📝 Detailed information
🏢 About the local organisation
Shanti Sahara was founded to support the people from Western Sahara and face the sanitary crisis affecting the Saharawi refugee camps in Algeria, where each year more and more children are born with disabilities or other types of ilnesses. Within the framework of the project “Young Peace Ambassadors” the organization welcomes a small number of disabled Saharawi children over the summer allowing them to receive medical care they wouldn’t otherwise get access to in the refugee camps. During the summer, in July and August, Shanti Sahara will host 9 children affected by different types and degrees of disability. The organization will grant medical care to each child, together with improving their awareness of hygienic practices and allowing them to follow a complete and balanced diet.
💼 What the programme involves
The volunteers will work 5/6 days a week – in the morning (8:00-15:00) or in the afternoon (15:00-22:00). In addition, each volunteer will be on a night shift (22:00-8:00) once or twice a week. They will have 1/2 days off a week (to be defined according to the needs of the organization and upon volunteer's request).The volunteers will be responsible for: looking after the children, accompanying them to the hospital (doctor’s visits, hospital stays, blood tests), taking part in the lesiure time activites (playing with the children, trips to the swimming pool, to the beach, parties). Volunteers will also be responsible for the childrens’ hygiene, preparing meals for them and other volunteers, cleaning the residency (rooms, bathrooms, laundry, kitchen).
🏠 Accommodation on site
The volunteers will sleep on matresses (placed on the floor) in a mixed room shared with other volunteers. There is a shared bathroom and common spaces. In the residency there is no WiFi connection.
📍 About the location
CERNUSCO SUL NAVIGLIO: a city in Northern Italy with 34.000 inhabitants, located not far from Milan. All amenities including shops, supermarkets, restaurants and pubs, parks and swimming pools are within walking distance. Milan can be easily reached by the underground, while cities such as Venice, Verona and Bergamo can be reached by train.
⚠️ Requirements
Volunteers are not expected to have any prior knowledge or specific skills. However, it is requested to be respnsible and flexible, with socio-cultural awareness and willingness to learn.
ℹ️ Additional information
It’s essential to keep in mind that:
- Children are between 6-15 year-old and have different needs according to their age;
- Some of them have never been apart from their parents and families before. Therefore they might be quite vulnerable from a psychological point of view, and might need special care, attention and support.
- Children will be finding themselves in a very different context: used to living in the extremely poor and precarious reality of Saharawi refugee camps and inadequate hygienical conditions, children will need guidance from the volunteers to learn the basic hygienic practices. Their routine is also different from the routine of kids raised in the West (for instance they are used to spending quiet days, praying 5 times a day) and as such must be respected.