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Virtual Volunteering
An anonymous reader writes "Virtual Volunteering is new to me, so I thought that I would pass the info. along. Given the downturn in employment and the need to keep an active resume or CV, becoming a 'Virtual Volunteer', may be just the way to refresh your outlook and your resume. A PC World article talks about two sites which list numerous opportunities; Volunteer Match lists 41,538 opportunities associated with 23,359 organizations, and World Computer Exchange which 'is a global nonprofit organization committed to helping the world's poorest youth bridge the disturbing global divides in information, technology and understanding. WCE does this by keeping donated PCs, Macs, and Laptops out of landfills and giving them new life connecting youth to the Internet in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.' There are most likely more organizations like this out there, anybody have a special one that they are associated with?"
Netaid.org
Pearls of Africa is run entirely by online volunteers who research and develop programs, solicit donations, and run a children's resource library in Uganda geared toward disabilities. Moy traveled to Uganda in November 2001 with the United Nations to open the library.
World Computer Exchange , based in Massachusetts, relies on virtual volunteers in its mission to bring computers to schools in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Since it was founded in October 1999, the organization has helped 676 schools and almost 256,000 students go online, says Tim Anderson, president and founder.
VolunteerMatch , which links volunteers with more than 23,000 organizations offering about 40,000 volunteer opportunities, is helping that cause, says Jason Willett, director of communications. Since 1998, nearly one million people signed up for an opportunity through VolunteerMatch.
As well, there are online mentors like NetMentors , which offers online career development for teenagers. It serves as a virtual career counselor with expertise on 70 different careers. With about 800 mentors, the group has counseled 1000 students entirely through its Web site.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. it's the only thing that ever has.
Volunteer Match and NetworkForGood list in person volunteer opportunities online. But most opportunities to actually volunteer online are around mentoring.
The UN has an online volunteering (see:http://www.unv.org/volunteers/options/online/ index.htm. Their online volunteering specialist, Jayne Cravens (homepage www.coyotecommunications.org, has been vocal about the benefits of online volunteering for years (real years, not internet years).
There are also opportunities at Mentoring.org (a site devoted to mentoring youth), and MicroMentor a pilot project devoted to mentoring micro entrepreneurs.
Forgot to provide the link: http://volunteersearch.gov.au
How about a global nonprofit organization committed to helping the world's poorest youth eat and avoid dying from preventable diseases?
The difficulty with this is that most of the starvation and by extension diseases, in the world is due to political upheavals, North Koreans starve because it suits their government to let them starve. Zimbabwe starves because Robert Mugabe finds it to his political advantage to allow them to starve. (Zimbabwe is a nation blessed with an extremely fertile soil and was once known as the bread basket of southern Africa, yet now Zimbabweans starve). There are certainly many more examples of this.
So how can a global nonprofit organization solve this problem? Many already exist, and they usually end up helping the tyrant retain power. The nonprofit brings in supplies the tyrant's goons steal and the people still starve. (The taliban were notorious for this.)
Unless you are planning a nonprofit that has as it mission the overthrow of dictatorships, and the establishment of freedom in these nations.
My Weblog
Thanks to Slashdot posters for having shown me these links in past discussions! :)
There is another one called Charity Focus, Inc (www.charityfocus.org, which I'm a member of) and is based out of California. They hook up volunteers in web/graphics design, project management and project leadership with NPO's in need of web sites (or web designers to re-do old sites). Through them I rebuilt (with the help of a volunteer for whom I took over after she had to leave the project due to medical reasons) the website for PeopleTech.org,an NPO that takes donated computers, refurbishes them, and donates them to needy children/families (more info on their site).
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)