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VOLUNTEERS'
AWARDS |
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BRD’s Volunteering Team is
pleased to win the Year 2007 Award!
On December 5th every year, the United Nations Online
Volunteering service announces the winners of the
“Online Volunteering Team of the Year Award”. The ten
winning teams, comprising online volunteers and their
volunteer managers at the host organizations, made an
exemplary impact on human development through their
efficient online collaboration and commitment to
volunteering."
On December 5th 2007, the United
Nations Volunteers Online Volunteering service announced the winners of
the “Online Volunteering Team of the Year Award”. |
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A jury of experts in volunteerism,
development and online collaboration selected the winners of the Online
Volunteering Team of the Year Award based on the volunteers’ commitment,
the organization’s approach towards online volunteer involvement, the
online collaboration and its impact on the organizations’ development
activities. BRD’s Volunteering Team (comprising Mr. Khan Agha Dawoodzai
and Ms. Wong Yin Mei) is pleased to win the Year 2007 Award. |
 Contribution
to achieving MDG 8:
Develop a global partnership for development;
Millennium Campaign:
"No Excuses,
Promises Must be Kept"
Sharing her skills in strategic business planning, project/team management
and proposal development, online volunteer Yin Mei Wong
enabled the Bureau for Reconstruction and Development (BRD) to
enhance its organizational capacities and the quality of its
services in the areas of human rights and capacity building of
civil society organizations, local NGOs and government in
Afghanistan. |
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Yin Mei’s involvement started with the task of online volunteer
manager over a year ago, to build BRD’s community of online
volunteers. Since then, she has taken on further
responsibilities. Providing on-going expertise and advice to BRD,
she assisted in defining its strategy and designed action plans
towards its implementation, guided the development of project
proposals and facilitated networking with other development
organizations.
She developed and executed marketing and
promotion strategies, and helped write marketing and
communication materials such as the annual report and training
brochures. Finally, she coordinated online volunteers’ support
to the redesign of BRD’s website and the production of further
marketing tools such as BRD’s newsletter. |
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“Through
my work with BRD, I learnt about the culture, way of life and
the struggles of local Afghans. Issues that I have been dealing
with have deepened my understanding of the challenges faced by
an NGO in the country. Online volunteering has also added a new
dimension to how I apply my skills and has deepened my interest
in development work.”
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Ms. Wong Yin Mei |
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BRD believes that Yin
Mei’s contributions have helped build the capacity of the
organization to secure & deliver its development projects and
goals:
“Yin Mei and the
other online volunteers have helped us get linked to the world.
We are very comfortable now when we are communicating with
external and internal donors: we are easily giving them
reference about who we are and what we do, or sharing our
documents with them. We are receiving many offers from other
organizations for partnership and collaboration, when they visit
our website.”
says the Program Director,
Mr. Khan Agha Dawoodzai, who closely collaborated with
Yin Mei. Meetings between the two were conducted
online via Skype chats.
Occasionally, they used phone calls for progress updates and to
develop a more personal relationship.
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BRD’s Volunteer Ms. Claire Suzanne Holland wins the United
Nations Volunteer of the Year 2004 Award. Claire has contributed
her professional expertise in law, training and organizational
consulting as an online volunteer to the recently founded Bureau for
Reconstruction and Development (BRD). The mission of the new Afghan
non-governmental organization (NGO) is to facilitate community
development, as part of reconstructing Afghanistan after over 20 years
of devastating conflict.
Back in the USA after working on a
Rule of Law project in Central Asia, Claire was looking into
opportunities to go back into |
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international fieldwork. She applied with
the UN Volunteers programme to go to a development project as a law and
training specialist. While processing her application, she found out
about UNV’s Online Volunteering service, immediately discovered an
assignment that matched her professional background, and so opted for
volunteering online. BRD was looking for an online volunteer to help
prepare training material for local Afghan NGOs, a kind of task Claire
had gained a lot of experience in during her job in Central Asia.
Moreover, as an American, she felt that she wanted to make a personal
contribution to the people of Afghanistan. |
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from creating NGO training material on subjects such as human
rights, peace education, conflict resolution, non-violence,
civil society and civic education, Claire has advised the
organization on a variety of issues. Within five months of
online consultancy on a daily basis, she has shared substantial
knowledge with BRD, and has further developed its capacity. For
instance when revising proposals together via email, Claire
brought up issues of financial management and governance
standards, and discussed with Khan Dawoodzai, BRD director, how
the organization could enhance accountability and transparency
vis-à-vis international donors.
Inspired by her former research
on post conflict countries, she had the idea that BRD could be a
well-suited organization to coordinate a “conflict mapping”
exercise for Afghanistan. Also aware of donor organizations
interested in sponsoring such programs in the country, she
prepared the BRD to propose its services to conduct a “conflict
mapping” activity. |
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“From
my perspective a world away, and from the comparative ease of my
life as compared to the workers in BRD and its constituents, the
question becomes not one of why I have helped, but a question of
how one could do otherwise. I have learnt much about
Afghanistan. I have been given the gift of viewing the
circumstances of the Afghan people removed from nationalistic
consideration, and absent its politics.”
- Ms. Claire Suzanne Holland
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Claire not only provided her experience as online volunteer with
BRD, but she also developed her own skills, motivated by the
needs of the organization.
BRD wanted to have its own
website, and Khan Dawoodzai asked Claire if she wanted to
contribute to this project. Claire took the opportunity, taught
herself basic web development skills, and created a simple
website, both for BRD, and now that she had the skills, also for
herself. |
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Our volunteers have been
awarded the top honors not once but twice in 2004 and
2007.
