Voluntariat

ARAS volunteer

Every non-governmental organisation knows how important volunteers are to its work. VoluntARAS members, mostly high school and university students, do much more than a simple pastime. All volunteering involves personal growth, simply through commitment to a cause one believes in, taking a stand against injustice and trying to bring positive change to society.

What ARAS volunteers do

At ARAS, the main activity carried out by volunteers takes place in high schools, where they hold sexual health information and education sessions. We partner with various high schools, where a volunteering session lasts three hours: HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and a final hour on preventing these diseases.

Now you can see why we work mainly with young volunteers: we do peer education. Classroom discussions are open, and students feel safe talking to someone close to their own age.

Volunteers' activity is not limited to information sessions in high schools. Candlelight Memorial Day (an international day to commemorate people with HIV who have died), ONG FEST (an event dedicated to NGOs) are occasions volunteers use to talk to people about the Association and HIV.

Testing and information campaigns, carried out both by ARAS staff and by volunteers, are always a success for the association.

A few words about the recruitment process

Two volunteer recruitment sessions are held each year. Volunteers go through an interview, training and an exam, so that when it comes to the Association's causes they are prepared to answer any question.

Show More Show Less

ARAS recruitment

WE ARE RECRUITING VOLUNTEERS

For HIV prevention programmes for young people
For the AIDS Helpline
For the programme to reduce the risks and consequences associated with drug use and other risk behaviours.
Information, education and awareness programme for the public on HIV, drug use and other public health issues

Preventing HIV infection means behaviour with no or reduced risk of HIV infection, since there is no vaccine to protect against HIV.

Information, education and motivation to use protection methods are the components of the programme for preventing HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, presented and facilitated by volunteer educators in sessions held in high schools, in street campaigns and during special events such as fairs and conferences.

The Helpline was set up in 1993. In its first years, the line was staffed only by volunteers, after specialised training. Today the line is staffed by employees, but volunteers can in turn contribute to HIV prevention, counselling and emotional support for people who think they may have HIV, and for those who know they have HIV but need help and information about treatment, care and the legal framework.

The harm reduction programme is provided by trained staff in the community support, harm reduction and substitution treatment centres and by the mobile unit. The programme also offers accompaniment to medical and social services (including support in obtaining identity documents) and support for adherence to medical care and treatment (for HIV, tuberculosis and mental health problems). With the help of volunteers, these services could reach a larger number of beneficiaries in difficulty.

Information, education and public awareness programme on the psychosocial issues related to HIV and drug use. This programme is aimed especially at volunteers with training and interest in journalism, writing and translation, who can contribute to a better understanding of the phenomena that accompany and often fuel the HIV epidemic, as well as discriminatory social attitudes, by producing information materials to be posted on the organisation's website.

WHY BECOME AN ARAS VOLUNTEER

– Because I can learn a range of theoretical aspects of public health and the psycho-sociology of health;

– Because I can learn to provide prevention, counselling and support services;

– Because I can grow personally, gaining a more diverse view of life, including personal choices, strategies for coping with difficulties and illness, and how the medical and social care system is organised;

– Because I learn to help, to listen and to connect with people, and because I can understand more about who I am and who I would like to become.

Volunteer training workshops will be held on a date to be announced.

Volunteer recruitment and selection take into account age criteria (over 14, with parental consent for minors) and ethical criteria: non-discrimination, respect for the autonomy and well-being of others.

Anyone who wants to become a volunteer should send a CV and an essay (max. 400 words) to aras@arasnet.ro, titled “Who I am and what I think I can do as an ARAS volunteer”

Show More Show Less

Questions and answers about VoluntARAS

Everyone is welcome in the volunteer group; the initial interview tries to identify people who are racist, homophobic, practise any kind of discrimination or have low flexibility. In most cases they are turned down when the volunteer coordinator considers that the training programme will not succeed in eliminating discrimination and intolerance. The volunteer coordinator may give additional credit to a candidate who shows they have the resources to change such attitudes over time.

Almost all ARAS volunteers are high school and university students; at ARAS we have agreed to invite volunteers to take part in activities aimed at young people: HIV/AIDS prevention education in high schools, awareness campaigns in clubs, bars, terraces and possibly school camps, the Names Project, education through theatre, and the AIDS Helpline. Some volunteers have been involved in the activities of groups of young people affected by HIV/AIDS, only with the latter's consent. For this kind of activity, only volunteers who show the utmost seriousness and prove they can keep the identity of group members confidential are selected. Volunteers are generally expected to attend coordination meetings, which usually take place weekly. Exam periods are lighter, and we do not expect student volunteers to take part in activities or coordination meetings then.

Volunteers are informed of, or ask about, the schedule of upcoming activities (classes in high schools, at a residential care centre) and then write an activity report that they present at coordination meetings.

Volunteers attend an initial training workshop and possibly a specialised training workshop.

Some volunteers have been active for 5–6 years before being hired by ARAS or starting a job that usually prevents them from continuing to volunteer.

Only coordination meetings are fixed; activities in high schools and campaigns in places frequented by young people are organised to fit volunteers' schedules.

Education sessions in high schools and residential care centres, and campaigns, take place in the field.

I don't think an ARAS volunteer has any benefits other than opportunities for personal development and social integration.

Theoretical training and opportunities for practical training.

A sense of belonging to the group, satisfaction with the theoretical training and with their own effectiveness in carrying out activities, and the gratitude of beneficiaries.

Communication skills, assessing situations, decision-making and dramatic interpretation, all of which improve self-image and self-confidence. Many volunteers chose careers in the social field (social work, psycho-pedagogy) or even in theatre.

Some (few, though) have said that volunteering with ARAS influenced them profoundly (one of them, who became a doctor, founded an association in the city where he went on to practise); others have worked in the HIV/AIDS field for years, most of them as doctors.

Campaigns are activities that are demanding not only mentally but also physically; volunteers involved in them need to be energetic, dynamic and able to withstand effort and fatigue, the weather (summer campaigns) and thick cigarette smoke in clubs and bars. Volunteering also takes time, but at ARAS we pay great attention to keeping activity schedules flexible and matched to volunteers' schedules. Some have suffered from spending less time with their boyfriend or girlfriend, but that can be solved too if the partner agrees to become a volunteer.

One example: a former volunteer was hired by an important association with HIV/AIDS programmes; the feedback we received from that association was very good.

We have hired many of our most active and loyal volunteers. At ARAS Bucharest, around 40 former volunteers have worked or still work as employees, many of them even becoming programme coordinators.

The purpose of the Romanian Association Against AIDS (ARAS) is twofold: preventing the transmission of infection and ensuring the best possible life for people affected by HIV/AIDS (respecting their rights, facilitating their access to the social services they need, psychological support).

Having worked with volunteers for more than 6 years as a volunteer coordinator, I believe volunteering is very important for the development of young volunteers, but it also greatly benefits the person coordinating them; you can learn a lot, and it is great fun and rewarding. I have good friends among former volunteers. Volunteers are often the visible side, the interface with the public, at least the young public. That is why they are so important.
Volunteering is what you do because you want to, either for your own benefit and that of a group, or purely for the benefit of others; being unpaid does not seem to me to be its essential feature.

At ARAS, volunteering is free in the sense of unpaid; we only cover costs related to training and the activities carried out by volunteers. Recruiting staff mainly from among volunteers is, first and foremost, to the association's advantage.

ARAS volunteer

WE ARE RECRUITING VOLUNTEERS

Questions and answers about VoluntARAS

About Us

Contact

Menu

Useful links