EU Aid Volunteers

EU Aid Volunteers brings volunteers and organizations together from different countries, providing practical support to humanitarian aid projects and contributing to strengthening local capacity and resilience of disaster-affected communities. Participants in the EU Aid Volunteers initiative must be over 18 years of age and be citizens of an EU Member State or long-term residents in the EU. Volunteers receive accommodation and travel expenses, insurance, ongoing learning and development, a monthly allowance, and a resettlement allowance to help with expenses of returning home.

Why is this important?

Millions are affected by natural and man-made disasters each year. In the aftermath of a disaster, an affected population needs clean water, shelter, food assistance and protection. Humanitarian organizations are the first to respond to these basic needs.

Humanitarian disasters have dramatically increased the pressure on the humanitarian organizations and there is a need for a greater number of qualified people. However, it is not always easy to enter the humanitarian field. EU Aid Volunteers give European citizens a chance to show their solidarity by collaborating in humanitarian projects worldwide. 

In many cases, this is the first opportunity participants have, to be part of the humanitarian community. EU Aid Volunteers also allows organizations to cover their specific staff needs. The humanitarian community benefits from a higher amount of qualified people trained by the EU Aid Volunteers initiative.

ActionAid

ActionAid Hellas, as the only certified sending organization in Greece, has been involved in 7 deployments projects under the EUAV initiative and is currently the leading organization in one of them.

27 EU Aid Volunteers who were coordinated by ActionAid Hellas, as a Sending Organization, have been deployed to countries around the world, such as Ecuador, Colombia, Senegal, Haiti, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Cambodia.

Apart from the deployments, ActionAid Hellas has taken part in 2 Technical Assistance projects aiming to encourage the certification of Europe-based Sending Organizations, while strengthening their capacities on various subjects.

ActionAid Hellas has also taken part in 3 Capacity Building projects which aim at strengthening the capacities of the participating organizations around the world, in order to be successfully certified as Hosting Organizations in the near future.

In 2021 ActionAid Hellas will deploy 36 EU Aid Volunteers to ActionAid Kenya, ActionAid Zimbabwe & ActionAid Myanmar, the Hosting Organizations who have been successfully certified under the EUAV initiative.