Last Friday 16th February, Doctors of the World, Action Against Hunger, Alianza por la solidaridad and Movimiento por la Paz, celebrated a double event for two very different audiences at the headquarters of Doctors of the World (MdM) in Madrid.

From 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. the four Spanish organizations who have taken part in the European initiative EU Aid Volunteers, have joined forces to explain to other curious NGOs how to be part of the initiative and share with them what advantages they have encountered.

The event was opened by Laure, the coordinator of the MdM EU Aid Volunteers consortium, to later give way to Sandra, from Alianza por la Solidaridad, who has shared some of her broad experience with EUAV, making very clear what the necessary requirements to gain access to the Certification, and Technical Assistance phase are.

Next, Cayetana, from Movimiento por la Paz, imparted the Capacity Development phase, a phase in which the capacities of the host organizations of the programme are reinforced.

The last part of the presentation dedicated to NGOs was presented by Blanca from Alianza por la Solidaridad and Raphaël from Acción Contra el Hambre. Both dived into the Deployment phase, dealing with the sending of volunteers after having acquired a fairly technical preparation at the sending headquarters.

Once the presentations came to an end, all NGOs had time to clear up any doubts they may had directly with the speakers directly.

The second part of the event saw the presence of a very different public: people of all ages and profiles came over to see what opportunities the EU Aid Volunteers initiative had in store for them.

Andreea, EUAV consortium officer, exhaustively explained the entire journey and process the interested parties had to carry out in order to apply as EU Aid Volunteers. It is a process that many would consider complex, since you have to fill in different documents and be aware of several web pages where you can find all the information. Attendees were also inspired by the first-hand experience narrated by Sara, ex-EU Aid Volunteers in Nicaragua and another member of the Doctors of the World Spain.

After learning about the bureaucratic process needed to be able to apply for a placement, it was time the other NGOs presented their vacancies.

The event was enriched by an activity carried out by the Communication consultancy, Hugin and Munin, where bookmarks cut in halves were distributed to the attendees with the aim of getting people to find ‘their other half’ and hence complete the image. It was only by showing the completed bookmarks that it was possible to receive a gift the consultancy prepared! 

If you want to know more about the places of volunteering with Doctors of the World, take a look here.

And to see the vacancies of other organizations, here.