NGOabroad
International Careers & Volunteering

Generating Income:  "Teach a person to fish"
Half of Sub-Sahara Africa lives on less than $1/day; 75% of Africa lives on less than $2/day.
In cities, people sell trinkets, pens, or bananas to passers-by but earn little.
In the villages, farmers have land to grow food but they may not make money.
Africa is betwixt & between an agricultural subsistence & a solid cash/ market economy.
We need people that can:

--Teach about eCommerce and Fair Trade to help build wider markets.
--Teach marketing, accounting and book keeping.
--Business developers, entrepreneurs, and small or home business owners
      who can dream up income possibilities & help “make somethin’ outa nothin'”
      & mentor regarding the nuts & bolts of building a small business.
--Business brains of any kind. If you had a successful Lemonade Stand, we want you!
--We also need Business Brains who can build enterprises to sustain these NGO’s.
--Grant writers are also needed to ensure many organization’s sustenance.
 

--Farmers & agronomists who can help improve soils, terrace hillsides, use compost
--Teach bee-keeping, animal husbandry (goats, chickens, rabbits)
--Teach how to diversify & generate agricultural income all year long
--Teach how to preserve or dry produce
--Experience in tropical agriculture very helpful
--Teach about farmer's associations & cooperatives
--Teach about finding international markets & eCommerce
--Teach about how to handle competition
--Students, field hands & people with 30 years experience all welcome!

"Give a person a fish and they have 1 meal.
Teach a person to fish and they have food the rest of their life."

Education is the ticket out of poverty. We need:

--Tutors!!! – help with homework in any & all academic subjects
   You don't need a college education. Patience, fun & laughter is more important.
--Teachers –reading, math, science, writing, computers,
   English, primary, secondary, sports

 Educating girls uplifts society.
The UN & World Bank now believe that if you want to uplift society, you must educate
the girls. Girls have been left out of education, but here the girls take center stage.
So important is this, we now have several opportunities to help educate girls.
Older women shyly ask, “Can you teach me too? I never got an education.”

Kids & Youth: Abandoned, AIDS Orphans & Trafficking
What is Africa going to look like in 10 or 20 years?
An entire generation is growing up without parents; with parents lost to AIDS, civil war, drugs & alcohol, or abandoned because their parents could not afford to feed them. Other kids live on the street or by foraging at the garbage dump.
Abandoned kids are prey for prostitution rings and traffickers.
Trafficking of humans has now surpassed the trafficking of drugs as the most lucrative underground trade. It takes more than a village to raise these kids. We need:

--People that love kids!    from students to grandparents.
--Vocational trainers:
      Carpenters, masons, computers, blacksmiths, music & the arts
      sewing, basketry, beadwork, soap making, catering, animal husbandry
--Sports trainers: soccer is most universal. Some swim coaches needed.
--Job & theatre coaches to enact job interviews or difficult  situations.
--Youth counselors, social workers, psychologists, counselors
--Therapists with a specialty in family reunification, parenting skills,
      grief counseling, children of alcoholics
--Writers for communication/advocacy program: write feature articles

Health
There is ~1 doctor/10,000 people in most parts of Africa.
The poor rarely can afford medical care.
Hospital workers, barely or rarely paid, live by extorting money from dying patients.

--One of our hospitals is begging for medical experts of any & all kinds.
--Village medicine: Doctors, nurses & nurse practitioners for isolated village.
--We need a nurse or nurse-midwife who can train Traditional Birth Attendants
       to monitor labor & delivery and evacuate mom for C-section if necessary
--We need midwives, nurses & paraprofessionals in several maternity clinics

--Great fit for nursing & medical students & grads:
1) Work side by side with one of our most dedicated doctors
2) Health campaigns & education
    A large part of improving health is teaching.
    Almost every home has one mosquito net. What about the people sleeping on the couch?
    Many men still consider a condom an affront to their masculinity.

Alternative or Complementary Medicine
--Chinese doctors or Acupuncturists
      There are Chinese medical hospitals in some countries. They want money.
      So let’s set you up at our office or do house calls.
--Yoga, shiatsu
      Yoga contributes to good health by stretching muscles & stimulating circulation.
      Yoga would be a big first step. So if you are interested in teaching yoga
      or anything alternative, we ask that you offer something more familiar first

--Teach math, book-keeping & accounting
       so that citizens can monitor the accounts of governments, businesses or NGO’s.
--Teach human rights to decrease the recurrence of violations      
--Political & community organizers. Human rights monitors & activists.
--Social Studies, Civics & History teachers.

c) Print, Radio & TV Journalism
You can not speak out in most African news or you risk being shut down.
Learn the constraints experienced by African journalists
as you produce and air stories on the radio, TV or in print.
For those who are more fiery, we are currently negotiating with a investigative newspaper.

 The Empowerment of Women
There is a growing consensus that women' concerns deserve attention. It's good news but an uphill climb.

See also: Education of Girls & Women
        Women starting their own enterprises
        Women & Journalism

--Must be graceful:
  able to understand the host community’s beliefs & leave dogma at home.

Gender Based Violence & Domestic Violence.
"Today was like many others. A woman’s voice screamed out in terror from
a mud hut in the village. She cried for help and we could hear her wail uncontrollably while a man shouted obscenities and drug her out by the hair."

The Director estimates that ~60% of the women in her town are "beaten like donkeys". Alcohol abuse & poverty compound the problem. We need: 

--Social workers, psychologists, counselors who have experience with DV
--Community organizers & speakers who can launch community education
--Male counselors who can work with men who grew up in violent homes
--Women’s & men's activists who can help build new programs.
--Vocational trainers. Grant writers.
--Sports coaches,  drama, dance & art therapists

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to my specific travel needs. My consult was invaluable, and I definitely intend to call upon her again for any overseas travel I do in the future."
See more about usefulness of Consult with Mary Ellen.