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"As a team of five students studying International Relations at Boston University, we wanted to have a meaningful impact while learning about grassroots development in Africa. Ashoka welcomed us into a partnership with their Nigeria field office. We helped plan a resource center for social entrepreneurs, provided advice on an energy audit, and worked directly with an aspiring Ashoka Fellow on his business plan. We forged meaningful relationships and are happy that an organization like Ashoka is successfully supporting grassroots development."
— Michael Mangano, Michael Silvestrini, Paul McManus, advisor (pictured), Emily Farwell, Michael Mann, Dami Ogunmola
Broaden Support for Reintegration of Disabled Youths through Publicity and/or Networking
Virtual -- Lagos Island, Nigeria
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Ashoka Fellow: Aku Christy Orduh Website: Friends of the Disabled Aku Christy Orduh provides disabled people with the tools necessary to gain economic self-sufficiency and full integration into society. |
Description of Volunteer Opportunity
Christy recognizes that current efforts to integrate people with disabilities into society are often severely hampered by societal prejudice and unrelenting poverty. Christy focuses on three primary areas to help address these challenges. First, she attempts to lessen societal prejudice through the development of enabling and non-discriminatory environments in which people with and without disabilities can interact. Second, she creates programs that respond to the physical, educational, and economic needs of disabled people. And finally, she works to enact legislation to protect the rights of people with disabilities.
As a focal point of her public awareness campaigns and advocacy work, Christy has developed the first Nigerian learning center, a place where able-bodied and disabled people are trained alongside each other and where the disabled are sometimes the instructors for able-bodied students. As she provides them with the means to become economically self-sufficient, she simultaneously breaks down the societal stereotype of the disabled as burdens to society. Christy is spreading her model through an expanding basic education curriculum and vocational training program at the center and through the creation of similar centers in neighboring areas.
Christy is looking for a volunteer who could help build the capacity base of the organization through publicity and linking it to other potentially interested groups or funders. While this can be done virtually, an on-site visit will be welcomed at any time, so that the volunteer can get a first hand look at the strengths and success of the programs.
Dates: August 2008 for up to two years
Required Skills and Experience:
Experience in PR, communications or networking
Excellent computer skills
Sincere interest in disability issues and a flair for communicating them to others
English required
Compensation:
Possibly
If funds are available at the time
Housing: No
Contact:
Contact
Aku Christy Orduh
How to Volunteer for this Opportunity
If you are interested in this opportunity, please complete the Ashoka Volunteer Form and send it directly to , copied to Beth Inabinett at , with Volunteer in the subject line.
If you are traveling abroad, we recommend you use the following Volunteer Checklist to clarify the details of your volunteer arrangement.