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While The Arab Initiative to Foster a Culture of Volunteering has ended, we hope that you will continue to actively promote volunteering in the Arab region. We invite you to vist the new website of the Learning to CARE Institute: www.learningtocare.com - the new social venture of Dr. Patricia Nabti who initiated and served as the coordinator of The Arab Initiative to Foster a Culture of Volunteering.

Initiative Achievements

INITIATIVE ACHIEVEMENTS 2010/2011
 


RESEARCH


Study of Employee Volunteering  in the Arab Region
We are close to finishing a study of employee volunteering in the Arab region. An online search has been carried out in Arabic and English to find information on the subject. While our focus has been on Arab companies, we have also looked at the experiences of a small number of multinational companies with branches in the region. We have invited many of the Arab companies to complete an online survey and have also interviewed people from a number of companies and key organizations that support employee volunteering. We hope to have the study published early in 2012.

Youth Volunteering
The Initiative has also been working on a study of youth volunteering in the region, and has contacted many youth leaders, organizations for youth, and others that might be helpful in developing this research project.

End of the Initiative

Farewell

The farewell to the year 2011 marked the end of the Arab Initiative to Foster a Culture of Volunteering. We take this opportunity to wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012. We have enjoyed connecting with you via the AVI News or in person through our training, our workshops, or our meetings.

When I first drafted the framework for the Initiative, it was to take place over more than two years, with eleven different components. I knew then that this was a very ambitious undertaking - far more than we could reasonably achieve, but a goal worth aiming for. The Initiative has made some important contributions to volunteering in the region that will hopefully carry on its mission, long after the Initiative itself is forgotten. I would like to thank the three strategic partners – the Association for Volunteer Services, the Arab Thought Foundation, and the International Association for Volunteer Effort – for having the courage to take up the challenge and make it possible for us to achieve as much as we did. I would like to thank ATF for providing most of the financial support for the Initiative, sharing its contacts, and giving the Initiative its regional base.

I would like to thank IAVE for giving the Initiative the professional stature that comes of IAVE’s position as the leading non-governmental organization promoting volunteering worldwide. And I would like to thank AVS, the Initiative’s primary implementing agency, for expanding its outreach to the whole Arab world. In the years to come, I hope that all of you who have participated in the Initiative will, in some way, continue to carry on its mission “to foster a culture of volunteering” in your own countries, and in your own way.

A Special Children's Book Project to Promote "Kindness"

 

Invitation to Schools and Youth Groups in the Arab Region

To Participate in

 A Special Project to Promote "Kindness"

Written and Illustrated by Children of the Arab Region

 

SUMMARY

We all know that kindness comes naturally to children. This project aims at capturing their spontaneity and innocence and reinforcing their natural tendency toward kindness.

Learning to CARE Institute - October 2011

Learning to CARE

  • Would you like to empower your students as responsible and contributing citizens?
  • Would you like your students to develop their academic, social and personal skills through improving their community?
  • Would you like to give your teachers new ways to excite their students and help them understand the relevance of what they are learning?
  • Do you feel that community service should be an important component of school reform in your country?

 

If the answer is YES to any of the above, then please read on:

 

Children's Book Project

 

Childrens Book logo

Learning to CARE Book Certification and Awards Program

The Arab Initiative to Foster a Culture of Volunteering

Updated June 23, 2011

Workshop
Resources
Criteria

WORKSHOP

The Workshop for Authors and Publishers of Arabic Books for Children and Youth served as the launching event for the 2011 Learning to CARE Book Certification and Awards Program of The Arab Initiative to Foster a Culture of Volunteering. The Program provides information and incentives to encourage authors and publishers to develop books for children and youth (kindergarten through high school) that encourage them to be volunteers.

The First IAVE Regional Volunteer Conference for the Arab Nations

March 27-29, 2011  UNESCO Palace  Beirut, Lebanon

The First IAVE  Regional Volunteer Conference for the Arab Nations was held on March 27-29, 2011 at UNESCO Palace in Beirut, Lebanon, hosted by the Association for Volunteer Services (AVS).  A theme of the conference was the quotation by the famous Lebanese philosopher and artist Gibran Khalil Gibran:  It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. 

 

Conference Objectives

The conference had four main objectives:

Update on the 2011 Initiative Components

We are well under way in the preparation for the implementation of the 2011 Initiative components and here is a list and more information will be posted soon:

  1. Research
  2. The Learning to CARE Program and the Advanced LTC Program (which is now scheduled for mid-September in Lebanon)
  3. Online Seminars/Webinars
  4. Resource Collection
  5. Translation and Cultural Adaptation of Resources
  6. Development of New Resources (the 2011 Authors/Publishers Workshop is scheduled for mid-June)
  7. Initiative Website and Online Clearinghouse

2011 Global Youth Service Days – Lebanon

GYSD logoWe are pleased that GYSD Lebanon 2011 engaged around 2500 youth volunteers who worked on 56 projects organized by 23 different organizations in Lebanon. Those who have benefited include around 400 orphans, 500 needy children, 100 with disabilities,70 elderly, 50 in hospitals and 12 poor families.

The Recognition and Award Ceremony was held on May 8th at the UNESCO Palace.

Opportunities for Participation

  • The 13th IAVE Regional Asia-Pacific Volunteer Conference will be held in October 28-31 in Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea ( http://english.2011iavekorea.org/main/ ). For those who are interested having their organization apply to host the 2nd IAVE Regional Volunteer Conference for the Arab Nations, we encourage you to have people attend this conference, since those in the Asia-Pacific region have a lot of experience holding IAVE regional conferences.

 

  • The 2nd IAVE World Youth Summit will be held November 3-5, 2011 in Barranquilla, Colombia. The World Youth Summit is a powerful event in the world of volunteering, an occasion when all young people involved in volunteerism unite to celebrate and share their knowledge and experiences. It would be great to have a strong representation of Arab youth at this conference. See the Youth Summit website at http://www.worldyouthsummit.org/.
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