F.A.Q
on Pak'd Off (Pakistan), 25/Oct/2007 02:02, 34 days ago
greetings and welcome to my first blog entry in my first blog.I'll start by admitting that I feel quite intimidated at the thought of writing for an audience for two notable reasons. Firstly, because the mere existence of a "Jo blog" suggests I'm confident that I have something interesting to say. It's not strictly true. I'll warn you now that I ramble. A lot. So I won't be offended if you decide to just scan the blog occassionally to check I'm still alive. Secondly I'm haunted by numerous bad "round robin" emails I've received in the past, the bilious feeling I got from them and the equally poor reception the emails got from others on the mailing list.Therefore, I've decided to ease myself and yourselves in gently, with a cheeky little "warm up" exercise whereby I will list and answer the questions I get asked most frequently when I tell people what I'm about to do.1) What made you decide to this?It's exciting, no? And I've always wanted to get into working for charities or NGOs, this is one of the things I applied for when I finally got off my arse and I was lucky enough to be accepted, so I'm going for it!2) Why Pakistan?I didn't actually chose Pakistan, VSO matches volunteers to placements on the basis of their skills and on some of the preferences we gave them about the kind of place we'd like to go. I asked for a big town or city in Asia, which I what I got. But I never even considered that they might send me to Pakistan nor did I know anything about the country itself. I do now of course..3) How long are you going for/when will you be back?The placement is for one year initially. I may be given the option to extend at the end of the year but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I was also thinking about maybe doing some travelling in India afterwards.4)Aargh! there are bombs and training camps and stuff in Pakistan.That's not question you fool! But try not to stress about it though..ok?5)What exactly will you be doing there?Hmmm, I'm looking forward to finding that out myself. My placement documents say I'm to help with writing reports to document the work Dost does but after lunching with Dr. Parveen (founder of Dost) and Matt (former volunteer), it seems there's a lot of scope for me to do all sorts of things and I'll have a say in what I'm doing. Dost work with all sorts of disadvantaged groups including prisoners and IV drug users and do a lot of work in HIV/Aids prevention and support for those living with HIV/Aids.6) How are you affording to work as a volunteer for a year?I'm working for VSO who are a charity that work through volunteers. They contribute by supplying partner organisations with volunteers. VSO will pay for everything from training to jabs to insurance to flights, accommodation and utility bills. I will get paid a local wage that will be enough to buy food and other essentials. It will cost VSO around£10K to send me for one year. I was only asked to raise £900 towards this. You can see how I did this,here.7) Are you going on your own?No, I'm flying to Islamabad initially with 6 other volunteers. We'll stay there for in-country training (language, culture, health etc.) which lasts 2 or 4 weeks, I'm not sure which. Then I will be going to Peshawar with the lovely Sarah who will also be working with Dost. You can read Sarah's blog,here8) What are you going to miss? (in all honesty I was only asked this question once, but I like it)family, friends, Woody , my wives, red wine, vodka, chorizo, smoked bacon, sausages, cheese, fish fingers, telly. I'll probably add to this list later on.cheerio for now.