Ubuntu International Youth Voluntary Service Award

• The Ubuntu International Youth Voluntary Service Award (Ubuntu) project was partially financed by the European Commission through section 3.2 of its Youth in Action Programme: Youth in the World. It was implemented by the following partner organisations:

  European partners:
  • Association of Voluntary Service Organizations (AVSO) (lead agency in Europe)
  • The Swedish Centre for International Youth Exchange (CIU)
  • Experiment in Intercultural Living (EIL– Ireland)
  • Experiment in Intercultural Living (EIL– Germany)
  • Community Service Volunteers (CSV)

  African partners:
  • Volunteer and Service Enquiry Southern Africa (VOSESA) (lead agency in Africa)
  • Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO) (Malawi)
  • loveLife Trust, South Africa
  • Youth Association of Zambia (YAZ)
  • Volunteer Centre, Cape Town

  VOSESA was the lead organization for the Ubuntu project in Africa.

  Ten young jury members were selected, all between the ages of 18 and 25: five were from African countries and five from European countries. The jurors were as follows:
  • Emilie Aho – Sweden
  • Erika Celi - Italy
  • Fransina Mutumbulwa – Namibia
  • Frida Soderberg – Sweden
  • Kagiso Moatshe - Botswana
  • Lawrence Simtyaba – Zambia
  • Lukasz Pastor – Poland
  • Michael Mulunga – Namibia
  • Nontokozo Zulu – South Africa
  • Sebastien Hemman - Germany

  There were 14 applications in all (13 from African projects and one from a European project) and each one was considered by two teams, each team comprising an African and a European jury member.

  The winner of the Ubuntu International Voluntary Youth Service Award for 2009 was the Durbanville Children’s Home in Cape Town. This project is outstanding in the support, training and empowerment that it affords to volunteers and the way in which it recognises the extent to which they have been able to improve the quality of life of the children in this children’s home. It also distinguished itself for encouraging the volunteers to introduce innovative and sustainable programmes, and for their integration with the administration, programmes and staff of the home. For these features it received the Ubuntu Gold Award.

  Runners up for the 2009 award were as follows:
  • African Information Movement (AIM) in Ghana. Innovation lies at the heart of this project – innovation in managing the volunteers, innovation in introducing new technologies, innovation in enabling the volunteers to create and implement their ideas. This project was awarded the Ubuntu Silver Award for enabling volunteers to support the youth clubs and other projects established in the village of Komenda, Ghana and for working towards closer participation between Germany and Ghana in the selection, preparation and hosting of the volunteers.

  • Campagnes des Hommes in Togo for its Sport and Youth project. This project was awarded the Ubuntu Bronze Award for meeting particular needs within the local community by enabling volunteers to support and organise sports activities in schools and training local people to continue such instruction for the benefit of young people. The project does not only try to solve today’s problems, but also to find a solution for the future. In the context of a strict approach to schooling, the volunteers introduced sport and created a close and easy-going atmosphere between students and teachers.

  In addition, the jury created a special prize, the Green Award for Environmental Sustainability, and awarded this to the Taita Foundation in Hungary for the St Joseph’s Home in Kenya, which it supports.

  A highlight of the process in Johannesburg was the seminar held on 29 September 2009 on the Role of International Volunteering in Development. The meeting was well attended by a range of government representatives as well as local and international volunteer-involving organisations, and the minutes are to be published on the Ubuntu website at www.ubuntuaward.eu.

  The process leading up to the Ubuntu Award ceremony opened up a number of partnership opportunities, which have been taken forward for the proposed study on international volunteering. It also highlighted how integral VOSESA’s role is as an African organisation to influencing the debate and dialogue around international volunteering.

1. VOSESA
2. VOSESA