About the organisation:

SEED Madagascar is a British Charity working in partnership with communities in the south east of Madagascar. We integrate high quality community health, sustainable livelihoods, education infrastructure and conservation programmes to support long term, sustainable change and add to international best practice through research and publication across all of our programmatic areas. We are now looking for entry level officers and managers to work alongside national staff and expand our team.

Position Overview:

The role of Volunteer Coordination and Logistics Officer offers the right candidate a unique and exciting opportunity to work across both field and office environments providing planning, logistical and pastoral support to all of SEED Madagascar’s International staff team and volunteers. The officer will work alongside both local and International teams based in the town of Fort Dauphin and also spend time in the field in basic rural conditions in the beautiful area of Anosy, southeast Madagascar.

The role of the officer is key in supporting both International staff members who come to SEED for twelve months and to ensure the smooth functioning of SEEDs short term programmes, acting as a key liaison between project and volunteering teams both in the field and the office base. Initially an internship for the first three months before taking on the full responsibility for the post this exciting post would suit someone with some experience or a passion to learn.

• Title: Volunteer Coordination and Logistics Intern for initial 3 months, change of title and responsibilities to Officer subject to passing probationary review.
• Contract type: One year, voluntary post (food and transport paid in the field)
• Location: Anosy Region, Madagascar
• Reporting to: International Operations Manager

Duties and responsibilities:

Short term volunteers:

Office based:

• Working alongside the Volunteering and Project teams, of national and international staff, to plan the schedules for the short term volunteering programmes
• Co-ordinating with project teams and writing project summaries of each project to be undertaken, including its rational and impact as well providing a general overview of SEED Madagascar’s work
• Working alongside the London and Madagascar based teams to provide support to volunteers prior to coming to Madagascar
• Conducting welcome talks, orientation talks and activity briefings to ensure volunteers are fully informed about project work, local culture etc.
• Maintaining, reviewing and updating all volunteer information including orientation guide, orientation talks and all documentation in the Co-ordinator’s file
• Leading on social media content for the programmes including volunteer blogs, collation of photographs and video
• Work closely with the London team to market the programmes
• Providing feedback, data and copy for reports from the field-based projects to the project teams within the office
• Lead on the collection, analysis and dissemination of feedback from the volunteer programmes
• Ensuring all handbooks, procedures and risk assessments are regularly reviewed and updated

Field based:

• Supporting volunteers to settle in and work in the field placements, working alongside the Malagasy team leader to ensure successful communication between volunteers, project teams, guides and the construction team including debriefs and feedback sessions
• Acting as liaison between field-based and office-based volunteer teams, coordinating and assisting with all logistics, responding to all issues that arise in the field
• Ensuring support and care is provided to manage and maintain the physical and psychological welfare of volunteers
• Providing guidance and intervention to ensure all staff and volunteers act in a positive culturally and environmentally sensitive way
• Ensuring all activities are suitably risk assessed
• Ensuring social media content for the programmes including blogs, photographs and video are collected

International Staff (Long term Volunteers):

• Providing pre-departure logistical support and advice with visas, hotels, flights, accommodation, packing etc. for new International staff
• Leading on the management and tracking of all logistics for incoming international staff
• Leading on supporting International staff during their initial time with SEED including airport pick up, orientation, social inclusion, housing and any initial issues
• Supporting international staff with ongoing logistical issues, such as visa renewals, sickness and housing
• Assisting with the recruitment of International staff, including primary responsibility for managing the advertisement of vacancies
• Maintaining all long term volunteer databases

Person Specification:

• Demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to SEED Madagascar’s ethos and approach and be a good ambassador for SEED Madagascar at all times
• Have passion, curiosity and motivation for the job and the ability to enthuse others
• Have a very positive and engaging approach to working with volunteers at all times
• Have the ability and desire to work with teams from different economic and cultural backgrounds and across multiple language barriers
• Have the ability and desire to build capacity and share skills across cultures
• Demonstrate proven ability to recognise and appropriately deal with challenging situations
• Demonstrate an awareness of and comfort with increased social and professional responsibility, working at all times with cultural sensitivity and respect
• Demonstrate the ability, social skills and confidence to give clear guidance and support to other members of the team in respect of the philosophy and procedures of SEED Madagascar in order to protect both their safety and the reputation of the NGO
• Be punctual and be able to work to tight deadlines in an organised manner and to a high standard
• Have a flexible and patient attitude with excellent problem-solving skills
• Be able to work both independently and as part of a team
• Have a positive disposition and be able to motivate teams of volunteers
• Be physically and psychologically robust and able to cope with isolated conditions
• Have experience of or ability to develop marketing skills

Practicalities:

• Be able to financially support yourself for the duration of the contract
• Hold a first aid certificate
• Have a suitable laptop computer and tent