Showing posts with label International Volunteer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label International Volunteer. Show all posts

Monday, December 6, 2010

NPO youths celebrate Int’l Volunteer Day

Volunteers play one of the many games organized at the event for International Volunteer Day in HCMC - Photo: Annalise Richter
Over 200 young volunteers from NPOs around HCMC joined a party for International Volunteer Day on Sunday morning at Saigon Pearl International School in Binh Thanh District.

The atmosphere in the packed room in the school basement was ecstatic, as hundreds of youths played games and cheered on their peers, in between presentations and talks on stage.

A DRD volunteer at the event, Nguyen Thi Phuong Nhung is a social work student at HCMC University for Social Sciences and Humanities.

She said she joined DRD as a
volunteer to help with her confidence; improve her social-work skills and help others. DRD works with people with disabilities and is connected with many centers. One of the centers had a stall beside the DRD stall selling paper animal toys made by residents to raise money.

A Volunteers for Peace Vietnam volunteer, who is a visiting university student from Wales, Annalise Richter, said the event was great because young people in Vietnam had fun in such a different way to in the UK.

She said 18 year olds here are so playful, uninhibited, enthusiastic and very much group orientated, but in the U.K. they only get excited about things like drinking.

About 13 NPOs organized on Sunday’s activities. They included Blue Dreams Volunteer Group, DRD Volunteer Club, Habitat for Humanity Vietnam, Health Volunteers Organization, IVC (International Volunteer Club) and LIN Center for Community Development.

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Thursday, December 2, 2010

HCMC non-profits hold event for Int’l Volunteer Day

Volunteers from the organizing committee discuss plans for Sunday’s International Volunteer Day event in HCMC - Photo: Courtesy of LIN Center for Community Development
A special event for International Volunteer Day will be held by not-for-profit organizations this Sunday Dec. 5 with 200 volunteers expected to attend.

Event organizers said the event aims to show the NPOs’ appreciation and encouragement for the many ways volunteers help build strong communities.

“Volunteers in Vietnam mainly just want to help and support the community,” said Pham Truong Son, Event Coordinator and Community Liaison at LIN Center for Community Development, one of the organizers.

Son said the 12 NPOs that were organizing the event had thousands of volunteers to thank for the work they have done through their volunteering projects. The event will be special because more than 80% of the NPOs that are organizing the event for International Volunteer Day are Vietnamese, Son said.

The NGOs that are organizing the event are Blue Dreams Volunteer Group, DRD Volunteer Club, Habitat for Humanity Vietnam, Health Volunteers Organization, IVC (International Volunteer Club), LIN Center for Community Development, SIFE Economic University HCMC, Smile Group, Suc tre (Youth Energy) Group, Sunshine Volunteer Group, Tri thuc tre (Young Experienced) Group, Volunteers for Peace Vietnam and the HCMC Women’s Charity Association.

Only two of the NGOs in the organizing committee, Habitat and Sunshine Volunteer Group were international, the Lin community liaison officer said.

The program to be held at the International International School Saigon Pearl in HCMC (92 Nguyen Huu Canh Street, Ward 22, Binh Thanh District) from 8:30 am to 11:30 am will have booths and games plus a forum for volunteers and NPO representatives to share their stories.

It will be much bigger than last year’s small gathering for volunteers, said Dana Doan, full time Advisor to the LIN Center.

Volunteers in Vietnam not only give their time they also provide important skills.

Son said LIN had about 60 active skilled volunteers who were indispensable to the organization, because they provided important services for free that the new NPO could not afford to pay for.

That included online volunteers who help with translating, website design, graphic design and financial management.

Ms. Bao, vice-head of Blue Dreams said, “The event is also a great chance for me and my colleagues to meet our counterparts at other volunteer host organizations to learn new approaches to attracting new volunteers and keeping existing volunteers engaged and motivated.”

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