8 October 2012
South Africa’s National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) has partnered with civil society organisation SponsorMe to launch the pilot of an online volunteer platform in a bid to increase the number of young South Africans that volunteer.
The platform, launched last week, allows volunteer organisations and individuals to connect and offer their services where they are most needed.
The idea came about through consultations between volunteer organisations at the Knowledge Network Seminar in January this year, National Youth Service general manager Patrick Mphale said in a statement.
It is the culmination of consultations and engagement with volunteer organisations and the Flemish government’s partnership programme, which is aimed at promoting youth volunteerism in the country, Mphale said.
“This online platform is part of the five priorities of the programme to upscale and promote youth volunteering of which the other priorities are capacity building of civil society organisations, knowledge generation through research, funding for sustainability and marketing and advocacy.”
Duncan Luke, founder of SponsorMe, said there were many organisations and entrepreneurs that had identified a need for a platform to share and connect organisations, “and this project aims to better understand the environment and how it could best serve organisations and potential volunteers for these organisations.”
Individuals and companies are both being called on to get involved.
“The NYDA and SponsorMe are calling on all organisations that have opportunities for young volunteers to become involved, share their needs, sign up and give input in this project,” SponsorMe said.
“We will be hosting an online forum for feedback on the online platform as well as focus groups in Cape Town and Johannesburg with organisations in October and November.”
Organisations interested in getting involved can visit www.sponsorme.co.za/page/volunteer-organizations, and individuals interested in volunteering can visit www.sponsorme.co.za/page/volunteers.
SAinfo reporter
