Due to growing economic difficulties, we are now forced to request from all volunteers a fee of US$250 for short-term volunteers (2-3 months) and $400 for long-term volunteers exclusive of other expenses mentioned below.
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WE ARE LOOKING for volunteers who would like to serve 2, 3 or 6 months – or longer – in any of our projects. We usually have some places at our children's homes where volunteers could help in being with the children and in the day-to-day running of the homes (Ghana, Kenya, Congo). And we especially need women with teaching skills to help in the schools (Ghana, South Africa, Kenya) or some training in the healing professions to help in the clinic in Ghana.
Women volunteers will be provided with room and simple vegetarian board at the project itself. You would be expected to help in pay for your food and you'd be responsible for your other personal expenses. You would be responsible for the ticket, travel arrangements, required visas, immunizations, etc. needed to enter the country. For an application to volunteer click here or write to amurtelafrica@eudoramail.com Kenya
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POSITIONS NEEDED
KENYA
NEED: A volunteer is needed to work on fundraising for all the Kenyan projects. She would be based in Nairobi, but would travel to all the projects.
Kenya needs English or Swahili speakers.
NEED: (a) A qualified teacher of primary or preprimary would be desirable. She will be able to help in training the staff in modern teaching techniques. (b) A general volunteer who likes working around the children's home, being with the kids, doing the various errands and jobs connected with running the institution.
NEED: A general volunteer who likes working around the children's home, being with the kids, doing the various errands and jobs connected with running the institution.
NEED: A qualified teacher of primary or preprimary would be desirable. She will be able to help in training the staff in modern teaching techniques. She would also act in supervising the schools by visiting them regularly. NEED: Trained personnel is needed for them -- homeopaths, naturopaths, acupucturists are needed.
CONGO
NEED: A volunteer is needed to work on fundraising for all the Congolese projects.
Congo needs French speakers.
NEED: A general volunteer who likes working around the children's home, being with the kids, doing the various errands and jobs connected with running the institution.
NEED: Trained personnel is needed for them -- homeopaths.
GHANA
NEED: A volunteer is needed to work on fundraising for all the Ghanian projects.
Ghana needs English speakers.
(a) A qualified teacher of primary or preprimary would be desirable. She will be able to help in training the staff in modern teaching techniques. (b) A general volunteer who likes working around the children's home, being with the kids, doing the various errands and jobs connected with running the institution.
NEED: (a) A trained doctor or nurse to help treat patients. (b) A trained midwife is needed to deliver births and train local village TBAs (Traditional Birth Attendants).
SOUTH AFRICA
NEED: A volunteer is needed to work on fundraising for
all the South African projects. She would be probably be based in
Durban or Johannesburg but would travel to all the projects. (Our Durban office is on the seaside!)
South Africa needs English or Zulu speakers.
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A Letter from Shirley Eng (volunteer from USA)Shirley came to us in June 1999 and stayed at the Mombasa Children's Home with Didi AnandaGiitika for 3 months. We wish to extend our thanks to her for being with us and also for writing the following:
I came to Kenya knowing precious little about Ananda Marga, just what I had learned from a brief skim of their web site when I was still in New York planning my trip, and a few short emails that told me I had exchanged with the Didis in Nairobi. What I lacked in knowledge was made up for by my desire to immerse myself in Kenyan culture, to experience it close up by working and living with the people, seeing the world through a different set of eyes.
Or in this case, through 19 different sets of eyes. I've spent the last few months volunteering at AM's children's home in Mombasa, a town on the Indian Ocean that manages to be sleepy and frenetic all at once. After a few weeks of wandering alone through Kenya, I had the sensation of being like a fish out of water; Africa is an explosion of colors, smells, sights, tastes-and not all pleasant-and it overwhelmed my senses. I decided to show up at AM's doorstep, hoping to be able to help in some small way and at the same time gain some sense of belonging in this strange continent, somehow make this experience more profound and more mine. Didi and the 19 girls living here welcomed me.
The first few weeks were a blur of activities to get ready for the opening ceremony of the new buildings of the primary school that AM runs. In the States, this might mean picking up the phone and ordering a few hundred chairs and sending invitations via email. In Mombasa, it means several weeks of running around town, talking to someone whose brother knows someone else whose friend goes to the same temple as someone else who can rent us chairs at a reduced price. I entered places unknown by tourists: newspaper offices, temples, schools, and people's homes. I learned that NGO work can many times be exhausting, thankless work. I also spent time playing and studying with the girls, telling them stories and singing with them. Children are the same everywhere. They are able to love purely and with abandon. After a few weeks, they stopped asking me when I was leaving; they just accepted me as part of their daily routine. I welcomed their affection as much as they needed mine.
I've also had the chance to work at the school a bit, helping out the teachers, tutoring students, and correcting exams. It can be discouraging to work within Kenya's strict and irrelevant education guidelines. The education system is so poor that almost all the questions on the exams had errors and typos; we had to go over hundreds of them two or three times. This sums up the difficulties of trying to do development work in the Third World: improvement comes painfully and infuriatingly slowly, you work against a system that is flawed and corrupt, a society that is disorganized and apathetic, people who can be ignorant and uncaring. Is it worth it? I thought. Can I really make a difference in such a short time?
Yes, the girls tell me every day without words. They have made it all worth it. When I'm surrounded by them-Jamuna's crazy antics and affectionate outbursts, Trikuti's endless questions, Irene asking me for advice, Adela the baby humming The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Kiran telling me about the latest twist in the plot of Conan, The Jungle Boy or some other show-I feel more at home than I ever thought possible in Africa. My happiest moments have been laughing and playing with them. At these moments all our differences fade-color, nation, creed-and I realize that every small effort to bring joy into someone's life is worth it, every effort to understand this thing "life" that has thousands of different meanings is always worth it.
These 3 months with Ananda Marga have colored my trip and have helped me find a certain balance in this continent of extremes. Sometimes it's not possible to quantify the effect of an experience on your life, especially at the moment you're still living it. I can't measure how I've benefited from the hundred little things I've learned here every day by being a part of these girls' lives, just like I can't measure the way they have touched me with their smiles and confidences and whispered dreams and fears. Change in Africa happens one painful little step at a time, almost imperceptibly, from the bottom up. But the effort and love required to take those steps are all justified, I realize, as Hanako and Jamuma slip their hands into mine. "Twende," they say, "it's time for our bedtime story." -- Shirley |
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