A new SAVAN platform has been created that will connect former and future international development volunteers in Slovakia through an alumni network. At the same time, through a series of interviews directly from the field, it will help spread awareness, educate people, and through a database of opportunities motivate more people to undertake a volunteer mission in low-income countries of the world.

The second half of May again belonged to Volunteer Week in Slovakia—at national, regional, and local level. There is, however, another type of volunteering about which little is still said. Within it, active Slovak men and women are devoted to helping and supporting local communities in low-income countries of the world, previously referred to as developing countries. The newly created SAVAN platform specifically aims to raise awareness of the importance of international development volunteering, connect former volunteers, and motivate future volunteers to choose an overseas mission.

The initiative is led by NGO DocUnion, headed by Dr. Boba M. Baluchová, who has been engaged in international development and especially development volunteering as a researcher and lecturer for fifteen years. “The acronym SAVAN can be decoded in English as: ‘Slovak aid volunteers alumni network.’ It is about networking former volunteers with opportunities for further education, sharing experiences, and cooperation. At the same time, it represents a support tool for future deployed people in the form of a web database, where they can browse sending organisations and their placement offers, profiles of the faces of volunteering, and their stories from the field. SAVAN is a space for inspiration, discussion, and active engagement in volunteering,” explains Boba M. Baluchová, founder of the newly established SAVAN alumni network and database.

International development volunteering has long been associated with international development and aims to bring benefits to host communities in low-income countries of the world. It consists of carrying out activities for the benefit of other people without any claim to payment, while deployed people in this volunteer service transfer their professional knowledge, and a mix of knowledge, skills, and experience, directly in the field. Within the national “Program of Sending Volunteers and Experts-Volunteers to Developing Countries,” launched by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MZVEZ SR) in 2012, selected candidates from Slovakia are sent abroad by Slovak non-governmental organisations for three to twelve months, helping local communities in health, agriculture, education, communication, or IT—according to the needs of the receiving organisations.

“Over nearly fifteen years of operation of this national volunteer programme, with the support of the Slovak Republic under the SlovakAid label, more than three hundred people have been sent abroad. They were sent to 28 programme and partner countries of Slovakia’s official development cooperation, and more than two-thirds of them helped vulnerable population groups on the African continent. This already truly deserves public attention, and that is why we are launching the SAVAN platform. At the same time, the United Nations has declared 2026 as the International Year of Volunteering for Sustainable Development (IVY 2026)—we could not have wished for better timing for the launch of our platform,” concludes its founder, Boba M. Baluchová.

The creation and management of the SAVAN platform are carried out by NGO DocUnion with the support of the Slovak Agency for International Development Cooperation (SAMRS), and the development volunteering enthusiast base can look forward in the coming months to a series of webinars, field interviews, and podcasts, as well as a networking volunteer Reunion.