Making contacts with potential dadamac volunteers - first steps January 22, 2011

Hi Nikki (and readers of my open letters at http://dadamac.posterous.com)

I am (very belatedly) acting on your advice to make contact with returning VSO's. You are right. We should probably do more of this.

There is so much talent around - more people are now time-rich - and we could certainly use more volunteers working from where-ever they happen to be. Maybe it is time for us to put some effort into finding more people "out there" - Hmm - except we are so over-stretched that first we need to find someone who is sufficiently time-rich to help us to find these time-rich potential helpers ;-)

Anyhow - this is the action I've taken. I happened to hear the BBC radio 4 programme Excess Baggage this morning - one speaker was a retired nurse who returned recently from a two-year stint in rural Africa with VSO -  http://www.dadamac.net/network/voluntary-services-overseas-vso. I decided to try and make contact as she would make a great dadamac volunteer here in the UK, so wrote to the programme (see below).

You will recognise that I am (very belatedly) acting on your advice to make contact with returning VSO's. You are right. We should probably do more of this.

There is so much talent around - more people are now time-rich - and we could certainly use more volunteers  (mainly working from where-ever they happen to be - once we had got over the hurdle of helping them to get started). Maybe it is time for us to put some effort into finding more people "out there" - Hmm - except we are so over-stretched that first we need to find someone who is sufficiently time-rich to help us to find these time-rich potential helpers ;-)

This is what I wrote:

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I was very interested to hear your programme this morning - especially Pam Llewellyn describing her experiences in Africa and the challenge of coming back home.

I would very much like to make contact with her to learn more about her experiences, her current plan and her hopes for the future. I share similar feeling to hers when I come back from "working holidays" in Nigeria – however in our organisation there is as much to be done when I come home as when I am away.

I am wondering if Pam Llewellyn might be interested in connecting in some way with us (see http://www.dadamac.net/about-us) We would very much value her knowledge and experience - of rural Africa, of nursing, and of volunteering. If she is looking for some way to continue “having something to give” we could certainly provide her with opportunities.

Please pass this on to her for me or give me her contact details. Thank you.

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