On humanitarian volunteering with added value in post-conflict countries
Humanitarian volunteering: intervene wherever a natural disaster or social conflict requires intervention
The Slovak humanitarian and development organization ADRA Slovensko is celebrating twenty-five years of its existence this year. It has long been dedicated to building meaningful volunteering at home, but it also prepares and sends global volunteers to so-called developing countries. Since 2017, it has been involved in the European project ‘Humanitarian volunteering management – HVM’, that is, the management of humanitarian male and female volunteers. The main donor of the project, the European Commission, expresses its goal clearly enough with its slogan: “We care. We act.” — we need to intervene wherever a natural disaster or a social conflict requires intervention.
How the whole process of preparing, managing, and sustaining humanitarian volunteering works, including how young people are selected for such a mission (and what makes this project unique compared to other organizations), is explained in this interview with Daniel Kaba – director of ADRA Slovensko.
Which humanitarian crisis is affecting Slovak residents the most right now?For Slovakia, the crisis in Ukraine is currently geographically, culturally, and emotionally the closest. ADRA also became involved there through humanitarian aid, development cooperation in the form of capacity-building for civil society, and by sending volunteers. Unfortunately, this topic and the situation there are covered increasingly less by the media, which is why it seems to interest the public less as well.
What about other humanitarian crises outside Europe?Mainly the conflict in Syria, which has lasted eight years, has indirectly impacted our country, and the related so-called refugee crisis—whether through the misuse of this topic for political goals in parliamentary and presidential elections, or through the reorientation of Slovakia’s official humanitarian aid system (including resources from the state budget) toward the Middle East region, and so on. Compared to Syria, however, the huge humanitarian crisis in war-torn Yemen does not receive that much attention—neither in the media nor in political talks.
I will also mention the Philippines, since on November 8 we marked five years since Super Typhoon Haiyan. It caused a severe humanitarian crisis after destroying homes, infrastructure, and the dwellings of tens of thousands of people. I personally volunteered in the Philippines for two months. ADRA set up a public fundraiser to support recovery efforts in the country, and people in Slovakia actively participated. We worked on educating fishermen and on disaster-prevention to reduce the impact of repeated disasters.
Why did you join the HVM project, and what does it actually involve?ADRA has long been committed to development volunteering in countries of the Global South as well as volunteering in Slovakia. So when the project lead (the French organization ADICE) invited us to collaborate in the area of humanitarian volunteer management, we saw the point and started preparing. Our organization has an established strategy for sending volunteers; we map the needs of local partners and volunteer requirements; we prepare an advance job profile with the required candidate attributes for the position; we sensibly design the scope of volunteer work; we focus on recruitment and aptitude interviews, as well as orientation in the organization and a comprehensive pre-departure training of several weeks after acceptance. We shared and improved all of this (both in person and through online mentoring) within the HVM project with our partners. We paid special attention to safety, since the people we send go directly to countries affected by development issues or humanitarian crises.
How many volunteers and experts have you sent to developing countries in the last five years under the official Slovak development aid framework?Thanks to the SlovakAid volunteer program of MZVaEZ SR, we have so far sent twenty-four development volunteers. Some were sent to internally displaced communities in Georgia, Roma communities in Albania, typhoon survivors in the Philippines, socially excluded families in Kenya, emerging activists in Ukraine, migrating people in Lebanon, trauma survivors after the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and so on. This year, with SlovakAid support, four people will again be in the field as development volunteers. Next year—already with the support of the “EU Aid volunteers” initiative—another four volunteers.
In what ways is the European “EU Aid volunteers” program different from the aforementioned MZVaEZ program administered by SlovakAid?There are several differences—in thematic focus, volunteer preparation, and, for example, in the goals of both programs. The “EU Aid volunteers” program places equal emphasis on building capacities of both host and sending organizations, as well as on the actual deployment of the volunteer. In practice, for us this means many hours spent training, mentoring partner host organizations, mutual communication, exchanging experiences, preparing required documentation, and also visiting partners in the field. Emphasis is also placed on expertise, or the added value of the deployed volunteer. The “EU Aid volunteers” program also includes mandatory certification, without which a volunteer cannot be sent or received. Overall, the European program is more robust regarding sub-project duration, networking, funding, monitoring, and so on. At the same time, both programs leave a certain degree of freedom to the sending organizations. We can tailor volunteer projects to our goals, such as improving employability, youth mobility, building capacities of NGOs, supporting our own projects, and so forth.
How does collaboration in the consortium of ten partner NGOs within the HVM project work for you?Each partner consortium has its own dynamics, though in the vast majority of cases we have only positive experiences. Of course, in the past we also had to terminate cooperation with a partner organization. All organizations involved in our HVM project, however, actively communicate, and in summer we received certification from the European Commission as safe and quality NGOs—either sending (such as Estonian MONDO, French ADICE, and Slovak ADRA) or hosting (the remaining consortium members).
How do you set internal criteria for selecting volunteers?In the selection process, we apply a set of criteria. We take into account the needs of the host organization, the community, and the project. A volunteer should add value; they do not go into the field for a vacation. The age threshold is therefore set above twenty-five to ensure a degree of maturity. Criteria also include: ability to work in a team, capacity to be away from close family for several months, and ability to handle conflict situations. Motivation plays a significant role as well. The host organization also has a major say in selection.
What motivation is right for volunteers, and what does not convince you in selection?
Each candidate usually has several layers of motivation, and we try to identify and understand them through communication with the applicant. We still get applicants who seem to want to save the whole world. They often have a distorted, savior-like, overly rosy idea of the reality of a “mission” — often what is called a savior syndrome. Others want to travel more and long for adventure. Some hope that a year-long volunteer stay will solve their troubled relationship with their partner, or for some it is an escape from dealing with their own personal problems. Such motives must be recognized early during interviews. It is appropriate when a volunteer is healthily self-confident and wants not only to help but also to gain something positive into their own portfolio (new skills, knowledge, experience, contacts). A good trait is precisely a balanced mix of different types of motivation.
What does pre-departure preparation consist of?A volunteer must mandatory complete a two-month placement in our office, so they can not only become familiar with work in a development and humanitarian organization, but also get to know the team better and build new connections and relationships. Part of the preparation can be called “learning by doing”. During this period, the volunteer tries out various types of tasks, such as needs assessment, writing reports or project proposals, writing articles, communicating about sensitive topics, fundraising, and so on. The next part consists of pre-departure training modules in these areas: field safety, intercultural sensitivity and cultural differences, presenting humanitarian aid and development cooperation in the media, especially on social networks, communication and ethics code, and project management.
People worry about the safety of their sons or daughters who are sent into the field. What exactly does pre-departure safety preparation look like?It starts already in how our program is designed. We emphasize that the program is not suitable for someone who only wants to travel and who likes to take risks or enjoys extreme sports. During selection, we try to uncover these risk factors. Before departure, the volunteer must complete several trainings, including safety and occupational health and safety. They also take part in an interview with the host organization about possible safety risks. When they later arrive, the volunteer attends an “orientation meeting” at the host organization, which also includes safety and familiarization with the safety manual, evacuation plan, and so on. In addition, the volunteer must have travel and health insurance for foreign travel and be registered at our consulate in the relevant country.
Have you ever had to deal with any such crisis situation concerning the safety of a deployed person?Fortunately, we have not had to handle an evacuation or a situation that posed an immediate threat to a development volunteer’s safety. But we have dealt with less serious things, such as theft, and mediating conflicts between a volunteer and an employee in the host organization. For humanitarian volunteers, safety risks can be higher because of the ongoing crises and the field context, so we address safety very thoroughly in pre-departure preparation.
How do you address burnout prevention for your volunteers?We try to prevent it, so we focus on prevention. Not only during their stay do volunteers actively communicate with their mentor, but even before departure we talk very openly with volunteers about this phenomenon. We ask them about how they spend their free time and how they handle stressful situations. During trainings, we rehearse escalating situations through simulations and discuss cultural differences. During the stay, we have regular online conversations, which can alert us to early signs that something is wrong. We also offer volunteers supervision, or consultation with our colleague, a psychologist. This is a very important aspect, especially in helping professions.
What skills do deployed people build during a “mission”? How many remain in the development field after returning?Many of them get to know themselves better in the field and discover new things about themselves. This also opens up new employment opportunities for them, inspires them to change jobs or even their entire sector of activity. Today, so-called “soft skills” also include intercultural skills, which a practical volunteer stay helps strengthen significantly. Many of our volunteers have tried to find work after returning in the humanitarian and development sector, even though the number of jobs in this sector in Slovakia is very small. If that does not work out, some try to move into corporate positions, for example, in CSR departments—Corporate Social Responsibility. For others, the completed stay helps them stand on their own feet and start entrepreneurship.
How do you guard against the phenomenon of “voluntourism” and ineffective volunteering outside the EU?We try to explain to every applicant right away, from the first opportunity, that a volunteer stay is in no way about expensive travel, tourism in exotic places, and carefree entertainment at taxpayers’ expense. Our program is designed so that a volunteer does not do work that a local person could do without difficulty. They can, of course, try what that kind of local support entails, but we emphasize their contribution in specific know-how, expertise, and added value in areas such as IT, marketing, education, and so on. It is not about superiority; it is about the principle of not taking jobs away from local people, i.e., not weakening their capacities.
What do reintegration activities look like within global education?We most often organize an “ADRA evening,” a discussion format with a volunteer about their work in a specific community, but also about life in the country where they served. Other activities include creating media and educational outputs on various topics connected to the volunteer stay.
What happens after the HVM project ends, that is, after building internal capacities of sending organizations and especially host NGOs?Soon people from Slovakia will also join in providing effective humanitarian aid in the field. In the continuation of the project (this time under the name ‘Humanitarian Volunteers in Action’ – HVA), ADRA Slovensko will send, in a few months, the first humanitarian volunteers to post-conflict countries under the brand: “EU Aid volunteers”. Among humanitarian organizations in Slovakia, ADRA Slovakia will be the first to do so.
How do you respond to the question: “Why not volunteer and help at home, instead of abroad”?We try to approach this constructively and rationally. We explain to the person questioning our mission abroad that nothing prevents them from volunteering at home in Slovakia—you have to start with yourself. That is necessary and important. We also explain and point to facts, statistics, and indicators that place Slovakia among the forty most developed countries in the world. The criteria for this assessment are mainly life expectancy, healthcare, democracy and human rights, access to education, average household income, etc. So we send experts and volunteers where conditions are visibly worse. We also implement aid projects in Slovakia as well, whether free legal aid, crisis intervention, and comprehensive support for victims of violence, food drives for people in need, and so on.
Text: Boba Markovič Baluchová
Photo: ADRA Slovenskowww.adra.sk
Note: The HVM (Humanitarian Volunteering Management) project is implemented with financial support from the European Union under the “EU Aid Voluneers” volunteer initiative.