Summer Action Plan - Debriefing - What I Did This Past Summer...

The following is a summary of my volunteer experience with Global Relief, July 14-August 27, 2007.

Summer Action Plan Objectives

1. To learn about Global Relief (its objectives, history, development action, values, etc.) and to learn about other Nigerian Development NGOs and development agencies and how they function.
2. To participate in Global Relief development action and gain field work experience.
3. To establish partnership relationships between Global Relief and other donors, development NGOs, churches, etc.
4. To help strengthen Global Relief international volunteer program.
5. To debrief summer 2007 and plan Global Relief-Canada relations.

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Objective 2: *To participate in Global Relief development action and gain field work experience.

*Participation in pre-trip; developed research outline for community participation data and physical observations about water and disease; created research questions and an excel spreadsheet for the purpose of recording community participatory data.
*Participation in Global Relief’s community sensitization outreach (including a presentation on “Barriers to Changing Society Habits-The Connection between Canada & Africa”)
*Volunteer research team, collected data from villagers about their understanding of water needs and disease, water sample collection, etc.
*Participation in debriefing(prepare the debriefing report)

Objective 3: *To establish partnership relationships between Global Relief and other donors, development NGOs, churches, etc.

I participated in a range of advocacy visits to development organizations. Some of these included:

RURCON (Rural and Urban Counseling and Outreach in Nigeria) (A non-profit group that works to education church leaders and other development organization employees and leaders about “holistic development”, ie. Understanding poverty, good governance, advocacy skills, etc.)

COWAN (A non-profit group that works to empower women in Nigeria, through micro-economic programs, and is active in other development programs including water and sanitation)

CAFOD (A non-profit catholic organization that works in development, including improving primary health care, water sanitation, etc.)

JDPC (Justice Development & Peace Commission) (A non-profit catholic organization that works to promote justice for the marginalize, train religious leaders for development ministry, initiate rural and urban development programs, etc.)

NEMA (National Emergency Management Association) (Federally funded non-profit organization that administers emergency management in Nigeria)

TearFund (UK based non-profit groups that works in poverty reduction development programs)

InterGender( A non-profit group that works in community improvement programs, TB and AIDs education, etc. )

ProHealth International Africa (A larger non-profit organization that administers a health program (medical teams, etc.)

CRCWR- (Christian Reformed World Relief Committee) (A non-profit involved in relief projects in Nigeria, and other places in the world; health relief, AIDs outreach, etc.)


Objective 4: *To help strengthen Global Relief international volunteer program.

*I was the first, not just Canadian volunteer to work with Global Relief, but first international - so much of the time was setting the ground work for the continuation of international volunteers. I was their "guinea pig" in other words, as much as they were mine...
*A volunteer manual of policies and procedures was devised; an outline first drafted, then both volunteer by-laws and a volunteer information package were produced.

Objective 5: *To debrief summer 2007 and plan Global Relief-Canada relations.

An action plan for Global Relief-Canada (things to do) was devised and the board of Global Relief accepted my role as Global Relief Canadian Facilitator to help promote their poverty reduction programs, etc.

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