Motivating our volunteers

Since September we have had a difficult time with the volunteers out at the OVC project, with their enthusiasm and commitment decreasing significantly. In October there were days when only one volunteer would come, especially dangerous when we were on vacation and Shelley was alone with the one volunteer and close to 200 kids: chaos ensued, including fist-fights.

We called a meeting this past week and invited the OVC Committee Members and the volunteers so we could improve communication. Originally, the volunteers expressed frustration by the lack of supplies for the Home Based Care (HBC) program, which haven’t been replenished for months by the ministry of Health. Eventually the main issue appeared, that the volunteers are burnt out. Some regularly give up 3 afternoons a week, 2 for project and 1 for HBC. We have been asking the committee to search for more volunteers for months now, to no effect. We would ideally like to see the number of volunteers triple from 11 (of which usually only 3 or so show up), so that there could be a rotation schedule and we could supervise and interact with the kids better. We are also going to try a formal schedule for the volunteers: we hope it works!

In August we hosted a pizza party and showed our volunteers the first Lord Of the Rings movie to bless their hard work. It was such a hit we decided to do it again, this time hoping it would excite them to renew their commitment as a volunteer! It was a great success. We served homemade pizza and showed them the second part of the series and they enjoyed it tremendously. I don’t think I have ever watched a movie where there was so much cheering and applause! We hosts couldn’t contain our laughter as we watched them enjoy it so much.

We took a little intermission half way through and as it was Sabrina’s birthday, Kimmie and Shelley had made a cake and everyone sung happy birthday, which just began an impromptu time of singing and dancing - what fun! We also took some time to let the volunteers say their thank yous to Shelley as she prepares to leave us this week.

Hopefully we see some change in terms of the volunteers showing up on their scheduled days. Please pray we get more of them!