VOLUNTEERS

Childline has advertised in local newspapers for volunteers and was overflowed by applications of people wanting to be trained as volunteer counsellors.  In the process of recruitment and selection, Childline has encountered several issues.

  First :

It seems that most people are unemployed and see this as an opportunity to gain training, experience and possibly a job. The stipend Childline offers is to help volunteers with transport and food expenditures. 

Second :

The work of Childline is specific to meeting the needs of children, a very specialized field.  Not all people have the personality to work with and associate with children. In light of this, Childline conducts a strict selection process to find people with a passion and spontaneous warmth towards children.

Third :

Mpumalanga is a large province with a wide number of languages and cultures.  In the selection process, Childline tries to recruit volunteers that will accommodate all such elements in the province. 

Lastly, it is in the nature of volunteer work to have a high turnover rate.  In light of this, Childline Mpumalanga has trained a total of 51 volunteers of which 7 are still active in offering services on the Crisisline.

Volunteers give valuable input and attend a monthly supervision where the operation of the Crisisline (and the office in general) is discussed along with ongoing training. During monthly supervision planning of the programme for the month ahead is discussed, as well as feedback re teachers evaluation of session with children in schools is done.

 In specific projects, such as the Children’s Rights Awareness, Child abuse prevention, alternatives to corporal punishment and access to social grants Campaigns training, a team of six volunteers was selected respectively and trained to do presentations and facilitate small group discussions with the children in classroom settings. This was a very good method of working, as the volunteers and children both benefited from the experience.  Valuable feedback directly from the volunteers was gathered to give new direction in the planning to continue the projects. 

Preparatory meetings has started to take place in planning to go out and volunteers got the opportunity to be part of project planning through anticipating needs, practical areas where projects are presented, communicating with stakeholders that is part of the project and getting an idea of monitoring and evaluating the project in order to improve future projects.