Thank you all for blogging in! its really so refreshing to hear so many voices. I will take this opportunity to share this subject on community organising that I myself am struggling with right now. Hope you can throw some light onto this!Building second line organisers, or developing new local organisers...I find that it so difficult and this will probably become worse in this global economic crisis, where everyone will be placing importance to work and income $$$$!!!, for fear of losing their jobs and cash for their family needs! For instance instead of attending a community meeting they might just take on some extra work!
What do you say, what shall we do????
4 comments:
this is the most challenging part! as shared on seapcp website, we (Cavish team) had identified three areas to start our CO process the SEAPCP way! since we are five member, team including two part time staff (office assistance and finance person), we thought of identifying volunteers who we can train and start the CO process; at start many persons showed interest but as they have to earn, and/or do studies, it's really challenging for us to inculcate the spirit volunteerism and co within them. On contracy, some organizations who more resources have part time paid volunteers, and those volunteers are more committed. so we have to have some finances with us for COs even.
Ever since birth of our son, the medical care expenditures have risen as never expected and all the time i have rush to friends to get some temporary loans; but my CO spirit remains alive and try my best to go communities besides my office work; this really has put me in high sensitivity! I can't take my CO from inside and can't even leave my family unattended!
I think incentivising the junior COs is one option to increases chances of their involvement. the incentives could be giving them official experience certificates with the organization, some transportation allowance etc.
thanks hassan for sharing..yes its really hard when it comes to volunteerism and co...incentives in the form of token allowances like trasport meals, and also if i might add chance for learning and participating in activities such as workshops, seminars, etc...and of course lots of human relationships...ultimately its really up to the individual how deep the spirit of CO is...that is something we cannot force or push, it has to spring from inside...i guess...what do the others think????
Dear Jo Hann: it is very timely and important subject and I agree with Hassan that it is very hard to get volunteers.
I am also grappling with the same problem; so instead of giving any solutions I am trying to share some of our experience.
1. Luckily global economic meltdown effect is less in India (till now). The effect is prominent within super rich IT and real estate bigwigs who got rich very fast (thanks to voluminous USD contracts and subsequently speculative income). I observed that poor was really hurt in 2007 Dec-2008 Aug when our inflation rate i.e. consumer price index rose to 21% (unofficially it was 32%). Now inflation has come down to single digit and petrol price has also dipped. Now our poor are having sigh of relief. So now our women volunteers are not so badly affected.
2. The crucial factor will come now – If price of food crop increases then again there will be inflation and subsequent spiralling of problem.
3. One important info is that we are going for parliamentary election which will cost at least 10000 crore rupees =100000 million rupees=2000 million USD = sufficient enough to follow Keynes law of defeating recession. And it will give some income to poor people as majority of the election leg work done by the poor.
Keeping this technical discussion aside let me share with you some of innovative volunteering movements by local groups -
1. In India as well as in Gujarat the prominent English daily is Times of India. It is highly people centric and share very socially responsible and critical issues. They initiated 2 volunteering movements called “Teach India” and “Lead India”. It was very good idea and got huge response from young and senior citizens. They did very small thing – cover some of the volunteer and then find who are the best volunteers and do the awarding of them with a photograph in news paper. It worked like hot cake. Volunteering was spontaneous and it was all encompassing cutting across all walks of life, age, economic level, educational background, caste factors and religions.
2. There is another group of volunteer who follows Gandhian Principle in line of Mahatma Gandhi (Father of Nation of India). They are very hard working and only follow the truth. It is really tough to follow! But they are really pioneering social development worker.
In NGO sector, we need to do some reflection. As an NGO we pick up a project and try to save some fund which is supportive for the time gap of no-project. So there is no denying point that we like to have some extra fund. Likewise there is no harm if any guy/girl is expecting some benefit by rendering some services as per NGO’s needs. So she should be considered as a volunteer and NGO can allocate the task as per her capacity and pay for the days she is working. NGO can save money and can get the good quality work. I have tried it in preparing my organizations’ folder through one of the best design groups in India. This sort of volunteerism works very well - the best part is that they go to the top position in corporate and they take your work to higher altitude.
Question is how NGO can pay to any volunteer? There is no denying point that we are always asking for fund. I think Wisnu model of self sufficiency is a very good model. Besides that in our separate NGOs we can think of self fund generation.
There are various processes we can try but critical question lies in the process of fund generation HOW BEST WE CAN KEEP OUR INTEGRITY INTACT AS WELL AS OUR FOCUS ON CO IS NOT DILUTED?
hi all.
at CHRD we utilise our community/group members to volunteer. They do the job over the weekend.
Also, currently we are expanding our saving groups in the neighbourhood area, despite other groups in 12 provinces. As I notice, here in Mongolia our volunteers/community members do not have to quit their original job.
Zola
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