Community volunteering in The Gambia

Environment

This project is run and managed by a local NGO with a deep understanding of local social and environmental issues.

Discussion among volunteers and the beneficiaries of this project is encouraged, and among the numerous members of ASSET, ideas are pooled to encourage wider participation and support of local environmental issues.

Our local partner team also includes a professional ECD educator, who has established an environmental educational resource for pre-schools and trainee educators called "Greenie". As the children and their teachers learn, so the central tenets of health, cleanliness and environmental awareness are spread among their wider families.

All volunteers for this project, well before they travel, are provided with context information about the local environmental issues, including a locally appropriate code of conduct, covering environmental and social priorities and responsibilities.

In our UK office we reduce, reuse and recycle paper. We use recycled paper and keep print to a minimum. Any irreparable electronic appliances and all ink cartridges are recycled through recognised recycling channels.

We encourage our independent partners and projects to adopt similar environmental policies. However, local voluntary initiatives and individual projects may sometimes find it difficult to adopt these practises.

We encourage volunteers to offset the carbon emissions from their flights.

Community

Our core values are respect & dignity; responsibility & sustainability; service & partnership; economic transparency. As with all the projects where we arrange volunteer placements, this projects is designed to be culturally sustainable and economically transparent, as well as being community-driven.

Respect & dignity
There must be mutual respect for the dignity and cultural values of volunteers and local people, and by living in a safe environment within the local community, volunteers are able to share and discuss aspects of ordinary daily life. All volunteers are provided with context and background information relevant to the project – this includes a code of conduct and child protection policy.

Responsibility & sustainability
Volunteers work with local people, not instead of them. Through skills-share, volunteers help to build local capacity so that local people can work to achieve the futures that they want for themselves.

Service & partnership
We work closely with our local partners in matching the volunteer and their skills to the specific requirements of the project. Our local partners agree with the project as to how volunteer input can advance the project at the particular time of a volunteer’s placement. The project is provided with information to enable them to make an informed decision as to whether or not the volunteer is appropriate for that project.

Economic transparency
The placement cost is paid by the volunteer direct to the local partner team, not to us. We ensure that at least 80% of the cost remains where it is needed most, in the host country, and is used to further enhance this project. How and where your money is spent is clearly shown for each project, and includes a ring-fenced project donation exclusively for this project.