Resilient, responsive, ready webinar: questions and answers

The following questions were asked by the audience during the Resilient, Responsive, Ready webinar about how our volunteers helped prepared communities for COVID-19. 

E-volunteering opportunities

What can UK returned volunteers do to help? I heard talk of e-volunteering and I was wondering if that was something people in the UK could help out with? Please can you explain how the e-volunteer approval process works.

You can apply in exactly the same way you would apply for any volunteering role with VSO. All roles are advertised on the VSO website and applicants go through the same selection and training process.

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I am a returned volunteer who worked on an education programme and would like to offer lessons online. What support is available from VSO to provide online classes?

We’ll pass your details on to our Lead Advisor for Education, but do keep an eye on our website or sign up to the monthly newsletter.

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Is it possible for VSO health volunteer nurse like me to be involved in preventing the spread of infection and/or helping educate the health sector? 

Yes, but we don’t have any roles right now. All roles are advertised on the VSO website and will be included in the monthly newsletter.

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What types of e-volunteering are there?  

There are a growing number of opportunities for e-volunteering within our core practice areas of health, education and livelihoods. Some are flexible part-time roles, some are full-time for a longer duration, including roles for national and international volunteers.

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How can online volunteering strengthen the actions carried out by other volunteers who are working directly in the communities, due to the local context?

Community volunteers can do a tremendous amount to spread the message about how people can stay safe during the pandemic and, longer term, how to rebuild or improve health, education and livelihoods systems. This is where we will need dedicated technical support from e-volunteers in the UK, to provide specialist advice for more strategic activity. At the moment, there are some opportunities for e-volunteers emerging, and you can see these on our website.

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Is VSO planning to create e-volunteering opportunities in the UK, Netherlands and Ireland offices? 

E-volunteering opportunities are not limited to any specific country; we are always looking for the best candidates regardless of their location.  

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Support from VSO for volunteers who have remained on placement and have returned due to COVID-19 

My VSO placement has come to an end as a result of COVID-19. I am passionate about continuing to help. How can VSO use my skills and expertise?

Thank you for the offer, we’re glad you want to remain involved with VSO! Assuming you’re based in the UK, our e-volunteering roles probably represent the best ways to stay involved at the moment.

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How has VSO managed to continue working with volunteers during the pandemic? Some volunteers have chosen to stay on their placement. How has VSO taken care of their safety? 

The safety and wellbeing of all our volunteers – along with that of our staff, and the primary actors we work with – is paramount. We’re providing everyone with extra guidance, which is regularly reviewed by our expert duty of care team, and will not hesitate to suspend activities if there is a risk. 

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How is VSO considering ICS volunteers who didn’t complete their cycle due to pandemic? 

For all ICS volunteers who were not able to compete their cycle in Spring 2020, eligibility to volunteer again will be allowed for those ICS volunteers who completed up to 50% of placement or completion of Mid Phase Review (whichever is latest). Volunteers meeting these criteria will be able to re-volunteer with a cut-off start of service within 18 months of placements becoming available. At the moment, we do not have further placements planned, as we are waiting for the UK government to re-tender the contract for ICS.

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Have health care volunteers remaining on placement been able to access the full PPE they need?  

Yes. We will not risk volunteers being in situations that compromise their safety.  

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The exchange of knowledge and learning during COVID-19 

How will teachers/e-volunteers be supported to utilise their skills and experience?  

We have identified specific areas that we need those skills to continue to deliver education to children and support teachers. We recently advertised those roles and have recruited people with the skills set required as e-volunteers. Roles include Psycho-social support and emotional learning experts and Education in Emergencies Expert. The pool of e-volunteers are now working with staff remotely to deliver the support. We will be advertising more roles as we identify more needs. 

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Other questions 

Can we give examples of our response, resilience and emergency work since Ebola?    

An increasing number of VSO volunteers, including many young people, are working in 60 communities to share key messages about COVID-19 prevention. Many of these communities are shanty towns or in remote locations. 

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Has there been an evaluation on the current responses of governments that VSO is assisting in the fields of health, education and livelihood sectors? How do these responses directly affect VSO's activities?    

We have not done any formal evaluation. Our development model requires working alongside national and local governments, so each response will be assessed in terms of its impact on current or future VSO programmes.  

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How can we address gender-based violence (GBV) during lockdown? What are the strategies adopted by Mozambique team to reduce GBV during natural disaster response.

VSO take the safety of the people we work with extremely seriously. We have a global team of experts who share learnings and train counterparts in-country to discourage GBV practices. It's an important part of how we work.

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How is VSO planning to support communities that have been greatly hit economically through the resilience project, will it be monetary assistance?

Providing monetary assistance is not VSO’s development model, and we will work alongside other organisations with greater specialism in this area. However, every country and every situation is unique, and if we identify that monetary assistance is the most appropriate mechanism to support communities for a limited time, and there are no other providers, we will explore it.

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How can we join a Whatsapp group in our country to keep updated on the pandemic?

Please contact your country office for more information. Contact details are on our website.

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Is there any plan to continue ICS after lockdown with national volunteers? If yes then how we can as a partner organization can support?

We are planning to continue with project and community volunteer activities for the rest of the year. These activities will be in line with VSO’s COVID-19 response plans. Please contact the VSO ICS Manager in your country for more information on planned activities for the remainder of 2020.

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I would love to know about ICS alumni grant which is postponed because of COVID-19 

Applicants from ICS countries with existing National Youth Engagement Networks (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal and Tanzania) have been considered in the application process this year. Successful applicants will be notified by 4 June 2020.

Applications from countries without NYEN have been actively deferred to 2021 and applicants from those countries will not need to resubmit their applications. More information about the alumni grant is available on the ICS website.

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For the Mozambique or Myanmar teams: what processes are in place for the ongoing monitoring of how effective these projects are and then going forward?

To evaluate assistance and identify future recovery needs, two months following the emergency in 2019, VSO Mozambique conducted needs assessments, lesson learned sessions with volunteers, staff and communities and kept detailed records to identify future recovery needs.

VSO Mozambique is currently working on the design/development of tools to monitor and measure the impact of all the resilient/responsive interventions, learning from the cyclones and now from COVID-19.

We want to move beyond reporting on activities and develop mechanisms for reporting on an output/outcome level but this requires significant investment which is not always available in emergencies. We’d love to hear any ideas people have on how we can do this more effectively!

….and how they select aspects to build on to continue to increase effectiveness of projects in the future? e.g. through the use of theoretical disaster risk management models e.g. parks models or disaster risk management cycle

One example we can give is the inclusive education EAGLE project which is just starting. We have developed an environmental management plan and a risk analysis and mitigation plan that looks at what the risks are in terms of environmental hazards, climate hazards, etc. and how we can plan for those and mitigate the risk wherever possible. VSO’s approach to risk necessarily needs to be broad and also include political and social risks so there are lots of dynamics to consider.

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I wondered whether keeping a database of professionals who may be suitable for a wide range of consultancy roles, with short term and remote opportunities, might be an approach that would suit VSO in this context?

Yes, we have always maintained a talent pool of skilled professionals for our volunteering roles and we are now working to also create a database of professionals who are interested in remote volunteering. 

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One of the problems in Malawi is that when we last counted there were over 80 NGO's all tripping over themselves to help. How does VSO manage collaboration and co-ordination with other charities? 

For all our programme activities, we consult with NGO networks and our local partners, as well as government institutions to ensure that we are working where we can make the biggest difference we can whilst avoiding any duplication. This consultation is even more important during such a crisis. In most cases, we will continue to work in geographic areas where we have ongoing programme activities, we know the context and the stakeholders.

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Answers to other questions will be added here as we receive replies from our country offices.

More about our work responding to the COVID-19 pandemic