Program Reviews

Sawaadi Ka as I write this from Chiang Mai Thailand, my second assignment for AJWS Volunteer Corps. When I came back from Lucknow India last year (2011) I was frequently asked the question: Would you do this again?

I say "absolutely" because I have seen first hand that our work at the NGOs is much appreciated and that grass root change does come from our being there. The 3 month assignments were carefully chosen by AJWS to fit our 'skill sets' - and I am proud of being part of the specific NGOs.

Unexpected highlights included spending my last 2 birthdays--
in India celebrating Holi and playing colors with the NGO staff and villagers who were part of the project.
in Thailand, celebrating my March birthday weekend with the NGO staff, sex workers -- and a mountaintop picnic on an elephant. I did get to make a sleepover of the elephant visit and urge everyone to do the same!

Difficulties are included in the humbling experience of language - Hindi was not easy-peasy - nor is Thai. But people appreciate your trying and applying yourself and I know when something has come out not right - hilarious laughter rocks the place.

Americans can get insular because our country is so big - what an honor to live in another part of the world and 'do our thing'.

Get paired with a grassroots NGO for the wildest ride of your life. Your 11 month Fellowship will show you the pitfalls and successes that grassroots development faces in India. Whether your interest be the environment, human rights, health, animal, local artisans, or advocacy, the AJWS World Partner's Fellowship has a plethora of partners that place you right in the thick of development programs.

Working alongside a rural health access NGO, I saw first hand how local communities were finding solutions to issues of infant and maternal mortality, access to basic health care, and women's empowerment issues. Over the course of my Fellowship, I was able to bond with local village health workers and understand the underlying causes that created the conditions of poverty, inequality, and health disparities - be it socio-economic inequality, caste, or language/cultural barriers.

I do not want to make it sound like it was easy. It is very difficult to integrate yourself into a community that is genuinely very distant from your own - where barriers in culture and language challenge even your basic daily activities. But the strength of the program is the length of your Fellowship, where over the course of 10 months your placement truly allows you to get past these impediments and form substantive relationships with your community.

Overall, a great program and formative to my future interests. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in development or international work - even at the peripheral level.

I thought all I wanted was to get to India, and I got so much more out of this fellowship. The month-long orientation is better than any other program's I had heard about - it left us so prepared for our experience. AJWS has wonderful relationships with local NGOs and a lot of effort goes into matching you. Once you're there, the support from the staff is tremendous. As well as the support you give and get from the other fellows in your program.

The all-Ugandan staff at my Kampala-based NGO was well managed, hard-working and appreciated my efforts, adding up to a fulfilling experience. My assignment was made clear to me, mostly research and writing, and I could proceed without distractions. The facilities and technology were good enough to enable me to use my computer productively -- and the NGO's backup generator let me continue working during the frequent electricity outages.

My work enabled me to dig into the most pressing environmental challenges of Uganda (and sub-Saharan Africa) and the action programs directed at them. I was free to provide my own analysis about how to organize the information, and my colleagues were open to my suggestions. So, yes, I believe that I made a difference and made a lasting contribution to the NGO.

I tried hard throughout not to impose my views on my colleagues who, after all, have been working in this field for many years -- and to respect their policy positions and work style. I wanted very much to leave a sustainable legacy behind so that they could expand the work I began without my involvement being necessary. I'm still involved in their work, but use a light touch, nudging them along. I tried to avoid being just another pushy muzungu (Swahili for white guy).

A little bit of IT expertise goes a long way. Despite being only computer semi-literate, I became the IT visionary at my office, and was able to accomplish significant improvements in the NGO's technology -- mostly by demonstrating that the upfront costs of improvements were minor compared to the high costs of inadequate information technology.

Adjusting to daily life there was not the challenge I feared. I shared a furnished 2-bedroom apartment with another AJWS volunteer in a suburb of Kampala within walking distance of our offices -- a good compromise between living alone and living with a group of expats.

We split expenses and alternated cooking duties, with frequent dinners out nearby or in downtown Kampala. We were the only muzungus in the neighborhood, which gave us ample opportunities to learn about real life there. We made a point of shopping locally and using the ubiquitous matatus (14-passenger mini-vans) that provide inexpensive public transit.

Kampala lived up to its reputation as an affordable city, so my living costs were reasonable -- a total of about $2,500 for 3-1/2 months, including rent, food, transportation and entertainment. Cell phone and mobile internet service were especially inexpensive (and high quality), and I could call my wife in Florida for about 6 cents a minute. Getting online with wireless modems was a snap.

At least weekly, my housemate and I socialized with other AJWS volunteers, who were uniformly delightful (I was the only guy, so how could I miss?) and adventurous. I occasionally traveled out of town on weekends with them, but mostly I explored different neighborhoods of Kampala.

Did this change me? I'm still trying to find out. I've spent much of my life in public service, so this was an extension of that. But it also was so different -- and the issues I worked on were so important to Uganda's future -- that it expanded my conception of humanity in general and Africa in particular.

I know that it helped deepen my understanding of Judaism and how I could become a better Jew through pursuing justice here and abroad.

Becoming an AJWS Volunteer is not for everyone, but for those who choose it, prepare for an amazing experience.

This was an amazing opportunity and I would not have done this program with anyone other than AJWS. They are professionals both in international development and education which is the perfect combination if you want to learn about international development. AJWS helped me learn about the country I served in (India), how to have realistic expecations, how to live modestly, and how to overcome challenges. They arranged for my placement, housing, and all the other details. They were always a call away if I needed them. I had a ton of independance but knew I could rely on them for as much support as I needed.

The NGO they assigned me to was great. They not only were a place I came to work, but they were my friends. We traveled India together and they helped me understand the work I was doing. I also learned a great deal about how I want to be Jewish as a young adult and reflected on the importance of my faith. No one forced me to do anything, I got to chart my own path, make my own mistakes, and have incredible experiences. This was an amazing year of my life and I hope you jump on the opportunity to join WPF!

stop reading this, go apply!

AJWS' Volunteer Corps program is an excellent opportunity for individuals who are independent and mature. The program matches your skills with a local NGO's needs and the rest is basically up to you! AJWS staff are available and willing to support you in your role as a volunteer, but in the end it is really up to you to make your experience meaningful. Every placements is unique, so it is difficult to generalize the experience more than that.

The AJWS Volunteer Corps program is unlike any other I researched when planning my year volunteering abroad. The application process may appear formidable, but there is a good reason for that -- AJWS makes a strong effort to match their volunteers with grassroots NGOs that have a strong need for their specific skill set and experience. For example, my professional experience entails working as a program manager for software. AJWS paired me with a small NGO working for the Burmese democracy movement that needed help with project management, planning, fundraising, and developing a website. The fit was perfect, and both the NGO staff and I came away having significantly increased our capacity to do our jobs.

The VC program emphasizes capacity building and sustainability. That is, a volunteer is not placed within an NGO to do the staff's work for them, but rather to grow the capacity of the staff and to provide new tools and practices to enable them to do their jobs more effectively. I loved this approach both for its humility and for the potential it provides for long-lasting impact. For me, it was important to find volunteer work that would empower others by imparting skills and knowledge, rather than co-opting a job that could be done by a local (e.g. building houses). I was able to make my work sustainable by structuring it as a series of training sessions that I conducted for the org's staff on topics like project management and fundraising. With each training I conducted, we had plenty of practical opportunities to put the lessons into action. We used the project management content to manage the planning and construction of a new school. And we used the fundraising lessons as an opportunity to work on a number of grant proposals, several of which were funded.

The town in which I was placed was small, quiet, and sleepy, perhaps not the best fit for a volunteer looking for a vibrant expat scene or a large array of cultural events. This worked out just fine for me, as the slower pace of life made it much easier to get settled in and get oriented in a very short period of time. It also allowed me to keep a strong focus on my volunteer work.

Overall, I had a fantastic experience with AJWS. The women I volunteered with quickly became like family,I got my fill of delicious (spicy!) Thai and Burmese food, and I learned more than I thought I would about the Burmese struggle for democracy and even about my own changing career aspirations.

Of course, this program isn't for everyone -- most notably, it is targeted at Jewish Americans.

I'm an OLD professional, as well as a theatre professional, and in March, 2010 I wrote and directed the first Purim play ever performed in Vijayawada, India, under the auspices of the Sanghamitra Service Society. Acted in Telugu AND English by two dozen Dalit children from two rural villages before an audience of several hundred humans, five goats and two water buffalo, THE MAGIC BOTTU was an adaptation of the Purim story where Queen Esther (now Queen Manata) rescued her people from the wicked Prime Minister (Rao Gopala Rao) to bring change and empowerment to their lives.

The play, translated into Telugu by the Sanghamitra staff, was performed on the day before International Women's Day, and was later taken "on tour" by the children to other villages whose citizens felt the sting of oppression everywhere and always in their lives. Its lesson, "It's not enough to hope for justice, you have to work for it too," was taken to heart by performers and audience, and the show concluded with a Telugu version of "We Shall Overcome," by the children's company, fists raised in the air.

If you have special skills, you can "work for justice" in many ways. In Vijayawada, the work was structured through the art of theatre, and the results came in equal measures of courage, self-confidence and love. Guiding my work was the verse from Psalm 118: "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." Become a AJWS volunteer and build together a house of justice for those in need to take shelter in.

--Robert Skloot.