“Volunteering in Cameroon with AJESH is a great opportunity to help the community and the underprivileged persons. AJESH volunteers have impacted the lives of the local communities. We can see now in the community that children have interest in learning unlike before, when kids just played around after school.
The community is very happy when we have volunteers to work on any project. This is seen as people want to talk to volunteers in their local languages, making friendships and building family links.” – Harrison Nnoko Ngaaje, AJESH Co-founder.
AJESH appreciates volunteers’ generous spirits and willingness to help. However, with the environment and limited resources, AJESH requires volunteers with experience and tangible skills. There are many ways to get involved with our work but many of the opportunities require you to be fairly independent and to work using your own initiative and ideas with guidance from other staff. Volunteers serve in consultant-type roles and are usually not simply handed work to do.
It is the responsibility of the mature volunteer to participate in comprehensive needs assessments and to work alongside AJESH’s Director and staff to develop, implement, and evaluate sustainable programs. It is possible for you to come and work on a more structured programme, (for example, volunteering in a school, working with farmer groups, working with local community groups, orphans and children etc) with more guidance if your time is short or you feel that you would like to gain experience but don’t feel confident beginning your own project. The director is always handy to support you and give advice. We do not accept unaccompanied volunteers under the age of 18, and because of the independent nature of most of our work we think the ideal age is over 21
Are you flexible, non-judgmental, tolerant, resourceful and inquisitive? Do you like asking questions, learning by doing, exchanging knowledge and sharing skills? Are you compassionate, hard working, adventurous and willing to learn? If you think this describes you then you are just the kind of person we are looking for to join us here in Cameroon.
Above all, you must be open minded to new experiences, different cultures and ways of life. Come and work with us; prepared to immerse yourself in our community and it will be a rewarding and exciting journey. The Director may ask for academic or professional references or evidence of certifications upon a volunteer’s application to AJESH.
