Volunteer
Borrowing from the best elements of other international organizations
including the Peace Corps and The School for International Training
(SIT) Breaking Ground has created a unique program for people looking
to volunteer abroad. Our volunteers, called Ground Coordinators (GCs),
are the catalysts for Breaking Grounds work in Cameroon.
Each year, we select several qualified individuals
to serve as GCs. During the application process, GCs draw upon their
passions and skills to inform Breaking Ground of what sort of volunteer
work they are interested in pursuing. We then use our network of
contacts and advisors to find organizations in Cameroon that work in a
GCs area of interest. GCs are stationed in Dschang (in the Western
province) or Ngaoundéré (in the north-central province of Adamaoua).
GCs commit a minimum of one year to Breaking
Ground. This consists of several months of fundraising prior to their
departure for Cameroon, and at least eight months of service in
Cameroon during which they participate in an orientation program, live
with Cameroonian home-stay families, engage in their specified
volunteer work, and facilitate small-scale grassroots community
projects. GCs also assist with training and education programs upon
their return to the US.
As they live and work in Cameroon, GCs interact
with diverse communities that have ambitions to implement small-scale
community development projects of their own. GCs are encouraged to seek
out motivated communities with pre-established project goals. These
communities may have identified a need within their community, designed
a program to address that need, and have already begun working to
towards their goal, but simply lack the resources to complete their
project. GCs facilitate the completion of these projects by using
Breaking Grounds network to obtain the necessary technical and
financial support.
Breaking Ground is currently accepting
applications for the position of Ground Coordinator in Dschang, with an
anticipated July 2008 departure.
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