Recipients of Award:Chelsea Wyatt, Daniela Georgieva, Haddy Sarr, Kwame van Eijndhoven, Laurene Graziani, Stella Mihailova, Tizeta Getaneh, Wei Wang
A team of eight online volunteers helped Ghana’s youth-led NGO Young People We Care (YPWC), to develop a strategic proposal to address youth migration issues and involve youth in international dialogue and decision-making.
Each member of the online volunteering team worked on a different aspect of the proposal such as problem statement, objectives, activities, sustainability and partnerships. A team coordinator, appointed by the volunteers, facilitated their collaboration.
YPWC was able to use the proposal to attract funding and technical support from several organizations. The UNICEF initiative, Voices of Youth, supported a four-week online consultation on migration and development, which was one of the activities conceived by the online volunteers. The consultation engaged youth from across the world and led to the first youth statement to be presented at the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Manila.
Some of the online volunteers involved in the development of the programme have extended their support to the implementation of its various projects and activities, writing the background paper for one of the themes discussed during the consultation, for example, or acting as mentors and advisors.
“The different ideas that the members of this intercultural team brought to the programme led to an outstanding proposal that has served as a stepping stone for YPWC, helping the organization work in a sustainable way in addressing issues of youth migration,” says Michael Boampong, the organization’s founder.
Laurene Graziani, France: "As a postgraduate in international and human rights law, I was very interested to work on the specific issue of children and immigration. I wrote the part of the proposal related to the legal aspects of migration. Later on, I moderated the third week of the online consultation, which dealt with solutions to reducing illegal migration. In the team, we kept in touch quite often, and shared any difficulty that we were facing or any suggestion that we needed to make. I think it had a real impact on youth in Ghana and helped to strengthen the potential of YPWC."
Tizeta Getaneh, Ethiopia: "I have chosen YPWC to volunteer online because their need was something I was interested in, and I had experience in working with youth. The task was to help YPWC prepare the project planning on the issue of youth migration, adding my ideas from Ethiopia’s youth perspective."
Source:UN Online Volunteering
