Real-Life CyberVolunteering Experiences

Here are 10 people who won the United Nation's outstanding online volunteer award for 2002.  You can read about the latest awards to international CyberVolunteers at NetAid

Research and Writing: Adedoyin Onasanya of Nigeria has researched development organizations in Nigeria and written reports on their methods and successes for a worldwide web-based economic development organization.

Jack of all Trades:  Cynthia Holland of Canada has been helping Reach Out International in Guatemala as a web designer, grant writer, researcher, coordinator of volunteers, editor, proofreader, and program developer.  Cynthia wrote: "Working as an online volunteer has made me realize how connected we really are and that the Internet is the perfect tool to bridge geographic divisions."

Creating a library: Angie Hasbun, an industrial engineer in Costa Rica, helped create a library for disabled children and their parents in Uganda. She sent thousands of emails to librarians, advocates, disability specialists, publishers and doctors asking them for advice. In response they donated their time, books, and services to the creation of a library.

Web and Library Research and Fundraising: Terry Rosenlund of the US does research and fundraising for the Kenya AIDS Intervention Prevention Project Group. Among her projects has been (1) researching ways to set up a program to fund educational opportunities for boys and girls whose parents are either dead or too ill to finance their education any longer; and (2) trying to find a way to start an intervention that will provide psychological nurturing for these children who receive so little and who lose their childhoods along with their parents.

Translation:  Paula Santos Vizcaino of Uruguay translated documents from an International La Leche League conference from English into Spanish.  It was a one-time assignment, taking only the equivalent of four days, but the League was very appreciative of the good work.  Paula's case shows that not every online volunteer has to take many weeks or months to have an impact on an organization or project.

IT Technical Advisor:  Javier Wilson of Nicaragua has become a technical advisor to the Nile Basin Society with regard to their website and other technology tools.

Writing a book: Yvonne Swain of the US works with two education programs for children in Kenya.  Among her projects is a book containing stories, poems, and drawings from both US and Kenya children.  Selling this book will benefit both organizations financially.

Creating a bilingual children's dictionary:  Joanne Morse of the US wrote short stories for rural Ghanaian schools and came up the idea to develop a bilingual dictionary with pictures for children.  She is now recruiting an American elementary school to write a reader, written by American children for Ghanaian children.

Coordinate online volunteers:  Laurie Moy of the US coordinates a team of 150 online volunteers around the world to create and maintain a website and associated activities for the People with Disabilities organization in Uganda.

Web Page Translation:  Natalya Korobeynyk of the Ukraine has translated hundreds of pages of websites and articles from English into Russian so that her colleagues across all of ex-Soviet Union can benefit from the information explosion generated by the World Wide Web.