Ghana: “I love this volunteer experience… giving a helping hand to achieving gender equality through promoting sustainable livelihoods.” Read

After the Libya crisis broke, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) relied on the service of hundreds of online volunteers who created and maintained a virtual map that showed live information about events in the country. The Libya Crisis Map provided relief organizations with information on health needs, security threats or refugee movements to help them plan their humanitarian response. Read

Sharing her long-standing editorial experience, Yolanta Cwik from Canada conceived a website and posters for the Deworm Ghana Campaign run by the Ghana-based NGO Volunteer Partnerships for West Africa (VPWA). 3,900 children were dewormed as a result of this campaign, which was the first in a series that the organization will replicate in other West African countries. Read

Paola Brigneti has supported the Nigerian NGO Delta Women, donating countless hours of her time towards advocating for ending female sexual harassment in institutions of higher education in Delta State, Nigeria. Passionate about the organization and its cause, Paola developed advocacy strategies, activities and materials for the organization to raise awareness about sexual harassment and educate people on how to prevent it. Read

Maria Jakimovska, a business development specialist born and raised in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, supported the newly formed Cameroonian youth-led organization Leaders of Tomorrow International (LOTI) in launching its first programme: an IT centre that offers underprivileged students free Internet access and training to pursue academic studies online, in addition to scholarships that the organization negotiates with different universities. Read

Edmund Paul Kalekyezi, a legal expert from Uganda, prepared legal recommendations on Namibian laws and policies related to volunteerism. The paper supported Namibian policy makers in formulating a well-considered policy seeking to create an environment in which volunteerism can flourish and act as a driver of economic, social and political development in Namibia. Read

Sharing their diverse medical expertise, a team of twelve online volunteers developed tools and materials that help the Kitega Community Centre sensitize the local community on health issues and good practices. The organization’s health education programme benefits the rural population of Kitega, located about 40km from the Ugandan capital. Read

70 online volunteers have contributed extensively, during several months, to the Peace Bag for EuroMed Youth toolkit, drafting, reviewing and translating the 191 page publication into 12 languages, as well as creating the layout and a web version. The Peace Bag, which offers practical tools to promote a culture of peace at the local and regional level across the Mediterranean, has been developed in a participatory process that involved 18 youth-led and youth-serving organizations from 14 countries in the region, coordinated by the Fundació Catalunya Voluntària. Read

Eight online volunteers transcribed more than forty hours of audio interviews with development workers and volunteers, who over the past twenty years have dedicated themselves to helping the most vulnerable citizens in Eastern Europe. These interviews formed the basis of a book that was produced by the Eastern Europe Aid & Development Network, a knowledge-sharing initiative for Irish charities working in Eastern Europe coordinated by the Comber Foundation.

The book, which was published in February 2011, features the story of the Irish relief effort in Eastern Europe since the early 1990s and provides case studies and good practices. The interviews highlight different approaches to aid and development work over the years – the highs and lows, the success stories and the lessons learnt. Read

The NGO La ferme aux arbres de Dekese works to support the population of Dekese, a war-torn and isolated region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Three online volunteer IT experts (Alex Théodore Kambou, Ali Siribié and Bernard K. Allouan) helped the organization develop software to capture and analyze population related data. Read