03 April 2004

Pretoria, South Africa: The UN Volunteers (UNV) programme and the Southern African Student Volunteers (SASVO) have joined forces to mobilize students and local communities to serve as volunteers in rural South Africa.

With technical support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and a new partner, the US-based Association for Volunteer Administration (AVA), in volunteer administration and management, the project reaches out to a huge reservoir of untapped potential volunteers, South Africa’s young people.

By developing training modules in the most important areas of SASVO’s interventions i.e. agriculture, HIV/AIDS and social infrastructure, the joint project seeks to enhance the impact of volunteer contributions in these areas, as well as expanding SASVO’s capacity for volunteer management, and resource mobilization. The first UN Volunteers, Programme Advisor Horrance Chilando of Zambia and Training Specialist Charles Aheto-Tsegah of Ghana, arrived in December 2003 and January 2004, respectively, and have already facilitated the first workshops for SAVSO staff at their Pretoria headquarters.

During the 02 April project inauguration in Pretoria, Vusimzi Modonsela, Director-General of the South African Department of Social Development stressed the importance of the project. “This is a significant response to the appeal made by the Government of South Africa, to promote and engage volunteerism to tackle the country’s development challenges,” he said. Dumisani Mngadi, UNDP Assistant Resident Representative in Pretoria added, “This is an enormous challenge. The aim is to assist rural communities and organizations with the skills of volunteers so that they can contribute towards the development of the country. The development challenges confronting South Africa requires the invaluable contribution of volunteers across the country.”

William Andrianasolo representing the UN Volunteers programme at the launching ceremony outlined how volunteering contributes to economic and social development, with particular attention to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of measurable goals and targets to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women.

“Recent global initiatives such as the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and the Campaign to ban landmines, are examples of the solidarity, service and reciprocity that embodies volunteerism which often goes unnoticed by the commercial media and the general population,” he said. “An estimated 10 million volunteers, in over 100 countries, gave their time to the immunization initiative, to ensure children were properly documented and received the oral vaccine. With this project, UNV intends to mobilize local communities and student volunteers to involve them in self-help action.”

UNV supports SASVO’s effort to raise its profile and to become involved in the implementation of UN-supported programmes across South Africa. The UN Volunteers programme expects the project will serve as a role model not only for South Africa, but the entire world, on how to tap the large potential of voluntary action to achieve the MDGs.

Founded in 1993, the Southern African Students Volunteers is one of South Africa’s largest volunteer organizations and is a joint venture of the Centre for Human Rights and the Centre for Study of AIDS at the University of Pretoria. SAVSO’s mission, is to empower people at the grass roots level to contribute to improving their own quality of life.

They seek to promote volunteerism among South Africa’s students and during the past 11 years has mobilized some 9000 student volunteers in scores of projects. Students have worked to implement small-scale projects during more than 200 holiday work camps in rural areas across Southern Africa. Volunteers have constructed 240 new classrooms, renovated over 800 classrooms in 40 schools, and assisted in the construction of five community centers for mentally handicapped children. They also conduct training programmes in human rights, HIV/AIDS community awareness, and environmental sanitation.