December 27, 2002: Headlines: Service: Internet: PC World: Web Opens World to Digital Volunteers

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Library: Peace Corps: Internet : Internet: December 27, 2002: Headlines: Service: Internet: PC World: Web Opens World to Digital Volunteers

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-141-157-13-244.balt.east.verizon.net - 141.157.13.244) on Saturday, January 22, 2005 - 12:00 am: Edit Post

Web Opens World to Digital Volunteers



Web Opens World to Digital Volunteers

Web Opens World to Digital Volunteers

Online charity work fits your schedule and extends your reach, say wired nonprofits.

Michelle Madigan, special to PCWorld.com
Friday, December 27, 2002

If volunteering is on your list of New Year's resolutions but your time is short, cyberservice may be the answer. Just ask Laurie Moy, who now runs an international nonprofit organization. Her service started with an interest in international issues and an Internet connection.

Moy, now the executive director of Pearls of Africa, an organization that serves people with disabilities in Uganda, became an online volunteer three years ago. The Internet makes volunteering easier than ever: You don't have to move across the globe to make a difference, Moy says.
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She discovered the opportunity through NetAid.org, which connects people with organizations focused on fighting poverty. The site lists volunteer jobs that can be done from your own PC and often on your own time.

"People are engaging in communities internationally" through the Internet, says Bea Bezmalinovic, head of NetAid.org's online volunteering program. "Ten years ago this would not have been possible."

Bezmalinovic says that while the time people have to volunteer is declining, virtual volunteering offers a way for people to adapt volunteering to their schedules. As access to the Internet expands, more people are signing up.

Pearls of Africa is run entirely by online volunteers who research and develop programs, solicit donations, and run a children's resource library in Uganda geared toward disabilities. Moy traveled to Uganda in November 2001 with the United Nations to open the library.

"I never dreamed it would have taken me this far," Moy says. "I log on and I have e-mail from all corners of the globe and we are working on one path together."
Virtual Volunteers

World Computer Exchange, based in Massachusetts, relies on virtual volunteers in its mission to bring computers to schools in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Since it was founded in October 1999, the organization has helped 676 schools and almost 256,000 students go online, says Tim Anderson, president and founder.

"The schools we're connecting to the Internet would not be able to bridge the digital divide for ten years," Anderson says.

His 100 volunteers, whom he recruits through NetAid, help gather and test computers to ship them to the schools. Volunteers in the various countries also offer technical support.

Virtual volunteering is growing within the United States. VolunteerMatch, which links volunteers with more than 23,000 organizations offering about 40,000 volunteer opportunities, is helping that cause, says Jason Willett, director of communications. Since 1998, nearly one million people signed up for an opportunity through VolunteerMatch.
Online Mentors

One of these groups is NetMentors, which offers online career development for teenagers. It serves as a virtual career counselor with expertise on 70 different careers. With about 800 mentors, the group has counseled 1000 students entirely through its Web site.

"We encourage people to do traditional mentoring, but if that is not an option, we offer another way," says James Green, executive director. "This way has time and geographic advantages." Using technology, NetMentors is a vehicle for students to get in contact with individuals they wouldn't normally have access to.

Amye Love, an elementary schoolteacher and a NetMentor volunteer for the past three years, can participate from anywhere at anytime. In less than one hour each week, she helps several students make career choices by answering questions on what it takes to be an educator.

"Kids today rely so much on their computers," Love says. "It's an interesting technique that will take off."




When this story was posted in October 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:

Kerry reaches out to Returned Volunteers Kerry reaches out to Returned Volunteers
The Kerry campaign wants the RPCV vote. Read our interview with Dave Magnani, Massachusetts State Senator and Founder of "RPCVs for Kerry," and his answers to our questions about Kerry's plan to triple the size of the Peace Corps, should the next PC Director be an RPCV, and Safety and Security issues. Then read the "RPCVs for Kerry" statement of support and statements by Dr. Robert Pastor, Ambassador Parker Borg, and Paul Oostburg Sanz made at the "RPCVs for Kerry" Press Conference.

RPCV Carl Pope says the key to winning this election is not swaying undecided voters, but persuading those already willing to vote for your candidate to actually go to the polls.

Take our poll and tell us what you are doing to support your candidate.

Finally read our wrap-up of the eight RPCVs in Senate and House races around the country and where the candidates are in their races.

Director Gaddi Vasquez:  The PCOL Interview Director Gaddi Vasquez: The PCOL Interview
PCOL sits down for an extended interview with Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez. Read the entire interview from start to finish and we promise you will learn something about the Peace Corps you didn't know before.

Plus the debate continues over Safety and Security.
Schwarzenegger praises PC at Convention Schwarzenegger praises PC at Convention
Governor Schwarzenegger praised the Peace Corps at the Republican National Convention: "We're the America that sends out Peace Corps volunteers to teach village children." Schwarzenegger has previously acknowledged his debt to his father-in-law, Peace Corps Founding Director Sargent Shriver, for teaching him "the joy of public service" and Arnold is encouraging volunteerism by creating California Service Corps and tapping his wife, Maria Shriver, to lead it. Leave your comments and who can come up with the best Current Events Funny?
 Peace Corps: One of the Best Faces of America Peace Corps: One of the Best Faces of America
Teresa Heinz Kerry celebrates the Peace Corps Volunteer as one of the best faces America has ever projected in a speech to the Democratic Convention. The National Review disagreed and said that Heinz's celebration of the PCV was "truly offensive." What's your opinion and can you come up with a Political Funny?


Read the stories and leave your comments.






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Story Source: PC World

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Service; Internet

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