APHEDA values and principles through membership or previous volunteering in the Sydney office will also be advantageous.

Some principles we usually consider before sending volunteers overseas:

Does the partner want it?
The question of having a volunteer always begins with the partner. If a particular skill gap or need is identified by our partner and they request our assistance, we will write a position description and criteria and advertise it on our website calling for formal applications.

Can it be done locally?
Some things that volunteers might be interested in - like building or upgrading houses, are best done locally because it is cheaper, more sustainable and allows the commercial benefit to remain in the community. This consideration does take priority when deciding on volunteer placements.
Part of Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA's development philosophy is not to encourage dependence on foreign visitors.

Does the volunteer speak the language?
This is a crucial point that can be a make or break a successful volunteer placement. Not having the language skills means a cost in either hiring a translator or disrupting the work of our partner's staff for translation. This is one of the 'hidden costs' of volunteering that can make hosting a volunteer more expensive than it seems.

Does the volunteer have a specific (and ideally transferrable) skill?

Our partners often have good general skills such as construction, teaching, administration etc and can usually obtain less specialised skills locally.

A placement will be successful if the volunteer has a specific set of skills that match the partners interest e.g. skills in nursing would be useful in a health/medical project , mechanics might be useful a vocational training project or union organising or training skills would be useful in a project that strengthens unions.

Ideally, we use the train the trainer approach to ensure that the benefit is spread as widely as possible and local capacity and independence is built.

If you are interested in volunteering overseas, there are a range of agencies that specialise in volunteer placements including

• Australian Volunteers International (AVI) - a non-government volunteer sending agency that also has a youth program that is timed with university breaks.

• Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) or Volunteers for International Development, the Australian Government's overseas volunteering programs.

• Australian Business Volunteers (ABV), a non government volunteer sending agency.

• United Nations Volunteers (UNV), the volunteer sending program of the United Nations

© Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA 2003.

Last Modified: Friday, 15-Jan-2010 15:24:10 EST
This page: http://apheda.org.au/getinvolved/1063788004_15822.html