HOPE NEWSLETTER

HOPE - “Humanitarian OperationalPlatform for EU Aid Volunteers” -is a consortium that aims at strengthening the EU humanitarian capacity through the deployment of 46 EU Aid Volunteers in 16 countries: Tunisia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine, Lebanon, Georgia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Bosnia and Herzegovina,Albania and Palestine. The duration of deployments to these countries varies from 1 to 12 months.

HOPE is led by the Danish Refugee Council and composes further four partner organisations, Alianza por la Solidaridad, the Estonian Refugee Council, Sawa for Development and Aid and The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

In support to humanitarian programmes, the consortium will focus on protection of vulnerable persons and communities.

You will find more information on this initiative on the DRC stand-by roster webpage:

https://drc.ngo/relief-work/the-drc-stand-by-roster

> V O L U M E 1 / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 9

INDEX

HOPE is recruitingWe have exciting openings for positions in America, Europe and Africa, check here https://drc.ngo/relief-work/the-drc-stand-by-roster/our-rosters/eu-aid-volunteers-roster.

Interviews are happening already for the first deployments that will take place from May 2019 onwards.

Phot

o: K

laus

Bo

Who are we? 2

Volunteering builds careers 2

Deployments 3

Vacancies 4

Volunteers: from application to deployment 4

HOPE who are we? HOPE is composed by 5 organizations, led by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC). We would like to introduce you to the 5 organizations: DRC is a self-mandated protection organization, with headquarters in Denmark. The organization was created in 1956. Since then it has assisted refugees and internally displaced persons across the globe providing emergency aid, fighting for their rights, and strengthening their opportunity for a brighter future. DRC works in conflict-affected areas, along the displacement routes, and in the countries where refugees settle. In cooperation with local communities, DRC strives for responsible and sustainable solutions. Within DRC EU Aid Volunteer will be send to the following Country Offices: Tunisia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Kosovo, Georgia and Ukraine. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated to save lives, protecting rights and building a better future for the forcibly displaced and stateless people worldwide. As part of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative, UNHCR is committed to strengthen the place of EU youth volunteering in responding to the refugees’ protection and humanitarian needs. UNHCR will receive volunteers in the following countries: Albania, Brazil, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, El Salvador, Montenegro, and Ukraine. Alianza por la Solidaridad is a Spanish NGO that counts on more than 40,000 private donors, volunteers, workers and supporters who fight against social inequalities, by defending human rights – related to women, migrants, and food, water and land access – in Latin America, Africa, Middle East and Europe. Alianza promotes social participation and civic dialogue towards a more just and united world. Alianza has

been at the EU Aid Volunteers’ initiative since its pilot phase in 2014, and specifically under HOPE, Alianza will be deploying to Palestine. The Estonian Refugee Council (ERC) is a non-profit organization registered in Estonia. The organisation provides assistance to refugees in as well as outside of Estonia. ERC functions also as an independent competence centre on humanitarian assistance, forced migration, and refugee integration. ERC stands for the rights and well-being of refugees in Estonia and abroad, and are currently operational in Estonia, Ukraine, Jordan, and Lebanon. ERC works in cooperation with the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EU and UN Agencies, and many local and international NGOs in its projects. ERC believes that international cooperation makes their work stronger and therefore cooperates with DRC and Sawa for Development and Aid in the framework of the HOPE project. Sawa for Development and Aid is a Lebanese organization founded in 2011 as a spontaneous response to the arrival of the first 40 Syrian families displaced from Syria to the North of Lebanon. Sawa has grown into an impressively capable NGO that operates effectively on a grassroot level. Today, Sawa is operational in relief activities, education and livelihoods sectors, advocacy and awareness raising. Employing Syrian refugees in the Beqaa valley in Lebanon, in order to secure sustainable livelihoods for refugees living there. Under this project, Sawa will be hosting 2 HOPE volunteers.

Volunteering builds careersHow do you build valuable European human capital? How do you get a career started or rejuvenated for thousands of motivated specialists across the European Union? How do you build empathy and wider understanding of the world? Well, this is exactly what we are doing with the EU Aid Volunteers project! The Danish Refugee Council, in cooperation with Alianza por la Solidaridad, the Estonian Refugee Council, SAWA for Development and Aid, and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have come together to send tens of professionals from the EU countries to volunteer their time in countries with a humanitarian context.

What does this mean to us? It means a lot of hard work to make sure we send fittest volunteers to positions, that they are safe and enabled to devote their time and energy in the most efficient and useful way. We also want to ensure the organisations where they contribute make the best use of their valuable input.

In mid-November, HOPE met to set up the structure and it was agreed that is a great chance to build cooperation networks between different local and international aid organizations. It is also an opportunity to learn from each other, but also to give back, either through facilitating volunteering or general knowledge transfer and

capacity building. While volunteers should not substitute paid aid workers, they do play an essential role in global aid efforts. Volunteerism is especially visible and important for local actors, working on the ground, and the EU Aid Volunteers deploymentinitiative is a great way to help out through bringing in new ideas and perspectives.

You can make a difference!

HOPE NEWSLETTERV O L U M E 1 / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 9

2

Serbia

KosovoMontenegroAlbania

Bosnia andHerzegovina

Ukraine

Georgia

LebanonPalestine

Tunisia

Kenya

Ethiopia

Uganda

Tanzania

Brazil

Colombia

El Salvador

DeploymentsHOPE will deploy 46 volunteers, 11 Senior and 35 Junior to the countries highlighted on the map. The country and organization that will receive most volunteers (8) is DRC’s Country Offices in Georgia. Hereby follows Ukraine – both Country Offices of UNHCR and DRC.

The first deployments will happen in Colombia, El Salvador, Montenegro and Lebanon in May 2019.

Current open

positionsTrained

candidates Deployed

15% 0% 0%

At present the main effort is to find the most qualified candidates for the current open positions. The training of the selected candidates will hereafter start end of March 2019. The first deployments will happen, the earliest, by May 2019.

The average length of deployments is 7 months, being 12 months the longest deployment and 1 month the shortest.

Number of volunteers:Tunisia: 1 / Ethiopia: 5 / Kenya: 2 / Tanzania: 1 / Uganda: 2 / Ukraine: 6 / Brazil: 2 / Colombia: 4 / El Salvador: 2

Kosovo: 3 / Montenegro: 2 / Albania: 2 / Bosnia and Herzegovina: 2 / Georgia: 8 / Lebanon: 2 / Palestine: 2

HOPE NEWSLETTERV O L U M E 1 / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 9

The boundaries and names shown on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptancy by the European Union and any of the HOPE consortium partners. It does not constitute an official map.

3

Vacancies > Monitoring and Evaluation Junior EU Aid Volunteer in Kampala, Uganda, 10 months, with a 2 months apprenticeship in Copenhagen at the DRC Office

> Protection Officer Junior EU Aid Volunteer in Apartado, Colombia, 12 months at UNHCR office

> Livelihoods Officer Junior EU Aid Volunteer in Medellin, Colombia, 12 months at UNHCR office

> Programme Officer Junior EU Aid Volunteer in Cucuta, Colombia, 12 months at UNHCR office

> Programme Officer Junior EU Aid Volunteer in Riohacha, Colombia, 12 months at UNHCR office

> Assistant Protection Officer Junior EU Aid Volunteer in Manaus, Brazil, 10 months at UNHCR Office

> Assistant Protection Officer Junior EU Aid Volunteer in Boa Vista, Brazil, 10 months at UNHCR Office

> Monitoring & Evaluation Officer Senior EU Aid Volunteer in Tbilisi, Georgia, 2 months apprenticeship at DRC Office in Copenhagen

> Associate Protection Officer Junior EU Aid Volunteer in Tirana, Albania, 8 months at UNHCR Office

> Associate Programme Officer Junior EU Aid Volunteer in Tirana, Albania, 8 months at UNHCR Office

> Associate Reporting Officer Junior EU Aid Volunteer in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 8 months at UNHCR Office

> Associate Protection Officer Junior EU Aid Volunteer in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 8 months at UNHCR Office

HOPE NEWSLETTERV O L U M E 1 / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 9

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS

HOPE INDUCTION

FACE-TO-FACETRAINING

INTERVIEWS

DEPLOYMENT

ONLINETRAININGPHASE

POST-DEPLOYMENT(DEBRIEFING)

FINALDECISION ON CANDIDATE

The phases to become an EU Aid Volunteer are as detailed on the graph. The first thing that you need to do is to check on the website for the published vacancies, and apply to the ones where your expertise matches the requirements, and your availability (in terms of deployment months). After the submission, we will screen your CV and Cover Letter, confirm that you have an EU citizenship or long-term residency in an EU member state. After having chosen the most qualified candidates among the eligible applicants the four sending organisations will provide the shortlisted CVs to the Country Offices for them to select the candidates they would like to interview.

From the selected interview candidates we will select up to 3 candidates per position. This/these candidate(s) will process to the training phases, which consists of 1) An online EU training (around 30 hours of learning) and a twelve-day face-to-face EU training conducted in a city in EU. The training mentors will observe the candidates and at the end of the training decide which candidates are fit for deployment.

Approximately 2 weeks after the training will EU inform the Sending Organizations on the results of the training, and the Sending and Hosting Organisation can choose their final candidate for each position. The final candidates will hereafter receive a two-day induction training at the Sending Organization to prepare them for deployment. Visa and medical clearances need to take place before the deployment happens.

Missions will be from 1 to 12 months, and during that time each volunteer will have a Mentor and a Line Manager in the deployment country that will ensure that learning happens.

Once the missions are finalized there will be a two-day debriefing meeting at the Sending Organization. Here the volunteers will have the chance to share their experience with each other, and sign-up to be EU Aid Volunteer mentors for future volunteers.

Volunteers: From application to deployment

4