Blossom Africa - Volunteer Opportunity

Volunteers are essential to Blossom Africa and will enable us to achieve our vision and goal of equipping communities in Uganda (initially) with the skills and resources to own and solve their own challenges.

The primary objective of this role is to provide local support in Uganda to prepare Blossom Africa’s training programme in readiness for our pilot project, which will take place at a later date. This is a pivotal role, which will inform and shape the Blossom Africa training programme and model and the future direction of the organization. There is additional information about the proposed pilot project, beneath the person specification. There is scope for us to offer this opportunity to more than one person and this will be determined by the strength of the applications we receive.

The successful candidate(s) will be required to remain in Uganda for at least three  months.This will allow adequate time to ensure that the Blossom Africa Skeleton training programme (which will be produced in the UK) is adapted to context and made locally relevant before the pilot project commences.  The closing date for applications is Friday 17th June 2016 at 5pm, interviews will take place the following week, the actual start date of the role is negotiable.

About the role…

The main tasks associated with this role are;

UK-Based

• The volunteer(s) will be required to spend time with the Blossom Africa team in the UK prior to travelling to Uganda in order to fully understand our model and the principles of the training programme.

Uganda based

• The volunteer(s) will be required to spend time with our partners Jenga http://www.jengauganda.org and other likeminded organisations in Uganda to ensure that our training programme is developed to a high standard and is locally relevant.
• As Blossom Africa is a new organisation and is yet to register in Uganda, the volunteer(s) will be required, with support from the Blossom Africa trustee board in the UK, to negotiate and draft formal partnership agreements with our partners in Uganda and facilitate the formal registration process.  Final formal partnership agreements will be legally checked in the UK and ratified by the board of trustees.
• Maintaining regular communication with the Blossom Africa team in the UK. This will take the form of a weekly report via email and regular phone / skype conversations. All decisions will be made through liaison with the volunteer(s), the Blossom Africa UK trustee board and our Ugandan Partners.
• Taking photo’s (with permission) and producing case studies for use on our website and social media to promote the work of Blossom Africa.

The type of person we are looking for…

• This role is pivotal for the development of Blossom Africa; the successful candidate(s) will therefore need to demonstrate a robust understanding of International Development theory and practice. It is also desirable that the successful candidate(s) have some experience of either working or volunteering in a developing country context.
• The successful candidates(s) will need to demonstrate a particular interest in grassroots-led development and share the vision of Blossom Africa.
• The candidate(s) will need to be able to commit to a minimum of 3 month’s voluntary placement in Uganda.
• The ultimate aim of this role is to ensure that our skeleton training programme is made locally relevant to enable us to run our pilot project in the near future. It is therefore desirable that the successful candidate(s) have experience in training and training development, either in an academic or employed / voluntary capacity.
• As the primary representative and main point of contact for Blossom Africa in Uganda the successful candidates(s) will be expected to demonstrate their ability to communicate and report frequently and effectively. They will also be required to demonstrate their ability to work in a professional, collaborative manner as part of an international team.
• This role will also require some independent working as there may be minimal support available on the ground at times in Uganda. There will be a requirement to take the initiative to seek out likeminded organisations, to set up meetings and represent Blossom Africa autonomously.  The successful candidate(s) will therefore need to be motivated and confident about working on their own initiative and be able to demonstrate strong organisational and communication skills.
• Experience of formalizing partnership agreements and NGO registration is desirable, however not essential for this role.
• Experience of preparing case studies and website content is desirable although not essential to this role.

Blossom Africa Pilot Project information

We have identified Bunambutye sub county, Bulambuli District, Eastern Uganda as the area where we will undertake our pilot project. The pilot project will be the delivery of the training programme for the first time.

We will seek to engage with the ‘Active Community Members’ (people who are active in their community on a voluntary basis).  Depending on demand to participate we are likely to limit the number of participants on the pilot round of the training course to approximately 30 participants.

These community members will be brought together on a weekly basis and will receive training on a number of topics, with the ultimate aim of improving their ability to develop, run and manage their own community projects. We anticipate the programme running for approximately 10 weeks and will cover topics including;

• Rights, advocacy and lobbying
• Problem analysis and problem solving skills
• Financial management including savings, budgeting and accounting
• Project planning and management, including producing project proposals
• Business skills and entrepreneurship, including feasibility of income generating ideas
• Monitoring and evaluation

The participants of the training will be asked to commit to the whole programme and to cascade their learning to the wider community, there will therefore be a ‘train the trainer’ element in all topics covered.

For the pilot project the participants of the training will be asked to evaluate each session individually. Each participant will be visited by our Ugandan partners between sessions to ensure that they understood the session and are able to apply it in a practical sense and cascade their learning in the community.

The skeleton training programme is being developed by Solava Ibrahim (Blossom Africa trustee) in the UK, supported by the Blossom Africa trustee board. This will then be made locally relevant by the appropriate personnel in Uganda, facilitated by the Blossom Africa volunteer(s).

At the end of the training programme in the pilot phase the group will come up with a community plan and from this will develop a project proposal.

The volunteer(s) role will be facilitating the development of the training programme in preparation for this pilot project which will take place at a later date.

If you require any further information regarding this opportunity then please contact Aimee Parker by emailing info@blossomafrica.org.uk or calling 07967918915. For further information on Blossom Africa, please visit our website; www.blossomafrica.org 

If you are interested in applying then please get in touch using the above email address or phone number and we will then send you our Guidance for Volunteers & Volunteer Application form. We would also encourage you to attach a CV to support your application.

We believe that this is a very exciting opportunity and are very much looking forward to receiving your application. 

If this opportunity is not suitable for you then we are also looking for a number of volunteers to support our work in the UK, these opportunities include building our mailing list by researching like minded individuals and organisations and also researching funding opportunities. We will also be looking for further volunteers to travel to Uganda at a later date to implement the pilot project. Please get in touch for further information.