This week, 17 Volonteurope members[1] have embarked on a four-week e-learning course on volunteering in humanitarian action.

The course aims to prepare volunteer sending organisations to manage the opportunities and challenges presented by the humanitarian context, maximising positive impact, and ensuring the safety of volunteers and local communities alike.

Deploying volunteers to work on humanitarian projects presents a number of challenges. But, with the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance now standing at a staggering 89.4 million, volunteers have the potential to play a key role in supporting some of the world’s most vulnerable communities, working in areas such as disaster preparedness and risk reduction, and linking relief, rehabilitation and development.

Volonteurope has teamed up with Alianza por la Solidaridad, Hungarian Baptist Aid (HBAid) and GVC in response to rising levels of humanitarian need, offering technical assistance to organisations interested in sending volunteers to disaster-affected areas under the EU Aid Volunteers initiative.

By participating in the e-learning course, our members are taking the first step towards becoming certified EU Aid Volunteers sending organisations.

[1] Enrolled members include: Comhlámh (Ireland); Területfejlesztők a Vidékért Egyesület (Hungary); British Red Cross (UK); CESVOT (Italy); Imago Mundi (Romania); Emfasis Foundation (Greece); Equi-Vision Services (UK); Tulip Foundation (Bulgaria); Asociatia Act Integration (Romania); Volunteering Matters (UK); I&M Fundraisers (UK); Kultlab Celje Society (Slovenia); La Ligue de l’enseignement (France); Malta Health Network (Malta); Gemeinsam leben & lernen in Europa (Germany); Alianza por la Solidaridad (Spain); and Plateforme pour le Service Citoyen (Belgium).