Have you been wondering how the global pandemic affected the missions of international volunteers in the field? Whether they were evacuated from their host country due to the Covid-19 or they stayed there? Join us on the 15th of December for 90 minutes Online round-table and listen to 5 EU Aid volunteers deployed in Turkey, Kenya, Morocco, Albania and Georgia.
The event ‘Volunteering in Covid-19 era: The power of stories from the field’ is organized by three humanitarian and development organisations: ADRA Slovakia, ADICE – Association pour le Développement des Initiatives Citoyennes et Européennes and MTÜ Mondo.
Organizers invited 5 inspiring young speakers to this Online round-table. You will hear the story of Laura Naw (EUAV in ADRA Albania); Martin Pavelka (EUAV in Small Projects Istanbul); Ronan Lucas (EUAV in Association Issaaf Jerada – Solidarité Et Développement in Morocco); Andreia Silva (EUAV in Western Focus Community Organization in Kenya) and Karolina Buszko (EUAV in Association Merkuri in Georgia).
Laura Naw spent more than a year in Albania and supported ADRA team with project management. She experienced unique deployment – marked by the earthquake, as well as current pandemic. Currently she’s freshly returned from her deployment back to Italy.
This is already Martin Pavelka’s second year as Senior EU Aid Volunteer. He stayed in Turkey during the pandemic. Martin leads a team of 30 local volunteers who participate in implementation of education activities for Syrian refugees. During the event he will share how the new pandemic circumstances have been shaping their work dynamics.
Ronan Lucas faced the long lasting 1st wave of pandemic in Morocco during his deployment. His mission is to support his hosting organisation with identifying new project opportunities with the emphasis on strong social impact of their activities. At the same time, Ronan studies the social and solidarity economy and conducts the research on the Moroccan civil society.
Andreia Silva is a Senior EUAV volunteer in Shianda, Western Kenya, who focuses on capacity building and raising awareness in the community on the rights of children with disabilities. You hardly would find a volunteer who experienced the impact of Covid-19 as strongly as her.
Karolina Buszko as Mental Health and Psycho-social Support Expert has developed and implemented the programs for psycho social support, monitoring and evaluation tools for the shelter for victims of domestic violence and the family centre, both running by her hosting organisation. Outbreaking of Covid-19 increased the demand on Karolina’s expertise. Unfortunately, Karolina was evacuated back to Poland. Fortunately, she found the way how to continue.
Dr Boba Markovič Baluchová will be the moderator of this online roundtable. Boba M. Baluchova works as a communication manager for Slovak Platform for development organizations – Ambrela. In past she worked for UNDP for Europe and CIS, Caritas Slovakia, ADRA Slovakia and several European universities. Boba also conducts trainings for international volunteers on community development, global journalism, as well as media and information literacy (as a part of Media about Development project).
If you have any questions regarding the registration or the event itself, please contact Anna Hruboňová from ADRA Slovakia via volunteering@adra.sk. The link to the Zoom event will be provided after this registration. Registration is limited and opened by the 13th of December, 2020. Read more info about the event here. The event is a part of the projects HVA – Humanitarian Volunteers in Action and SUDHAV 3 – Sustainable Development through Humanitarian Aid Volunteers 3.
The project is funded by European Commission under EU Aid Volunteer Programme, managed by The Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) in cooperation with The European Commission’s Directorate-General Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (DG ECHO).
Written by: ADRA Slovakia’s team, Photos: HVA project’s archive
