Ending Violence Against Women - a Guide to Working with Volunteers

“Volunteers play a very important role in responding to Ending Violence Against Women”

Stated Sarah Knibbs, UN Women Deputy Country Representative, at the re-launch of the updated ‘Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW) - a Guide to Working with Volunteers’ manual. The re-launch was held in Phnom Penh on February 26th and jointly organized by UNV and UN Women Cambodia. It brought together over 30 volunteers and EVAW professionals to talk about the importance of volunteerism, volunteer management, and further knowledge enhancement on Gender Based Violence prevention and response in 2015.

The manual is part of Partners for Prevention, a UNDP, UNFPA, UN Women and UNV regional joint programme for the prevention of violence against women and girls in Asia and the Pacific. The programme brings together the combined strengths of the four UN agencies, along with governments and civil society, to promote and implement more effective violence prevention programmes and policies. The initiative is currently in its second phase, focusing on prevention interventions, capacity development and policy advocacy.

In 2012, as part of this project, UNV and UN Women published a manual “Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW) - a Guide to Working with Volunteers’, designed for Cambodian organizations to use in managing their EVAW programme volunteers. Topics covered include: planning an EVAW volunteer programme, recruiting and placing volunteers, training volunteers, minimum training standards for volunteers working on EVAW, team building, safety and security, supervising volunteers and evaluating their volunteer programme.

In Cambodia, volunteers play a large role in EVAW campaigns; they are the primary means of implementing organizations’ projects and campaigns and allow dissemination of information to reach remote areas. UN Women credits volunteers for the success of the active engagement and visibility of ‘16 Days Campaign’ that runs from the 25 November -10 December, ‘ without the help of the volunteers, the campaign wouldn’t be a success’ praised Inala Fathimath, UN Women EVAW Programme Specialist. The relaunched manual, ‘Ending Violence Against Women- a Guide to Working with Volunteers’ is a support document that aims to enhance knowledge on the value of working with volunteers to EVAW, and further aid these organizations to develop their volunteering capacity.

UN Women and UNV relaunch of Volunteer Manual. Photo: UN Women/Sara Hakansson

Vutha Phnon UN Women National Programme Officer presented on the Findings for Cambodia from the UN Multi Country Study on Men and violence in Asia and Pacific, 2012 (conducted in 2011). Following the presentation, Inala Fathimath UN Women EVAW Programme Manager lead a lively a discussion with the participants on their personal and professional experience on this topic, and mechanisms that need to be put in place for volunteers to fully engage in EVAW. The results of their studies shocked many participants: “I am surprised, I could not believe it” one participant commented.

During the final session of the workshop, Isabelle Devylder, UNV Programme Officer updated the attendees on the current status of volunteerism in Cambodia and the different organizations dedicated to it such as VolCam, a network of volunteering organizations, and the National Committee for the Promotion of Volunteerism. Following this, the participants then took part in a group discussion on volunteerism. They answered five questions, which UNV Cambodia previously used in 2014 for their Volunteerism Caravan, which travelled around different provinces in Cambodia. The data collected during these sessions will be used to update the Volunteerism, harnessing the potential to develop Cambodia (2008).

The EVAW workshop was a great success, with many of the participants voicing their appreciation for both the updated manual, the variety of discussion topics and the importance of volunteering. UNV Cambodia and UN Women will plan to organize another workshop in the near future.