Sunday, April 15, 2007

SICK of Talking ?(A blogger's volunteer committee ?! )

I have been dabbling with this idea for a while, I always felt that volunteer work in Jordan is very lacking.
Even when you go to any of the obvious venues (Noor Al hussein, SOS, ...etc) they look at you like "are you for real ?! "

So the idea to form some sort of volunteer society from the current pool of Jordanian bloggers seemed tempting to me... Would love any input on this matter.

Ideas I have in mind;
  • meetings to be held in a bi-weekly or monthly form, those meetings will be held to decide a monthly or bi-weekly events
  • activities will range from mentoring (ala BigBrother, BigSister models), educational seminars, Charity runs, event organization.
  • The aim is to have donations of time rather than money, that will help to reduce The complexity of the organization. It will also provide a different side to charity than the one we are used to in Jordan. Since we have the habit of not getting involved in the personal side and prefer to donate an amount and expect others to do all the work for us.
I understand the idea is still not mature enough, but the reason i posted this is so i won't forget about it. More importantly is that I want to know what other people think about this ....

If you are sick of just TALKING about change, and interested in actually DOING Something about it then please provide some feedback

I understand that most of us are busy with commitments and I am not gonna burden with more, all am asking is if you can find it in your heart to dedicate about 3-4 hours a week (on a holiday or weekend) to help others.
ENJOY

Labels:

posted by No_Angel at 1:35 PM

14 Comments:

  • Salam,

    I'm willing to help by endorsing any activities through JB.

    Peace

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At 15/4/07 15:28  

  • I love the idea!! IF i was living in Jordan i will be the first one to join! I am doing volunteer work here in Beirut for kids between the ages of 6-12 doing art projects, reading, math and computer classes...volunteer work is very satisfying! great idea No Angel!

    By Blogger Me, At 15/4/07 17:51  

  • Hey No_angel,

    the idea is great and is possible, count me in :) but if it didnt work well with starting the group in the context you suggest, there are plenty of places you can volunteer as a mentor that would cut down the planning part, such as youth centers for underserved communities where you can teach what you are good at in a simple form, but if you ask me, its better to stick to one place and have a regular group of people whom you keep their progress record instead of one day big event.

    By Blogger Tala, At 15/4/07 18:28  

  • If I was in jordan I would!!But great idea:D

    By Blogger Mohanned, At 15/4/07 19:28  

  • Great Idea.

    I will give you some ideas that we volunteered for when we were in Amman so maybe you can do that.

    1) We went out and painted some schools in villages.
    2) Distributed donated clothes and food for schools in some villages.
    3) Volunteered in health clinics in some rural villages, we had to go to big drug companies and they are always super generous, they gave me 700 Dinars worth of medicine and there were volunteer doctors who looked at the patients.
    Also Safeway donated a good chunk of money for the program.
    This could be a tough one though, you need time and effort to organize it.
    4)There's also the "jar7ah alintifadah" that go and stay in Jordanian hospitals, you can get a volunteer group to go and get calling cards so they can call there’s family in the west bank, also they love it if people go and chat with them.

    You can contact "Prince Hassan Award" program or "Alsabilah program", they might be able to help you and tell you where to go and how to organize events.

    I might come in the fall and I will definitely love to participate even if I am there for 3 weeks, I love to volunteer!

    I also know a couple of non bloggers that would participate for sure.

    By Blogger 7aki Fadi, At 15/4/07 21:16  

  • YES!! This is a GREAT idea!! Roba Assi and I have been talking for a long time about painting artistic murals in East Amman...sort of Warhol type colors with Arab type symbols. We are both visionaries with NO concept of how to make this work...any ideas?

    I have TONS of other ideas, too...and I firmly believe that people are more deeply impacted by one-on-one investment than by the big NGO machine.

    YOU GO!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At 15/4/07 21:19  

  • hmm, well i might be interested :) count me IN :)

    By Blogger Qabbani, At 16/4/07 06:43  

  • Hey Thanks to everyone that replied :D
    ppl out of Jordan
    Summer thanks summer, and if this thing works out I'll be counting on your emotional support and experience.
    muhanned thank you
    7aki You are just great ......
    Every single one of those is a viable idea, and I noted the programs down.
    As for your friends that might be interested sure thing ... the more the merrier :)

    By Blogger No_Angel, At 16/4/07 09:06  

  • Back to Jordan
    thanks again ...
    So there seems to be interest in this , as it stands thats 5 ppl. palforce, Tala, Kinzi, & MQabbani

    So first thing to tackle is to settle on a project, something that can be done on a Saturday or a friday would be the most suitable one ... I wouldn't want us to be discouraged :)
    Love that painting idea, that could be one .... maybe combine it with the school one.

    we can do this in three ways either meet-up and discuss it, through e-mail, or through a blog. Up to you to decide.

    As starters I firmly believe in what Kinzi said too, "that people are more deeply impacted by one-on-one investment than by the big NGO machine."

    So after an idea is settled on, we will start the arrangement for it. and we will take it from there :D

    I would love for this to work .....
    Inshallah

    By Blogger No_Angel, At 16/4/07 09:32  

  • This is SO exciting (whoops, did I say that before?)

    I read in one of the first editions of VIVA, that many schools in Jordan were given computers, which are now still in their boxes gathering dust. I wrote the author of the article, saying I have some Jordanian techie/blogger friends who could teach kids how to use the computers, and she said there was no way to tackle such a huge problem.

    I say 'eft' to that, we are ready to work! If village Jordanians don't get on-line, there is NO WAY they can compete in this world. One school at a time, I believe it can happen.

    Maybe you could start a Facebook Group? we could use the message board...or maybe meet up an hour before the next blogger meeting?

    By Blogger kinzi, At 16/4/07 11:08  

  • thats cool so far =D

    here is my opinion on what have been posted by No_Angel and Kinzi,

    - mean of communication and updated:
    mail is a bad idea, a dedicated Blog would be great, easy to manage,open to public and could be aggregated while you have to be a facebook member in order to access the group, i didnt use it so i dont know how powerful it is

    about meetings, ofcourse, but at this stage lets create a place to access messsages and follow up with ideas and progress clearly.

    - Project Definition:

    we need to keep brainstorming
    you got great ideas =D the painting idea is really nice and really fun, about teaching how to use computers it should be on top plans, implementation is a thing to discuss by itself

    also, i was thinking of a talent show bil balad for underserved community kids,, get boys and girls to work together, this is really important

    planting trees, cleaning reservations & parks, animal care and adoption

    i have an itsy bitsy problem,, i can't work except on Fridays and Saturdays after 2PM :S

    By Blogger Tala, At 16/4/07 14:06  

  • hmm ok ....
    facebook and a blog how about that ?
    but before that we need some name ..
    anything really jordan volunteer society ?
    computers... yummy
    no seriously kinzi that might be one of the most feasible ideas ... keep em coming
    even if it is a big thing, one school at time might be better than sitting back and doing nothing.
    If the school names are mentioned that would help.
    hmm one thing that could be done pretty easily is english classes maybe to some of the workers ( i know i been aproached for that )

    As for the kids troupe (i dont have any drama skills) i like it. it might even be applicable to do it in SOS too, even if its just an outing for the kids there.

    So for starters
    1. the name to create the blog and facebook group under
    2. figure out how many people are willing to help for a specific date so we can settle on project.
    3. meeting an hour before the next JB meeting is not such a bad idea.

    4. to keep this fresh and not let it die in the pages of qwaider am gonna put everything discussed here in a post
    (later on tongiht or tom morning )

    Am optimistic about this:)

    By Blogger No_Angel, At 16/4/07 20:53  

  • OK, why not call it "We volunteer" or "na7no natatawa3" in Arabic.

    It might be too simple, but I guess simple and to the point.

    You should definitely create a facebook group and people join it and spread the word, facebook is waaaaay more popular than a blog.

    But you also need a blog to Publish events and so on.

    Now to raise money, why not create ribbons like the pink cancer ribbons or whatever and print "We volunteer" or "we support the volunteers ( Nad3am altatawu3)" and kinda distribute them for donation money, “jar7a alintifada” had one that was the black and white hatta, so instead of just asking for money you give them something in return.

    Shu kamaaaan shu kaman.

    Now I really do not want to burst kinzi’s or Roba’s bubble, but a mural as nice as it is I don’t see how it will benefit the school unless the kids participate. So maybe a mural with a message that the kids get to participate in and spend time with other adults. Maybe you read a book to the group and then draw a mural about it? Yes, no, what do you think?

    Also why don’t you check UNISEF or UNURWA, they might have opportunities or steer you in the right direction.

    This is super exciting.

    Because I cannot volunteer in the events I would love to volunteer my time to build the blog or help with it or the facebook group, would love too :).

    By Blogger 7aki Fadi, At 16/4/07 22:05  

  • We Volunteer, Bright Jordan
    Jordan Volunteers, bring it together!
    Bricks of JO Voluntary Group/Works
    JO Volunteers
    JO Helpers, in the middle of the Middle East

    try not to use society, it makes it formal, you dont want that i guess.

    By Blogger Tala, At 16/4/07 23:02  

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