Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Volunteering Opportunity - ETHIOPIA

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Marakie Tesfaye <marakiet@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Dec 25, 2013 at 11:42 AM
Subject: Volunteering Opportunity - ETHIOPIA



Dear Family and Friends
Merry Christmas!!

 
Volunteering Opportunities in ETHIOPIA
Women Empowerment, Sanitation and Profitability
Below The Line Marketing, IEC/BCC and Corporate Social Responsibility 


MTC is advertising volunteering opportunities for wonderful, experienced, interested, passionate, free and positive individuals. B.A, or equivalent is required and M.A or equivalent is desired. No formal education but years of life experience is appreciated! Don't hesitate to ask for details. I am an international social worker, however, I am not the typical. As a social worker committed to work with and for the people, I challenge the 'aid' society to differentiate between giving and helping. As much as I love helping people, as a social worker my job is not to help, but to give. Whether it is hope, guidance, or opportunities. I was trained to give. Equipped with the right skills, resources, and tools 'end users' or 'beneficiaries' can help themselves to solve their problems using their own methods . I love Ethiopia. I am accustomed to living in Ethiopia. I recognize the smell, the sound, the feel and more than anything, I strive to understand the people. My people.

Currently I am running two projects under my communications company called MTC. Its an advertising and communications company working in the areas of below the line marketing, informational and behavioral communication development and corporate social responsibility project developments.

Tikuret
Our First Campaign - Social Movement is called Tikuret (mtcethiopia.com). Tikuret is a sanitation and hygiene movement on restroom cleanliness and advertisement in Ethiopia. Tikuret operates strictly under MTC and does not collaborate with any other organizations. We do not accept funding, but operate like an NGO. the process is simple: we solicit restaurant and bar owners (any type of venue with a restroom) to give us their restroom areas for free, we provide cleaning materials, hire an attendant from a most at risk and vulnerable population, and we use the wall of the restroom to place an advertisement.

We keep the restroom clean (sanitation - check)
Provide employment opportunity (income generating activity - check)
Targeted Advertisement (Customer satisfaction - check) (assuring our clients that we are reaching their specific target audience by placing the ads in venues the target audience frequent)

So far we have 500+ restrooms in Addis Ababa. We are expanding to other urban cities by March. We hire 2 attendants per restroom, which translates to employing 1000 women (98% women). We feel like this is an amazing opportunity for life skill training classes, empowerment course and so forth to be provided as the majority of them are from a very at risk population. At risk for economic migration, HIV and related diseases, drug abuse and so forth. We at MTC found NGOs to be lacking in bridging the gap missed, the reason these women continue to be in vulnerable and at risk. We believe that handing out promotional materials and monetary support does not contribute to the problem solving, we feel like the solution is employment. One has to eat to be empowered. They need employment. So far we have been unable to find other practices that are the same or somewhat related to what we do, therefore we design the project as we go keeping our eyes fixed on our charter. Women Empowerment, Sanitation and Profitability.

FIM
Our Second and New Project with MTC is FIM (refer to the attached brochure)
We are the 'go betweens'. We are the bridge that connects the corporate world and the community at large. We connect international corporations desire to meet the communities need. We create activities that benefit the community and praise the corporations. (who cares who gets the credit?) We want better things for Ethiopia and we know how to create them. We work with the community, within members of the community, empowering leaders, giving voice to parents and being culturally sensitive learning their traditional beliefs and values to help us create something sustainable and win win situation for all. Corporate implement the program, Communities are satisfied and we are profitable. Win, Win, Win.

Volunteering Opportunities

1.    We need Volunteers with experience from the 'West' to help us identify the gap. By conducting assessments, researches and focus group discussion as to how to design a program that can help the women be beneficial to the company, be empowered considering the five empowerment dimension (Personal, Educational, Social, Political and Economical).

2.    We have the Communications and Research Officer position open for volunteers with experience in writing, story telling or marketing and advertising

 

For more information on these 2 volunteering opportunities, please email sebinme@gmail.com our project coordinator who is also copied in this email.

Merry Christmas!
Marakie

 p.s. - feel free to forward this email to interested, positive, energetic and experienced individuals.