The EU Aid Volunteers (EUAV) initiative brings together volunteers and organisations from different countries, providing practical support in the provision of humanitarian aid and contributing to the strengthening of local capacity and resilience of disaster-affected communities. Through the initiative, 4 000 EU citizens will get the opportunity to do humanitarian work and help people caught up in crises. The initiative will also provide capacity building for 4 400 people from non-EU, disaster-affected countries and 10 000 online volunteering opportunities.

The European Guild is involved in different projects under the EU Aid Volunteers initiative :

Technical assistance and Capacity building projects

• Volunteering in Humanitarian Aid – Sending organisations (VolinHA-SO)

The European Guild coordinates the “Volunteering in Humanitarian Aid – Sending Organisations” project, which foresees Technical Assistance for European organizations to carry out a self-assessment, in order to study their standards and procedures in volunteer management in a humanitarian context. Each of the 9 organisations in the project gets the support from a young local volunteer in order to reach its objectives.
This project is conducted in collaboration with France Volontaires, who leads the “Volunteering in Humanitarian Aid – Hosting organisations” project, which foresees capacity building for non-European countries. Capacities will be increased in order to prepare future EUAV projects where humanitarian and volunteering organizations would share a common culture and where European Volunteers would fit into existing local volunteering dynamics and articulate with existing response mechanisms, especially in enhancing disaster risk reduction.
http://www.volinha.eu/

• EU Aid Volunteers For You – Sending organisations (EV4U-SO)

EU Aid Volunteers For You – Sending organisations (EV4U-SO), led by the European Guild, is a technical assistance project with a consortium composed of EU-based organisations, from Ireland, Portugal and Malta. Technical assistance shall help organisations to comply with the EU standards and procedures required to obtain the EU Aid Volunteers certification and then, be able to send EU Aid Volunteers. One of the aims of this project is to bridge gaps between organisations specialised in volunteer management and those specialised in humanitarian aid.

It was built as a joint project with EV4U-Hosting Organisations, in order to strengthen links between EU and non-EU organisations.

• EU Aid Volunteers For You – Hosting organisations (EV4U-HO)

EU Aid Volunteers For You – Hosting organisations (EV4U-HO), led by the European Guild, is a capacity building project with a consortium composed of EU-based and non EU-based organisations, from Ireland, Greece, Togo, Myanmar and Peru. Capacity building shall help organisations to comply with the EU standards and procedures required to obtain the EU Aid Volunteers certification and then, be able to host EU Aid Volunteers. Partners receive training in security, volunteer management and disaster risk reduction, and carry out a self-assessment of their standards and procedures.

Deployment projects

The deployment projects are built between certified sending organisations and hosting organisations, following the identification of specific needs in the hosting country. Volunteers are trained in humanitarian aid, to be able to manage crises situations, and are then sent to the field.  The European Guild is involved in two deployment projects:

• VOLDEP

  This project led by GVC (Gruppo di Volontariato Civile) foresees the deployment of 30 volunteers in third countries. The European Guild sent 6 volunteers to Ecuador, at Ecuasol, for a seismic and volcanic risk reduction project in Quito, and 2 volunteers to Haiti, at Mouvement Paysan Papaye (MPP) for a community resilience project.

•  VOL4AID

  This project led by Alianza por la solidaridad aims to deploy 61 volunteers to certified hosting organisations. The European Guild sends 20 volunteers to Ecuador, for the same seismic and volcanic risk reduction project, in 7 cities of the country.

• The EASY Project

The European Guild is part of the EASY project (Evaluate Soft Skills in International Youth Volunteering), that aims to value “soft skills”. Soft skills are interpersonal skills someone develops during different experiences, especially during a volunteering experience abroad. These skills are more and more valued in the professional sphere and this project aims to develop a validation process to recognise the volunteer’s soft skills after international volunteering.

• European Volunteer Service (EVS)

The European Volunteer Service allows young people from 17 to 30 to volunteer in Europe and its neighbouring countries, for diverse causes, for example in the field of environment, culture, sport, solidarity with migrants and refugees, activities with children or the elderly.

The European Guild is accredited as coordinating and sending organisation.

The European Solidarity Corps is a new initiative of the European Union, which creates opportunities for young people to volunteer in their own country or abroad, for projects such as helping to prevent natural disasters or rebuild afterwards, assisting in centres for asylum seekers, or addressing different social issues in communities.

The European Guild has participated in the consultation process to set up this new framework.