Volunteering

Essential reading for supporters

SECTION A: Volunteer tasks if you are based in London

1.

(a) Assist the senior volunteer with practical support, e.g. accompany him to various places, such as post office or health organisations, within London during the day.

(b) Admin and clerical tasks, such as typing, scanning documents, photocopying, posting letters, filing documents and computer based tasks.

2. Ad hoc tasks such as going with us to meet journalists, attending court hearings as observers (it means you sit at the back and watch), accompany us to meetings, phone organisations for us to find information and any other ad hoc tasks directed by the senior volunteer.

SECTION B: Volunteer tasks that can be done anywhere in the world, as long as you have access to the internet

3.

(a) Research specific information on the internet.

(b) Read aloud short stories (1 to 3 pages) about how victims survived their ordeals and record it on your mobile, then email it to us as MP3 file for publication on community web page and social media. The reader needs to have a clear voice and will remain anonymous. This task takes about an hour.

(c) Produce individual and group “welcome greetings” in MP4 format for social media.

(d) Use IT software to produce cartoons and drawings to illustrate victims’ stories, for publication on social media.

(e) Translate letters or messages from victims

(f) Find kind lawyers to help victims on pro bono basis, e.g. endorse crowdfunding profiles, write letters, countersign appeal forms etc.

4.

(a) Advise who will provide funding for: publish a guide for helping victims, rent an office and various running costs of this unfunded health support network.

(b) Advise places where we can place low cost or free adverts like this one, either online or on a noticeboard.

(c) Provide adequate practical support, resources and encouragements for successfully obtaining funding, either via applications to organisations or through crowdfunding.

SECTION C: Role of the senior volunteer (lead volunteer)

The senior volunteer is the lead volunteer and co-ordinates the tasks for volunteers. He has been doing unpaid voluntary work for this health support network since it was established many years ago. The senior volunteer is a well respected expert with many years of professional experiences in the public sector.  

Click on the green words below to read an introduction letter from some of our former volunteers, it provides prospective volunteers with an overview of what good volunteers do and don’t do.

SECTION D: Some of the most common questions asked by potential volunteers and answers provided by our senior volunteer and former volunteers

1. About us: We are a small and poor support network, founded in 2010, dedicated to support victims. We receive no funding so everything comes from the volunteers’ pockets. For example, volunteers bear all costs from their own expenses while doing unpaid voluntary work. 

2. The meaning of small poor support network: When you volunteer for a big or medium sized charity, you get opportunities such as paid roles and perks such as social events. Unfortunately as a small poor support network, we don’t have the resources for these. This means if you want to do unpaid voluntary work in the hope of getting a job or meeting new people, then you need to go to a big or medium sized charity, because we don’t have any of these to offer you. 

3. What you gain from helping small poor support network: To be honest, nothing except the long-lasting satisfaction of making a meaningful positive difference in victims’ lives. Therefore only help us if you want absolutely nothing in return, which avoids any disappointments. 

4. Whether we have an office: Like all other small poor support networks, we don’t have funding to pay for an office, albeit we have a PO Box address for correspondence, but prefer communication via email or phone. All our volunteers work from home, internet cafe or library. 

5. Whether you need DBS check: Only the senior volunteer (lead volunteer) provide face to face support to victims (he passed highest level of DBS check, holds a clean Enhanced DBS Certificate and has many years of experience in community work), others provide support with paperwork or internet research which do not need DBS check. We currently only need volunteers for paperwork, research or assisting the senior volunteer, all these do not require DBS check. 

6. Whether we had unpleasant experiences when seeking new volunteers: Most people are genuine but there had been times when strangers contact us pretending to help but had ulterior motives or hoping to gain something from us. To avoid disappointment, please remember for a small poor support network, only help if you want absolutely nothing in return. 

7. Whether the bullies who wronged the victims come after us: Sometimes they do, they pretend to be new volunteers whereas in fact they are the people who wronged the victims we help. Some of our advisors are experts in personal safety and have been supporting us. 

8. Confidentiality: The victims we help are protected by confidentiality and so are the volunteers, therefore please do not ask intrusive questions about them.

9. Questions that upset us: Even though we made it clear we are small and poor, poeple still ask how much money we have and how many people we help, We have no money and it’s not about how many we help, but about the quality of help. A quote from the people we helped: it does not matter how many we help, what matters is the people we helped feel we made a positive difference in their lives. 

10. Behaviour that upset us: Most people who help are genuine but there had been times when strangers pretending to be volunteers exhibit behaviour (e.g. bullying and harassment) that make us feel vulnerable, afraid, concerned and fearful. There had been occasions when prospective volunteers did not properly understand the role of a new volunteer, they mistakenly thought we are easy targets for them to “boss around”, ask us intrusive and insensitive questions, treat us with contempt and exhibited various inappropriate behaviours. As a result, we have been advised by experts to be more careful about communication with strangers.

11. Whether you get a reference: References are normally provided by big or medium sized charities with HR departments and not a small support network like this one, since we don’t have HR. Having said that, if you have genuinely helped, then we’ll provide an email confirming 2 facts: how many hours you volunteered and the tasks you successfully achieved. The email is a thank you message for you to keep. Please note prospective employers normally do not accept an open reference from unpaid voluntary work. Depending on the volume of help and accomplishments, we sometimes present thank you poems, thank you letters, Certificates of Appreciation in sliver frame, thank you cards or thank you gifts to our volunteers.

12. What sort of people helped a small poor support network like this one: Kind people with a heart of gold, who do not expect anything in return for helping, who understand we are a small support network in crisis and need support. Hundreds of people from all over the world who genuinely helped us in since 2010 were patient, understanding, empathic, sympathetic, good listeners, friendly, wise and perceptive. 

13. Where our past volunteers come from: For internet based tasks, they are from all over the world (see task 3 and 4 on top of this page). For practical tasks, they need to be based in London (see tasks 1 and 2 on top of this page). 

SECTION E: NEXT STEP

Having carefully read and understood everything on this page, if you can genuinely help us, follow the guidance below to email the relevant information to our dedicated new volunteer assessment teams: 

a. List of dates and times our senior volunteer can have a video conference with you to discuss the tasks you can help with (and mention which tasks you are able to help with)

b. Whether you have Face Time, Skype, Zoom or Google Meet (just one of these is enough) for the video conference. Before the video conference, remember to open this web page on your mobile or computer, in order to discuss the volunteering tasks. 

c. Any questions not answered in the helpful information provided on this page 

d. In your email, write a few sentences about your thoughts after reading this page and why you want to help us even though you get nothing in return

e. Attach your CV to an email, type the words “I can Volunteer” in the subject box and then send it to our new volunteer assessment teams, based in 195 countries around the world. Please note the designated email address published below is exclusively for volunteering applications, anything else will be automatically blocked by the advanced filter system and deleted without being read.

newsdesk@email.com

Disclaimer: If you are part of the UK establishment (or their loyal supporters) and wish to threaten or intimidate us because you feel we are easy targets, please note it’s not you versus us, but it’s you versus 195 countries and 7 billion people (according to senior members of our Grand Council in Switzerland). All malicious communication containing threatening words will be blocked by the advanced filter system installed by our PhD level computing engineers and supervised by professors and scientists at over two dozen universities who helped to establish this international support network in 2010.

Click here to read the origins of this international health support network.

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