Brit Olam – Topaz Volunteering Application
Thank you for expressing your desire and willingness to volunteer at Brit Olam – Topaz and/or in one of its Initiatives.
As part of volunteering in Brit Olam – Topaz, you are offered a unique volunteering experience that entails both giving and receiving in order to adapt your aspirations, abilities, and desires in the best way to the possibilities of volunteering in Brit Olam – Topaz.
As part of the recruitment process, new volunteers are invited to participate in orientation sessions or a training course.
Upon admission of a new volunteer to Brit Olam – Topaz, you will be requested to fill in a volunteer agreement. If you participate in activity abroad, you will be asked to comply with Topaz’s overseas volunteering procedures.
Many of Brit Olam – Topaz s volunteer programs are based on extensive professional knowledge and experience and are often conducted in professional partnerships with first-rate local partners and organizations. Brit Olam – Topaz works to provide its volunteers with interesting and satisfying activity frameworks and supplies professional support and guidance during field activities.
Filling in the form does not constitute an obligation on the part of the volunteer or on the part of Brit Olam – Topaz to maintain a voluntary relationship between the parties. Still, it comprises a first step in engaging the volunteers.
Regards
Brit Olam – Topaz volunteer’s management team
Brit Olam‘s programs rely on the valuable support of volunteers, who help bring about change in the lives of people in underprivileged communities worldwide.
Due to COVID-19 our international volunteer programs have been frozen. However, we are looking for volunteers who wish to aid in our local programs in Israel.
If you wish to join us and contribute to our cause, please contact us.
Israel programs:
Mifrasim (Sails) is an innovative social venture utilizing one of Israel’s unique natural resources – the Mediterranean Sea – as a powerful and useful tool for leading social change and improving the quality of life for thousands of people each year. The sea, with its dynamic and unpredictable nature, provides multiple educational, social, and therapeutic learning opportunities. The program focuses on serving adolescents, the disabled, and underprivileged sections of society who otherwise might not have access to such an experience at sea.
Mifrasim creates an influential platform for social, educational, and therapeutic learning experiences through sailing. Large sailboats for learning experiences have proven to be a powerful and life-changing tool all around the world. The group sailing voyage provides its participants with physical, mental, and emotional challenges that help them develop life skills. In addition to fostering individual skills and emotional development, the sailing experience brings together people of diverse socio-cultural backgrounds, encouraging learning, broadening horizons, and promoting new friendships. Sailing a 67 ft. Yacht under professional leadership, participants, are faced with acquiring and honing skills such as teamwork, leadership, communication, and resilience.
“During the voyage at sea, I had a powerful empowering experience. There is nowhere to escape to; NO cell phone and you cannot walk away. It is just me, the rest of the group, and the pain. And NOW is the time to cope with it” Participant on a 24-hour voyage of a military veteran, July 2019
The Israeli Inspiration action, experience, and training center is an innovative development and activity center for art, and art-based programs, which advance social entrepreneurship, inspire social leadership, and enhance social change. The center is a first of its kind in Israel committed to offering high quality and value-based artistic and socially engaged programs. The center will operate like a communal space for designers, artists, activists, and entrepreneurs. They will work, learn, meet, network, and using art to create positive social change.
International programs:
Due to COVID-19 our international volunteer programs have been temporarily frozen.
Israeli Medicine on the Equator – IME program has been running since 2005. The project operates in the Kiboga district, one of the poorest districts in Uganda, located 120km northwest of the capital city Kampala. IME is based on voluntary medical teams, typically a group of 3-5 doctors and nurses who have undergone training and are volunteering for approximately three months or more. The project offers medical care at the Kiboga district hospital and the surrounding primary health centers and rural communities. Israeli medical volunteer teams, doctors and nurses, provide medical care along with teaching hospital staff. The program’s aim is to make a lasting effect on primary care and disease prevention and implementing a non- communicable disease program (N.C.D.’s). In Uganda, they work with the local medical personnel to provide medical care across the district. Over the years, more than 180 Israeli and international medical staff have volunteered to improve healthcare delivery and standards in rural Uganda. It is a unique project in the Israeli development landscape, with its emphasis on sustainable capacity building of local communities. The program is operated in collaboration with various bodies, e.g., Kiboga district health authorities, the Uganda Ministry of Health, and the Israeli Medical Association. IME is managed by a voluntary board in Israel, made up primarily of graduates of the program. In addition, a part-time coordinator in Israel coordinates the various logistics and fundraising activities of the projects. Topaz is planning to open a new medical center in Masaka, West Uganda. The program is based on similar principles as the Kiboga model – mobilizing volunteers to support a district hospital in the region. It will also include volunteers who will also work in schools and communities in the district in the fields of community health, hygiene, etc.
For close to ten years Topaz – Brit Olam operated an agricultural program in Northern Kenia (Turkana). Based on the immense experience gained, Topaz – Brit Olam is planning to develop a similar program in Western Uganda. The participants will include refugees, living in refugee camps in Uganda, as well as young people (students) from rural areas in Western Uganda. A training farm will be developed and operated as part of the new African Institute for Design & Technology (AIDT), which is now under construction in the Masaka district.
The training programs will be managed and operated by Israeli volunteers, who have a strong agronomic background. The overall goal of the program is training the participants, for six months, in intensive agriculture, based on Israeli Know-how. A significant feature of the program is enabling students who come from low-income families a basic income and to enjoy fresh agricultural products during their studies, as well as training refugees from East African countries to advance modern agricultural technologies.
Mirembe is a social initiative of the Inspiration Movement. It focuses on empowering Ugandan women and their families from weak rural areas to overcome poverty and become economically and socially independent. The overall goal is to redesign the women’s lives through art, social and entrepreneurial skills. By advancing fair trade strategies in craft and jewelry production, by offering microfinance opportunities and by endorsing sustainable employment opportunities and education, Mirembe improves the quality of life of poor and marginalized women, men, families, and communities in Uganda.
Each year over one hundred women participate in the program. The project operates in partnership with NIAAD, the Naggenda International Academy of Art and Design in Namulanda, Uganda. The program is implemented by the Topaz Country director in Uganda, local art teachers, and social workers and supported by the staff of the NIAAD Academy. An International Board of volunteers supports all training and operational issues concerning the program.
You are welcome to visit Mirembe Website
Mirembe facebook
Inspiration International Academy for Arts, Leadership, and Social Change (I.I.A.) is an International Art and Leadership Educational program offering talented and ambitious students a unique chance to acquire a wide range of artistic and social leadership skills. The four-year program is a joint venture of Inspiration, Brit Olam, Topaz, and the Nagenda International Academy of Art and Design (NIAAD). I.I.A. builds upon the accumulated experience and expertise of Muse Uganda (2008-2015) and advances the initiative. The program was launched in August 2019. Twenty students from three East African countries, Uganda, Sudan, and Kenya, are studying in the program. The program includes two years of intensive extra-curricular studies in community development, leadership, and social entrepreneurship. The program enables young artists to expand their expertise in a wide verity of social change methodologies embedded in creative artistic activities. The graduates will become creative and ecologically sensitive entrepreneurs. The young social-oriented artists will use their abilities to sustain themselves economically, enjoy a brighter personal future, and act as innovative, responsible, and diligent members of their society.
Visit our Website
Take a look at our Art lead change sponsorship
The Children’s Hope daycare centers are programs Topaz – Brit Olam volunteers initiated in 2007 in Uganda. The first center was founded in the Namungo slum in Kampala – The Little Light daycare center, to date, takes care for over 300 children every year. The Nazareth Child Center was opened in Namulanda, 2011. The center is located in a poor semi-rural area, on the outskirts of the village, a former fishermen’s settlement. To date, the Nazareth Child Care Center educates 10children each year between the ages of 3-6. In Nazareth, the staff includes four teachers and a local volunteer coordinator.Volunteers from Israel and other countries support the centers. A local volunteer coordinator takes care of all the needs of the volunteers throughout the volunteering period. Before mobilization, the volunteers go through various training activities. The courses cover topics such as early education, Ugandan culture and traditions, creative educational methodologies, and entrepreneurial studies.
Worldwide millions and millions of children do not attend school, especially in developing countries. Parents often have to keep them home to help with housekeeping or to contribute to the family income. Even if children would be able to go to school, they would often physically be unable to go. A supplementary program to the centers is “the child sponsorship programs.” One example is the Afaayo (Care in the Luganda language in Uganda) – Child Sponsorship Program. The Afaayo sponsorship program gives vulnerable children from the most impoverished families of Namulanda the opportunity to pursue an education that will enable them to realize their full potential and build a better future for themselves. The children enrolled in the Afaayo program are graduates of the Nazareth Childcare center. The program matches an individual or a group of donors, with a child whom they support throughout their studies, from primary school to higher education (a total of up to 18 years of studies). The donors receive periodic updates, letters, and photos of the child and can track their progress throughout the period.
Take a look at our Hope for children sponsorship
Brit Olam‘s programs rely on the valuable support of volunteers, who help bring about change in the lives of people in underprivileged communities worldwide. Join us as a volunteer, learn about social responsibility and community development, and feel good. You have something to give!
Volunteer Opportunities
The Brit – Global Change Makers program is a collaboration between between Brit Olam, the Israeli Volunteer Association, Inspiration Arts for Humanity, the Israel Global Initiative (IGI) and Tag. The program offers 3 month volunteer opportunities in education, agriculture, public health, arts and more. Volunteers undertake personally tailored projects within local communities in Uganda, and live in secure accommodation together with other volunteers in Project TEN’s volunteer center.
Furrows in the Desert, a sustainable development program in Turkana, North Kenya, is seeking volunteers with an agricultural background for a minimum of 5-6 months to train locals participating in the program.
Requirements and Conditons: At least 2 years of practical experience in growing field crops, good communication and instruction skills, interest in intercultural dialogue, initiative and leadership skills, strong English skills- speaking and writing, motivation to work and stay in communal conditions in a secluded desert area.
Suitable candidates will undergo a brief training in Israel and receive ongoing instruction and consultation in the field. The program covers all volunteer expenses (flights, upkeep, insurance, accommodation and communication).
For details contact: volunteers@britolam.org.
The International Volunteer Center in Uganda.
Brit Olam’s volunteer center is active throughout the year and hosts volunteers from various projects, including developing and teaching in Nazareth Kindergarten and other local community projects.
Requirements and Conditions: Volunteers must be over 21 years old and commit to a minimum of three months to fully accomplish their volunteer plan and goals.
Volunteers cover the costs of their own flights, insurance, living and travel expenses (approx. $150 per month, dependent on lifestyle and the number of volunteers sharing costs), vaccines and medicines. Brit Olam also charges $150 to cover the volunteer center’s expenses.
Applicants will be intervewed and go through an evaluation process. Selected volunteers with receive training and preparation to develop a personal/ group volunteer plan.
A local team and an Israeli volunteer coordinator operate the program. To apply as a volunteer, please submit your request to: volunteers@britolam.org.
‘Our Place in India’, a counselling and information center for backpackers that helps travelers cope with the challenges and opportunities brought about by the freedom of travel, is seeking volunteers for a minimum of 3 months.
Requirements and conditions: Volunteers should have traveled in India at least once, be open minded about the complex circumstances that travellers find themselves in on their journey of self-discovery, and be able to develop non-judgemental and down-to-earth dialogue with backpackers.
Airfare, insurance, visas and vaccinations will be at the volunteer’s expense. In addition, Brit Olam charges $150 a month ($5 a day) to cover the volunteer’s living costs.
Suitable candidates will receive a brief training period in Israel and more in-depth training in the Inter-Cultural Center in India.
Contact Us
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