Thank you all for coming to today’s presentation. I’m very excited to talk with you about the wonderful volunteer opportunities available through our organisation. Following the presentation, I will gladly answer any questions you may have.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with our organisation, I’ll give you a bit of background. Our founder, Jim Rossdale, was volunteering for numerous NGOs and humanitarian agencies in Uganda and Ghana about twenty years ago when he came to a realisation. What he saw was that there were lots of people volunteering, but they weren’t really doing anything meaningful. So he decided to start his own venture, with the goal of providing opportunities for volunteers to have a tangible impact on the communities they worked with.

And so, Active Worldwide was founded in 1983. What began as a small group of committed volunteers setting up libraries in developing countries is now an international network of projects across the globe. Active Worldwide works to bring reading and computer literacy education to isolated rural locations in the world’s poorest regions. In these areas, schools are often very basic, and the teaching quality varies greatly from village to village. Printed materials and computers are rarely available. Unfortunately, this further marginalises those living in poverty.

That’s where Active Worldwide comes in. We locate communities in need and, through the generous support of donors and our volunteers, send people to those communities to set up educational centres. Each centre is equipped with an English-language library with books for both kids and adults. Computers powered by solar panels, as well as training materials and teacher resources, are also available.

Our volunteers can get involved in a couple of different ways. Those with construction or programme development skills can help to set up one of our new centres. But people who are better suited as educators can volunteer to teach English or computer literacy, or to train local teachers.

In order to ensure that volunteers make a meaningful contribution, we require a minimum one-month commitment. There is no limit to the length of time you can stay, but we do strictly abide by our minimum. This is because, in both our experiences and in research studies, it has been proven that anything less than a month is not enough time for volunteers to establish relationships with communities...to develop that trust is so important out in the field. We appreciate your understanding in this matter.

Another aspect of our volunteer programmes I want to cover is the cost. I know that most people think that paying to volunteer is a little, well, ridiculous. But if you think about it, how else can we cover the costs associated with running these programmes? It’s also beneficial to the volunteers to have a financial investment in their experience. This leads to greater commitment, a sense of ownership in the projects, and lower dropout rates.

Nonetheless, we do keep the cost as low as possible. We know that there are a lot of travel expenses that volunteers incur, and that they often lose income by taking leaves of absence from work. So our standard $350 per month volunteer fee covers on-site accommodations, a small administrative fee, and a contribution to the salaries of local employees. Our organisation is entirely not-for-profit, and our administrative fees go solely towards website maintenance, mailings, and telephone bills.

Of course, not everyone is in the position to be able to make the trip overseas. But there are plenty of other ways you can support our work. We do accept monetary donations by bank transfer, check, or money order. Regrettably, we can’t accept credit card payments at this time. You may also wish to donate children’s used books for our libraries. Books may be sent to our headquarters address, which can be found in the contact section of our website.

If you are indeed interested in applying to volunteer, we have an online form that you need to fill out. One of our staff will contact you as soon as possible to proceed with finding the right programme fit. And, yes, you are welcome to express an interest in particular locations, and we will do our best to accommodate your wishes.

Now, are there any questions?

Answer Key:

1. Uganda

2. Ghana

3. 1983

4. Reading

5. Computer

6. Teaching quality

7. One month

8. Website maintenance

9. Mailings

10. Telephone bills