Some of our concluding thoughts about our volunteer work
From Rob:
The volunteer organization I worked with, Paediatric AIDS Teatment in Africa, has been developing a data base. I helped by entering data, reviewing reports from the clinics, and developing an outcome data base. I also researched potential funders in the business world. South Africa requires all corporations to have a corporate social investment (CSI) initiative and report on its activities in its annual report. Many of the companies focus on services to their own employees, but many of the larger ones provide dollars, services and volunteers to community based organizations. Many US companies have separate entities for their corporate contributions, such as 3M, Ford, Land O' Lakes, and Volkswagen who have extensive CSI initiatives. I looked for businesses that have made contributions to HIV/AIDS efforts and are doing business in South Africa as well as other Sub-Saharan African countries where PATA works.
During my time in South Africa, PATA held two local forums in Uganda that focused on services to adolescents with HIV and disclosure to children with HIV. Four clinic teams comprised of four different staff attended each of the local forums. PATA plans 10 local forums each year in different countries. Namibia and Zimbabwe are the next countries who will host a local forum. PATA also funds 40 clinics throughout Sub Sahara Africa for what are called "expert patients" (EP). EP is a British term for a community health worker who has the same chronic disease as the patients they are serving. In PATA's case the EPs are HIV+ persons who work in the clinic in a variety of low skilled jobs. Not only do the clinics get additional support staff, but they get support staff who understand the special needs of persons living with HIV.
From Joan:
Despite all of my best intentions, I have learned that it is not so easy to be an effective volunteer in a developing country. Things move very slowly and even though 3 months seemed like a long enough time to accomplish something, I now realize I was too impatient to “get on with the work.” I did a quasi-needs assessment with Wola Nani shortly after I arrived, but the tasks we mutually agreed on didn’t ever come to fruition. There were various reasons, many circumstantial. For example, their budget year ends in March and up until the last days of March, they did not know if they were going to be awarded their contract from the Department of Health, which is what enables them to hire lay counselors for the public health clinics. Naturally, the counselors experienced a lot of anxiety about continued employment and as a result, only two of them ever contacted me for a counseling session. This was to be my main task during my time here. As a result, I focused much of my effort on developing a programme model for their Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Programme, and investigated Life Skills curricula being used around the world with vulnerable populations, such as those they are serving. They plan to use this model to articulate their goals and objectives and plan their activities. I was able to do 4 short trainings with their OVC caregivers, which was well received. After reviewing much of the data showing adolescent girls being 5 times more likely to be HIV+ compared to boys, and after reading more about the incredible gender inequities that drive these disparities, I focused a couple of sessions on gender inequities and offered suggestions for ways they could include this in their after school sessions. This issue of gender inequities is a potential area of growth for their programme and the U.S. organization I represented here (SalusWorld) may be able to write a grant to help them expand in this area. I also provided a 12-hour Motivational Interviewing workshop for their supervisory staff. This went very well and they were able to see how it could enhance relationships among staff in their organization. I received lots of feedback that this is already helping them manage staff more effectively.
During the last week, I rolled up my sleeves and helped the income generation staff prepare a very large order for shipping to the US (West Elm is the purchaser). They were way behind schedule and had to bring in day labor for the packing, which I helped to supervise. The Executive Director was surprised that “the professor was back there helping to pack boxes.” There clearly is a hierarchy about who does what and I presume some of the staff viewed this as lowly work that was not in their job purview. So, all in all, I draw closure to this experience with a sense of satisfaction and lots to ponder about what it means to be a volunteer for an organization in a country quite different from our own.
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