Courses for Volunteers

Just thought I'd explain about the courses that volunteers and their partners attend as those who are not involved in this process will not have a clue what I'm writing about.

The course we attended last weekend was called P2V - Preparing to Volunteer. This is the first course in a series of courses. All new volunteers must take this course as well as accompanying partners such as myself. It gives an overview of what volunteers do, why and where they are needed, HIV/AIDS, the fear volunteers have that they won't make a difference, an idea of why there is such crushing poverty.....an amount of information that more than fills the 77 page course booklet. There are group activities, case studies, videos, role-playing by the trainers, etc.

The P2V course is not specific to the various professions involved in volunteering. So our group consisted of aspiring volunteers in education, the environment, business, medical, as well as three of us who are non-volunteering, accompanying partners. Some in our group already have definite placements. Countries of placement are Ethiopia, Namibia, Ghana, Viet Nam, and I believe a couple of others including our possible placement in Uganda. Country-specific training does not take place until we actually arrive in our country to begin our placement.

Since I am only asked to attend the above course and the 4.5 hour Health and Security Workshop, I was booked to leave this course early and attend the HSW which was following that same day. This course is the first section of the course called SKWID (Skills for Working in Development) which is for volunteers only. It was nonsensical for me to travel all the way back to Birmingham later to take a 4.5 hour course. Our P2V course happened to end early so I did not need to miss any of that course. A quick lunch and I began the workshop with a whole new group of volunteers.

The Health and Security Workshop was quite informative. It focuses on how to keep yourself healthy while abroad, focusing on clean water, malaria, HIV/AIDS etc. Personal safety was also discussed and how to deal with certain situations and keep yourselves out of danger. I didn't spend much time with this group but all had defnite placements in countries such as Uganda, Guyana, Papua New Guinea, Namibia, The Gambia, Cambodia, Mongolia.....

For those who have been accepted by VSO, you will find the password for the Volzone in your acceptance packet. The Volzone is filled with information such as full course outlines. Go to:
Volzone - Pre-departure - Training and Self-briefing. There are PDF files for all courses.