Wharton volunteers around the world
Anusha Seetharaman, WG'07
Issue date: 2/20/06 Section: Insider
Every year Wharton students volunteer their time and skills in aid of international development for emerging economies around the world. The Wharton International Volunteer Program (WIVP) sends teams of 2-4 people to work for 2-4 weeks in countries around the world. WIVP raises funds from alumni, corporate sponsorship and student events to subsidize its members' traveling and volunteering costs.
Now in its nineteenth year, WIVP has worked with dozens of small, local, resource-limited organizations, sharing students' business skills and experience. Projects have assisted non-profit organizations, non-governmental organizations and small businesses in areas such as strategic and financial planning, performance evaluation and information systems. Countries such as India and China apart, WIVP has sent volunteers to remote corners of the world like Swaziland and Benin.
This year's WIVP contingent is the largest to date, with more than 70 members and 20 projects around the world in places such as Rwanda, Laos and Indonesia. Projects presented ranged from making a business plan for a hospital to capacity building for growth. WIVP members get first dibs on projects but there is a waiting list on webCafé for other students to get involved. Check out www.wivp.orgfor more information.
Here is a sampling of projects that the program proposes to complete this year.
ASIA PROJECTS
TURAG NGO, MONGOLIA
Turag was created with two main goals in mind: to help 39 herder families around Lake Hovsgol improve their quality of life, and to facilitate sustainable and eco-friendly development of the Lake Hovsgol area. Recent political changes in Russia have eliminated the herders' largest market.
Scope: Volunteers will look for ways to help migrant herders take their products (vegetables, woodwork, and ecotourism) to new markets.
DIGITAL DIVIDE DATA, LAOS
Digital Divide is a social enterprise that provides sustainable technology-related employment and vocational training for poor and disadvantaged young adults. DDD hires landmine and polio victims, orphans, rural migrants and victims of sex-trafficking to work on data entry and digitization projects outsourced from universities and businesses and offers them participation in a subsidized education program.
Scope: Develop a marketing exposé to introduce NGO staff to potential clients, donors and the local community. Provide training to junior management team in topic areas such as basic accounting, marketing and IT skills.
BALI COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT, INDONESIA
Sumber Urip is dedicated to the development and training of unemployed villagers, especially those who cannot compete professionally in tough economic conditions. The organization provides various training programs specifically for micro-businesses to help with agriculture, carpentry, traditional hand-crafts and other skills.
Scope: Develop strategic and financial plans to help expand programs supporting the sustainability of unemployed villagers. Design the volunteer program and the marketing materials.
THE GEORGE FOUNDATION, INDIA
The George Foundation strives to alleviate poverty, promote environmental health, and strengthen democratic values and equality. Projects organized and currently funded by the foundation include a school and home for 336 deprived children, medical centers, and women's empowerment through education, cooperative farming, vocational training, savings plan, and business development.
Scope: Provide leadership and teamwork training to the students at the Project Shanti Bhavan school and develop a fundraising strategy.
WAAN AELON IN MAJEL, MARSHALL ISLANDS
Wan Aelon In Majel (WAM) works with youth, families and the local and international communities to perpetuate and safeguard Marshallese culture through canoe building and sailing. The goal is to develop life skills and work ethics that create meaning in the lives of all participants.
Scope: Develop marketing plan to assist in the international sale of hand-built canoes of participating youth. Prepare a training plan for the youth to educate them on basic business principals to include public speaking, career advice and business/micro-enterprise development plans.
AFRICA PROJECTS
UBUNTU EDUCATION FUND, SOUTH AFRICA
Ubuntu Education Fund (www.ubuntufund.org) works with the people of the Eastern Cape Province to develop quality education and healthy communities in the New South Africa. Its activities include the Mpilo-Lwazi Health Initiative, a comprehensive HIV intervention program.
Scope: Develop a business plan for the building of a state-of-the-art Wellness Center offering comprehensive health services.
TIISHA FINANCE ENTERPRISES, SOUTH AFRICA
Tiisha's mission is to provide groups of rural women access to credit to start and run their own businesses. The organization needs both additional capital and stronger internal operating capabilities to achieve scale and broaden reach.
Scope: Provide both capital-raising and capacity-building consulting as well as develop a strategic plan to overcome growth constraints.
ANTIPOVERTY INITIATIVE, SENEGAL
Anti-Poverty Initiative (API) is a small non-profit organization committed to working with poor, marginalized women to economically transform their lives through micro-credit/enterprise and savings programming. API currently supports over 160 women.
Scope: Create training materials and conduct workshops to educate participants on how to start and manage a small micro-business and the benefits of financial empowerment. Design a performance evaluation matrix for the organization to evaluate and assess the women's performance.
ASSOCIAÇÃO CRISTA PARA APOIO DA CRIANÇA ORFÃO (A.C.P.O.), MOZAMBIQUE
A.C.P.O. is an organization works to place orphans in families, and then to provide an environment where the orphans can become educated and empowered to provide for themselves. A.C.P.O. has recently initiated income generation projects (bread making and sewing) to help supplement the orphan's resources.
Scope: Volunteers will design a business plan to help adoptive parents generate income to support orphans through the sale of wood-carved objects.
SMALL ENTERPRISES FOUNDATION, TANZANIA
SEF provides affordable and sustainable microfinance services to small entrepreneurs, farmers, and the poor, especially women. The services it provides include small loans, compulsory savings, and business development training. The greatest challenge today is in sourcing low-cost funds.
Scope: Volunteers will develop a strategic plan for microfinance programs.
VIE NOUVELLE, BENIN
Vie Nouvelle promotes the socio-economic development through education, promotion, information, and protection for women's and men's small business groups. Current activities include education in health, literacy and environmental protection, microfinance and small business development and disease prevention.
Scope: Train micro-entrepreneurs in business skills and develop business plans for two potential projects: 1) a center for uneducated youth and 2) an agricultural skills school.
GIFT FOR LIFE, RWANDA
Gift For Life assists genocide survivors living with HIV/AIDS. Its current activities include providing access to anti-retroviral medicine, provision of basic services (food/shelter), education assistance for children and income-generation support.
Scope: Develop a monitoring system to measure the impact of services and introduce a basic financial tracking system to evaluate impact and progress.
LATIN AMERICA PROJECTS
TWO BROTHERS FOUNDATION, BRAZIL
Located in one of Rio's favelas, Two Brothers (www.2bros.org) provides educational opportunities to underprivileged youths through community service and cultural exchange. It sponsors educational and cultural projects including language instruction, art classes, computer training, and children's reading groups.
Scope: Improve systems and provide basic business training in order to better track costs and monitor use of US funding. Construct a model to evaluate the operations, investments, and finances of the foundation's activities.
AMAZONIA EWARE, COLOMBIA
Support sustainable Amazon development through commercial education for and technology transfer to local indigenous and non-indigenous communities. Its primary activities revolve around sustainable agriculture, education and technology transfer and ecotourism.
Scope: Develop a business plan to commercialize products produced by the local indigenous people.
HELPARGENTINA, ARGENTINA
HELPARGENTINA connects international investors with responsible, efficient, and transparent organizations within Argentina's social sector. The forthcoming launch of the HELPARGENTINA Traveler referral program will look to generate funds for social and economic development through referral commissions from partners within the Argentine tourism industry.
Scope: Assess the profitability of the Traveler loyalty program as well as identify other potential partnerships.
CONODROS S.A., ECUADOR
Conodros strives to develop sustainable ecotourism with a social purpose. Its eco-lodge is the only source of income for some local indigenous communities only recently discovered in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Scope: Develop a sustainable tourism program. Evaluate options to solve the shortage of reliable air transportation as the only form of travel to and from the lodge.
BELIZE BOTANICAL GARDENS, BELIZE
Belize Botanical Gardens strives to encourage sustainable agriculture, maintain conservation collections, engage in conservation education and provide information to the local community, scientists, the government and industry.
Scope: Develop a marketing and financial plan which will include the identification of funding sources for educational activities, agro-projects, and conservation.
MONKEY BAY WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, BELIZE
The focus of the Monkey Bay Wildlife Sanctuary is to be the local management partner for the national park in its vicinity.
Scope: Develop a business plan for the co-management of protected areas in Belize City. This will include delineating a structure within the organization of clear roles and responsibilities and applying for a Global Environment Facility Small grant to fund program in short-term.
Now in its nineteenth year, WIVP has worked with dozens of small, local, resource-limited organizations, sharing students' business skills and experience. Projects have assisted non-profit organizations, non-governmental organizations and small businesses in areas such as strategic and financial planning, performance evaluation and information systems. Countries such as India and China apart, WIVP has sent volunteers to remote corners of the world like Swaziland and Benin.
This year's WIVP contingent is the largest to date, with more than 70 members and 20 projects around the world in places such as Rwanda, Laos and Indonesia. Projects presented ranged from making a business plan for a hospital to capacity building for growth. WIVP members get first dibs on projects but there is a waiting list on webCafé for other students to get involved. Check out www.wivp.orgfor more information.
Here is a sampling of projects that the program proposes to complete this year.
TURAG NGO, MONGOLIA
Turag was created with two main goals in mind: to help 39 herder families around Lake Hovsgol improve their quality of life, and to facilitate sustainable and eco-friendly development of the Lake Hovsgol area. Recent political changes in Russia have eliminated the herders' largest market.
Scope: Volunteers will look for ways to help migrant herders take their products (vegetables, woodwork, and ecotourism) to new markets.
DIGITAL DIVIDE DATA, LAOS
Digital Divide is a social enterprise that provides sustainable technology-related employment and vocational training for poor and disadvantaged young adults. DDD hires landmine and polio victims, orphans, rural migrants and victims of sex-trafficking to work on data entry and digitization projects outsourced from universities and businesses and offers them participation in a subsidized education program.
Scope: Develop a marketing exposé to introduce NGO staff to potential clients, donors and the local community. Provide training to junior management team in topic areas such as basic accounting, marketing and IT skills.
BALI COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT, INDONESIA
Sumber Urip is dedicated to the development and training of unemployed villagers, especially those who cannot compete professionally in tough economic conditions. The organization provides various training programs specifically for micro-businesses to help with agriculture, carpentry, traditional hand-crafts and other skills.
Scope: Develop strategic and financial plans to help expand programs supporting the sustainability of unemployed villagers. Design the volunteer program and the marketing materials.
THE GEORGE FOUNDATION, INDIA
The George Foundation strives to alleviate poverty, promote environmental health, and strengthen democratic values and equality. Projects organized and currently funded by the foundation include a school and home for 336 deprived children, medical centers, and women's empowerment through education, cooperative farming, vocational training, savings plan, and business development.
Scope: Provide leadership and teamwork training to the students at the Project Shanti Bhavan school and develop a fundraising strategy.
WAAN AELON IN MAJEL, MARSHALL ISLANDS
Wan Aelon In Majel (WAM) works with youth, families and the local and international communities to perpetuate and safeguard Marshallese culture through canoe building and sailing. The goal is to develop life skills and work ethics that create meaning in the lives of all participants.
Scope: Develop marketing plan to assist in the international sale of hand-built canoes of participating youth. Prepare a training plan for the youth to educate them on basic business principals to include public speaking, career advice and business/micro-enterprise development plans.
UBUNTU EDUCATION FUND, SOUTH AFRICA
Ubuntu Education Fund (www.ubuntufund.org) works with the people of the Eastern Cape Province to develop quality education and healthy communities in the New South Africa. Its activities include the Mpilo-Lwazi Health Initiative, a comprehensive HIV intervention program.
Scope: Develop a business plan for the building of a state-of-the-art Wellness Center offering comprehensive health services.
TIISHA FINANCE ENTERPRISES, SOUTH AFRICA
Tiisha's mission is to provide groups of rural women access to credit to start and run their own businesses. The organization needs both additional capital and stronger internal operating capabilities to achieve scale and broaden reach.
Scope: Provide both capital-raising and capacity-building consulting as well as develop a strategic plan to overcome growth constraints.
ANTIPOVERTY INITIATIVE, SENEGAL
Anti-Poverty Initiative (API) is a small non-profit organization committed to working with poor, marginalized women to economically transform their lives through micro-credit/enterprise and savings programming. API currently supports over 160 women.
Scope: Create training materials and conduct workshops to educate participants on how to start and manage a small micro-business and the benefits of financial empowerment. Design a performance evaluation matrix for the organization to evaluate and assess the women's performance.
ASSOCIAÇÃO CRISTA PARA APOIO DA CRIANÇA ORFÃO (A.C.P.O.), MOZAMBIQUE
A.C.P.O. is an organization works to place orphans in families, and then to provide an environment where the orphans can become educated and empowered to provide for themselves. A.C.P.O. has recently initiated income generation projects (bread making and sewing) to help supplement the orphan's resources.
Scope: Volunteers will design a business plan to help adoptive parents generate income to support orphans through the sale of wood-carved objects.
SMALL ENTERPRISES FOUNDATION, TANZANIA
SEF provides affordable and sustainable microfinance services to small entrepreneurs, farmers, and the poor, especially women. The services it provides include small loans, compulsory savings, and business development training. The greatest challenge today is in sourcing low-cost funds.
Scope: Volunteers will develop a strategic plan for microfinance programs.
VIE NOUVELLE, BENIN
Vie Nouvelle promotes the socio-economic development through education, promotion, information, and protection for women's and men's small business groups. Current activities include education in health, literacy and environmental protection, microfinance and small business development and disease prevention.
Scope: Train micro-entrepreneurs in business skills and develop business plans for two potential projects: 1) a center for uneducated youth and 2) an agricultural skills school.
GIFT FOR LIFE, RWANDA
Gift For Life assists genocide survivors living with HIV/AIDS. Its current activities include providing access to anti-retroviral medicine, provision of basic services (food/shelter), education assistance for children and income-generation support.
Scope: Develop a monitoring system to measure the impact of services and introduce a basic financial tracking system to evaluate impact and progress.
TWO BROTHERS FOUNDATION, BRAZIL
Located in one of Rio's favelas, Two Brothers (www.2bros.org) provides educational opportunities to underprivileged youths through community service and cultural exchange. It sponsors educational and cultural projects including language instruction, art classes, computer training, and children's reading groups.
Scope: Improve systems and provide basic business training in order to better track costs and monitor use of US funding. Construct a model to evaluate the operations, investments, and finances of the foundation's activities.
AMAZONIA EWARE, COLOMBIA
Support sustainable Amazon development through commercial education for and technology transfer to local indigenous and non-indigenous communities. Its primary activities revolve around sustainable agriculture, education and technology transfer and ecotourism.
Scope: Develop a business plan to commercialize products produced by the local indigenous people.
HELPARGENTINA, ARGENTINA
HELPARGENTINA connects international investors with responsible, efficient, and transparent organizations within Argentina's social sector. The forthcoming launch of the HELPARGENTINA Traveler referral program will look to generate funds for social and economic development through referral commissions from partners within the Argentine tourism industry.
Scope: Assess the profitability of the Traveler loyalty program as well as identify other potential partnerships.
CONODROS S.A., ECUADOR
Conodros strives to develop sustainable ecotourism with a social purpose. Its eco-lodge is the only source of income for some local indigenous communities only recently discovered in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Scope: Develop a sustainable tourism program. Evaluate options to solve the shortage of reliable air transportation as the only form of travel to and from the lodge.
BELIZE BOTANICAL GARDENS, BELIZE
Belize Botanical Gardens strives to encourage sustainable agriculture, maintain conservation collections, engage in conservation education and provide information to the local community, scientists, the government and industry.
Scope: Develop a marketing and financial plan which will include the identification of funding sources for educational activities, agro-projects, and conservation.
MONKEY BAY WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, BELIZE
The focus of the Monkey Bay Wildlife Sanctuary is to be the local management partner for the national park in its vicinity.
Scope: Develop a business plan for the co-management of protected areas in Belize City. This will include delineating a structure within the organization of clear roles and responsibilities and applying for a Global Environment Facility Small grant to fund program in short-term.